julievignondecourcy There is very mixed opinion on here surrounding Rende-Vous and I was unsure how I feel about the film seeing it 15 years after my first viewing. I needn't have worried I found the film to be an excellent, psychological drama with riveting central performances.Released in 1985, today the film looks dated, but its focus and themes remain as vibrant as ever. Juliette Binoche gives a startlingly memorable debut as Nina, the provincial actress who in attempting to grasp hold of her destiny is instead cruelly manipulated by circumstance.I had to smile at the review criticizing her reading of the lines for Romeo & Juliet as being absolutely awful. The fact is that they were supposed to be awful (so in that way the film and Binoche succeed). Nina is a headstrong young girl, but nothing in the film suggests she has any sort of talent in terms of acting, until she meets Scrutzer and can find the emotional maturity necessary to play Juliet. There is of course irony here: Why is there a need for emotional maturity when playing a teenager? The answer of course lies with one of the most important themes at play here: that artistic maturity can only be achieved through real experience - in this case the loneliness and grief Nina needs to experience to come to terms with the character of Juliet.That the first part of the film and the love-triangle it establishes and cruelly destroys facilitates this is where the film finds it's strength. It's through a coincidence of circumstance that Nina and Scrutzler come to meet in the first place. Had that not happened Nina would not have experienced much of the misery in her life, nor the maturity she later grasps.The first part of the film is stunningly tight with Techine tightly creating a sense of obsession among the three main characters (Nina, Quentin and Paulo). This sort of focus is missing from Techine's later films such as Les Temoins, Alice et Martin and Loin and had he displayed the same control on those as he does here they would have been even better for it.As the story arcs and Trintignant's Scrutzler comes to the fore the film finds it's final equilibrium as do the characters. This is not the stuff of happy endings, but is instead that of realization and in the case of the actress emotional recollection which empowers her ability to perform.In her leading debut Binoche is very strong, it's not hard to see why the French press were so excited by her in this role and why it opened the path to her (still) magnificent career. She creates in Nina a figure of pathos mixed with a coarse ignorance that is slowly eroded to reveal a significant intellect and talent - on stage and off, on screen and off.

Red-125 Rendez-vous (1985) was co-written and directed by André Téchiné. It's a vehicle for the now-famous Juliette Binoche.Juliette Binoche, at age 21, already radiated the star power that became apparent to everyone in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." Unfortunately, her contributions to this film were pretty much limited to her luminous skin and her distinctive beauty. This distinctive beauty is fully and totally displayed. (Binoche is not shy.)The film involves four men who swirl around Binoche like the proverbial moths around a flame. One is a wimp, one is a creep, and one carries a straight razor. (Don't ask). The fourth is Jean-Louis Trintignant. The other three were all young, and were probably happy to work with a well-known director like Téchiné. One can only guess why an established star like Trintignant accepted this role. Binoche is lovely, especially when dressed in period costume as Shakespeare's Juliet. (She looks like Vivian Leigh in "Gone with the Wind.") However, she is miscast as the wide-eyed young ingénue from the provincial town of Toulouse. Binoche was born in Paris, and she just can't carry off a role in which she is supposed to have just arrived in town to "live her life." Another weak point is her reading of some of Juliet's lines at an casting audition. No actor could read lines that badly. (High school kids trying out for the senior play don't read lines that badly.)The movie will work well on DVD, which is the way I saw it. If you love La Binoche, and you've seen every other film in which she's starred, I guess you'll have to see this one for the sake of completion. If you haven't seen all of her later films, rent one of those instead.

Big Wheel Rendez-vous is a beautiful, sexy, art-film. It won several prestigious international awards and is critically acclaimed. Juliette Binoche is completely uninhibited and gives a brave, fearless performance where she bares herself completely...both emotionally and physically.Thus, this film is not intended for the immature. Those with childish minds who cannot handle looking at a beautiful woman's body (such as feminists or other philistines) are advised too avoid this. Another reviewer called it "pointless drivel" and complained about the "gratuitous nudity". If seeing a woman's vagina is too much for the immature mind of that viewer to handle, him and his kind should avoid high-art cinema such as this. His kind would be better served watching gay-porn garbage, loosely disguised as a "comedy", such as "Bruno". That type of film is more suited for those misandric simpletons who prefer looking at male genitalia. Those who appreciate complex, beautiful art and appreciate the female form will enjoy this.Nina (Juliette Binoche) moves to Paris and she becomes the love interest of three very different men and has tumultuous concurrent relationships with each. Multiple plot and character lines develop from this. This movie will challenge you and you'll find yourself pondering some of the scenes days later. Highly recommended.

beatnik02 RENDEZ-VOUS comes from Téchinés 'romantic' period of the 70s and early 80s, comprising of BAROCCO, LES SOEURS BRONTE and HOTEL DES AMERIQUES. Of these four films RENDEZ-VOUS is without doubt the most worthwhile and successful.In her first leading role Juliette Binoche is a revelation as Nina a provincial girl who has moved to Paris in order to pursue an acting career. She becomes involved with two vastly different men the gentle Paulo (Wadeck Stanckzac) and the dangerous and intense Quentin (Lambert Wilson).Unpredictable and provocative this girl bounces between both men. However her whole world falls apart when one of them commits suicide. Cast in a production of Romeo and Juliet by the compelling Scrutzler (Jean Louis Trintignant) this young girl begins to confront her own behaviour and psychology.Téchiné's brief film is full of themes about female artistic urgency.Is there anything this girl will do in life that she will not do on stage.Should there be? What is the dynamic that drives such an ambitious yet lost girl. the film deals superbly with all these ideas without ever resorting to simplae answers. Aided by Binoche's fearless performance the film is incredibly emotional and romantic, helped in no small part by a stunning Phillippe Sarde score.RENDEZ-VOUS is an intense and at time difficult film, but it is worth every effort to begin to explore this girls psychological motivations.