Le rendez-vous

Jean Delannoy's early work is so lovely and entertaining that it's a shame to have to review his later work. I loved L'eternel retour (those two beauties Marais and Sologne) and La symphonie pastorale (was Michele Morgan ever so lovely?), and found them dramatically effective. The man could shoot a scene, and make it count. I gave Maigret tend une piege 10/10 because his handling of the actors was so good.

But Le rendez-vous is a plodding bore, with too many speaking parts, running on too long (2hr3min!), and a story that doesn't exactly beat the competition for inventiveness. George Sanders speaks pretty good French but his acting is stiff. Odile Versois is really dull as his wife. Andrea Parisy is good as the rich man's daughter and livens some scenes up. Jean-Claude Pascal is terrible, just a clothing dummy trying to act. We are left with Annie Girardot, an actress who could make any piece of nonsense work, and did many times in her wonderful career. Here she is on the sidelines, making a small contribution here and there, and it is not enough. You can give this one a miss.