Drôle d’endroit pour une rencontre (1988) - film review

One evening, an attractive middle-class woman, France, is pushed out of her car by her irate husband.  When her husband drives off, she insists on waiting by the side of the road, certain that he will return once he has cooled off.  Whilst waiting, she meets Charles, a man of her own age, who has been struggling for the past two days to repair his car.  Although initially frosty towards her, Charles finds himself drawn to France and tries to convince her that her husband has abandoned her for good.  France cannot accept this and clings to the faint hope that her husband still loves her...

In 1988, François Dupeyron won widespread critical acclaim for Drôle d’endroit pour une rencontre, his first full length film, and one of the most innovative films of that year.   With a well-crafted script and a very small cast the film has the intimacy and appeal of a quality piece of theatre.

It is thanks mainly to the calibre of the script that film stars Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu are each able to deliver one of their best film performances, displaying a rare level of depth and sensitivity.   Deneuve has seldom played such a vulnerable character (a wife refusing to accept her husband hates her) with such conviction, whilst Depardieu’s performance manages to be equally moving, albeit with that familiar streak of self-mocking comedy.

The film does tend to lose its momentum in the second half, and the introduction of a third central character (the young waitress who tempts Charles) weakens the film’s focus and emotional impact.  Nevertheless, this is a film which is worth seeing, for its unusual (almost surreal) portrait of self-delusion and impulsive romance involving two emotionally brittle individuals, convincingly played by two of France’s finest actors.

© James Travers 2002

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