Les Rendez-vous de Paris (1995) - film review

Three tales where an amorous rendezvous in Paris ends with an unexpected twist.   In the first, ‘Le Rendez-vous de 7 heures’, a young woman, Esther, is mulling over whether her boyfriend is cheating on her when another young man tries to chat her up.  She agrees to meet up with the latter and later realises she has lost her purse.   That same day, the purse is returned to her by a stranger and together, half-suspecting the purse was stolen by the young man who accosted Esther earlier, they set out to keep the agreed rendezvous – and both get a shock.  In the second tale, ‘Les Blancs de Paris’, another young woman wanders around Paris with her lover, a university professor, and agonises over whether she should leave her fiancé or not.  She has the answer when she and her lover agree to spend a night at a hotel in Montmartre.  Finally, in ‘Mère et enfant 1907’, a young artist takes his Swedish girlfriend to an art gallery where he meets a young woman who shares his obsession for Picasso’s ‘Mother and Child’ portrait.   He abandons his girlfriend to pursue the stranger and finally manages to lure her back to his studio.  The outcome is not what he expected but proves to be worthwhile.

Less substantial than Rohmer’s other films, Les Rendez-vous de Paris is nonetheless an engaging diversion, comprising three loosely connected tales of romantic trysts, each showing the director’s unique ability to portray human relationships in a convincing yet poignant way.

The first, and perhaps best, of the three tales is a charming but typically cruel kind of morality tale, which echoes some Rohmer’s earlier and most popular romantic comedies.  The other two tales are less striking but contain some memorable moments, making this a lightweight and fairly accessible Rohmeresque study in male-female relationships.

© James Travers 2002

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