Rencontre à Paris (1956) - film review

Nancy Blanding is an American heiress who enjoys the high life in Paris.  When her father cuts off her allowance, she has no choice but to make some drastic changes to her lifestyle.  She swaps her hotel suite in the Ritz for a modest rented room and sets about finding her first paid job.  Her admirer, the aristocrat Arnaud de Cernay, hires an impoverished young writer Maurice Legrand as a private detective to keep an eye on her.  The scheme backfires when Nancy begins to fall in love with Maurice…

Typical of French cinema of the 1950s, Rencontre à Paris presents an excessively romanticised view of the life of ordinary folk that now appears absurdly false and not particularly endearing.  Popular in its day, the film now feels horribly dated, and its lacklustre cast – led by Robert Lamoureux and Betsy Blair, an improbable romantic match – does little to enliven a dreary and predictable script.  The film’s main claim to fame is that it marks the screen debut of two great French actors, Claude Brasseur and Jean Rochefort.

© James Travers 2007

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