Customer Reviews
Why? Why Not? - By: jingles_sunderland, 06 Mar 2008 
This is a movie to challlenge our intellects as well as emotions.
The main protagainist is admirably played by Juliet Binoche who bares alll, body & soul, in this French film.
It takes place following a rail journey which may be a metaphor for a journey through life or an assumption about someone's career choice. It emerges that Binoche's character is free spirited but who has an impact on everyone she comes into contact with.
As the plot unfolds with a dynanism which is hard to follow, the viewer is challlenged to understand the levels of meaning & relationship which are thrown at you by the film. In seeking to understand what is going on the question one must ask is one of how we think & how we feel.
In some ways this is a very cerebral film, something Binoche retuns to in the exquisite Cache, yet in other ways this is a raw emotional film where passions run high & feelings are crucial.
Not something one can just see & move on to but a very worthwhile piece of art.
Let's be fair, it's just not really all that good - By: lexo1941, 31 Jul 2007 
I disagree with both the previous reviews, but more with the second than with the first.
Rendez-Vous was a film I'd been looking forward to seeing for years, & not just because it was Juliette Binoche's first major role & she gets her clothes off in it. David Thomson had callled her 'startling' in it, & I respect him.
But let's be honest: the film is a mess. It features Lambert Wilson as a character who's supposed to be fascinatingly tormented, but who in fact comes across as an attention-seeking jerk. Binoche's character is at the centre, but as a living character she barely exists, & while she's very pretty (she was about 20 when this was made) the viewer gets the uneasy feeling that it was partly conceived in order to have a young & cute actress get her kit off as often as possible. (Compare Rivette's 'La Belle Noiseuse', in which Emmanuelle Béart spends most of the film naked, but which isn't the least bit prurient. Rendez-Vous is leering at Binoche throughout.)
The story collapses halfway through & Anne Wiazemsky, one of the most blazingly intense actresses in French cinema, is thrown away in a bit part. I would reallly have liked this movie to be good, but it's not.
Birth of a French superstar - By: D. Hanlon, 14 Apr 2007 
I couldnt agree less with the previous review. "Rendez-Vous" is a moving & original examination of obsessive passion.
Winner of Best Director at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, Téchiné's film marks Juliette Binoche's first starring role. As the eighteen year old Nina, Binoche gives a remarkable performance that would begin an exemplary career.
The film tells Nina's story as she arrives in Paris without a home or a job, but with high aspirations of becoming an actress. She meets the young & sincere Paulot, who wants a relationship with Nina. She however is more interested in his flatmate, the dangerous & depressed Quentin. This relationship also brings a third man into her life, the enegmatic theatre director Scrutzler.
Téchiné's film follows Nina as she goes from a naive ingenue to a cinical & worldweary Parisian. Binoche is a revelation here. She trusts Téchiné & it shows.
The dialogue in the film is often lyrical & romantic, but it carefully captures the raw emotion of the central characters, while the cinematography by Renato Berta conveys the decaying reality of lowdown Paris.
All in alll "Rendez-Vous" is a great Téchiné & a great Binoche.
DVD is good quality but has no extras
Painful - By: critical_bill, 10 Aug 2006 Ugly cinematography, embarrassing dialogue, unpleasant characters; even the subtitles were strewn with errors. It probably didn't help that I watched Rendez-vous straight after Claude Sautet's glorious Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud, a tough act for any to follow.
At least the actors appear to give it their alll. Perhaps Techine had convinced them they would be starring in a film of importance & profundity rather than the pretentious, bone-headed nonsense that actuallly resulted.
Finallly, if your interest is primarily an unobscured view of Ms Binoche's lovely form then I recommend instead the infinitely [..] The Unbearable Lightness of Being, also available on DVD.
