Brilliant Andre Techine film, erotic, romantic, with feminist themes, and absolutely outstanding acting performances by the entire cast.Juliette Binoche had her first important role in this movie, and she shows the promise that she has kept: she plays pretty much all of the different personas she has played throughout her career in this one film! She is sexy, elfin, a "free spirit", confused, afraid...she deservedly got her first Cesar nomination (Best Actress) for this role, losing to Sandrine Bonnaire of Agnes Varda's "Vagabond".Wadeck Stanczak won the Cesar award for "most promising male newcomer" for his role as the somewhat shy lovesick Paolot. His is the male lead role in the film. I have never seen him in anything else; this often happens with the "most promising actor" Cesar winners. His name seems polish to me? Very handsome and very likable.Lambert Wilson is smoldering in his intense and driven performance as Quentin. His is really a supporting role despite his receiving his first Cesar nomination for this role (losing, inexplicably, to Christophe Lambert of "Subway"). I have always loved Lambert Wilson, even if I haven't loved the films he has been in (my favorite: "Private Fears in Public Places"). This movie came out 28 years ago and he is still smoldering and sexy today! (Does Quentin commit suicide or is it an accident?) Jean-Louis Trintignant doesn't show up until late in the film but he is his usual brilliant self as an older man who brings out the jealousy in Paolot.Andre Techine brings out so much in his actors in all of his films. He has a gay sensibility, even when all the characters are straight.Absolutely worth seeing!

Oh sooooo disappointing. The most helpful thing I can tell you is Don't Bother! Sure, the acting was great, fearless etc etc. but the script was so very baaad. The writer/director et al- they just couldn't decide WHAT to do with this story. Actually, the only really interesting thing for me in this film- is the performance of Lambert Wilson doing a young Jeremy Irons.'I'm sure my film experiences of him are stunted but I have only known him as a comedic/semi-comedic actor.He does a very riveting job as the tortured soul here. But still, there are so many good films directed by Techine or starring these actors; just skip this one.

André Téchiné made this 1985 film RENDEZ-VOUS before his promising career was established, giving us such fine films as My Favorite Season, The Innocents, The Wild Reeds, Beach Café, Alice and Martin, etc. The sensitivity to character development is tightly wound in this work but some of the finesse that followed his later works is missing. In the end we are left wondering a bit about what happened to almost everyone.Nina (Juliette Binoche in her first film role) has traveled to Paris from her small home in Toulouse to try her hand at acting and to live the wild life that has been unavailable to her in Toulouse. She beds nearly every man she encounters and acts bit parts in small theaters, barely eking out an existence. Tired of one night stands and sharing quarters with others, she sets out to find her own apartment, stopping in to a realtors office where she encounters Paulot (Wadeck Stanczak) who is immediately smitten with her sensual good looks and manner. Having no place to stay Nina agrees to spend a few days with Paulot in a flat shared with the hauntingly strange Quentin (Lambert Wilson). Nina is oddly attracted to Quentin and is somewhat put off by the fact that Quentin is an actor in a sex theater. We discover Quentin narrowly escaped death some time back when the actress playing Juliet to his Romeo was killed. Nina has an approach/avoidance conflict with Quentin, all the while fending off offers by the pathetic Paulot to care for her. Quentin is killed in a car accident, Nina meets the elderly director Scrutzler (Jean-Louis Trintignant in a splendid cameo role) who promises her the role of Juliet in his casting of the Shakespeare drama, and her career as an actress seems to be launched. Full of self doubt and fear stimulated by the ghost-like appearances of the dead Quentin, Nina prepares for the role, copes with Paulot's advances, shares a flat with him, and is finally left in the stage wings with her focus on becoming an actress challenged with her needs for physical and stable love. And we are left there.Juliette Binoche is very fine in this her 'maiden voyage' and it is a happy finding that she is far more beautiful (as well as a far better actress) in her current more mature state. Lambert Wilson gives a fine performance, finding the line between lurid sexuality and lonely afterlife ghost a position he easily treads. The film definitely has moments but it is only a hint (and a strong one) of just what to expect form the gifted André Téchiné. Not bad for a twenty year old film! Grady Harp

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.