Juliette Binoche made huge waves with Rendez-vous (in French; with English subtitles; seen last night on UTV World Movies, Creme de la Creme series). She was just 20 years old, and yet she did a whole lot of gutsy scenes. Andre Techine’s Rendez-vous, is now hailed as a World Classic by many, and in it Juliette Binoche had her first starring role, for which she received the Best Actress award at Cannes in 1985!
Rendez-vous is essentially about the aspiring actress Nina (Binoche) who comes to Paris from a small town; in her own admission, she had been counting the days till she became 18, in order to leave home and live life on her own terms. But does moving in and out of bed with guys make one truly liberated? Nina wants to make a career as an actress, And as an actress she has a long way to go. Hence, to learn the ropes, she is prepared to sleep with whosoever she meets playing bit roles on stage productions. While she decides to move out of the lodgings of her then boyfriend, who had been tutoring her as an actress, literally, she comes to look for affordable accommodations at an agency that finds the same.
There, she meets Paulot (Wadeck Stanczak), a mild-mannered estate agent, who cannot escape the immediate charms of Nina. Paulot takes Nina to his own flat, that he shares with his flat-mate Quentin (Lambert Wilson). Soon enough, an unsettling and utterly disturbing affair ensues between Quentin and Nina- with raw sexuality running riot! Secrecy is put aside and the whole affair becomes a messy conflagration of emotions too, as Paulot feels the heart-pangs. Quentin commits suicide after the rendez-vous of a bed-in with Nina, and then things start pouring over from Quentin’s past to overwhelm Nina, psychologically. It is a complex past of Quentin’s that unfolds gradually for Nina.
Rendez-vous is a very youthful film. Binoche’s character, Nina, comes across as both manipulative as a sexual explorer, and a complete innocent. Likewise, Quentin’s enigmatic persona, in whom she soon becomes fascinated, remains wonderfully undefined: is he genuinely psychopathic and suicidal, or are these just mere youthful affectations? Either way – the film perfectly captures what it is to be young, even if it means being a little screwed up along the way. The narrative is pleasingly unpredictable, a fact which only serves to further enhance the sense of manipulation, as does the characters’ overall innocence. Our trio may be unable to grasp the niceties of their relationships, yet this grows on the viewer, it sure did have its sway over me!
Rendez-vous doesn’t adopt a ’clinical detachment’ mode, which makes it rather nteresting to view for even those who are uninitiated to the French classics. Téchiné won the Best Director prize at Cannes for his efforts and it’s tempting to see this primarily as a result of his energy. He’s in there with his characters at all times, revelling in their naïvété and pretentiousness and as such borrows a great deal from them. Just as it’s fascinating to see Binoche so enthusiastic, the same goes Téchiné too; he clearly feels a great affinity for those onscreen. Jean-Louis Trintignant, who makes an appearance as an obsessively passionate stage director, holds the key to the first half’s apparent incongruity (Sorry, I can’t spoil the surprise entirely for those of you who haven’t seen the movie yet).