Rendezvous in July (1949) User Reviews (5)

When 'Teen' Equalled Clean

[writers_reign · 8/10 · 7 March 2007]

If, as I'm sure I read somewhere, the word 'teenager' was coined in the mid 1950s then the boys and girls who epitomize joie de vivre in this minor masterpiece from 1949 are merely young people who are not yet in search of a label. It has been compared to the New Wavelet that would swirl round the ankles of older and better filmmakers in the late 1950s but primarily because Becker took his camera on to the streets of post-war Paris and focused it on young people who were rebelling in a modest way against the values of an older generation. But young people had always, at one stage in their development, rebelled against their parents and what they stood for and they'd taken a camera on to the streets of Manhattan two years earlier in The Naked City or, like the man said, there's nothing new under the sun.

To watch this film today - and in my case for the first time, thanks to my Norwegian benefactor - is to be struck by just how CLEAN as well as clean-cut these kids were; no tattoos, no scruffy sweat shirts and torn jeans, no rings through the nose, eyebrows or anywhere else and no tongue studs, definitely no H, Coke, Crack, Smack or Speed and YET with all these 'handicaps' they still HAD A BALL. Okay, not all of them were teenagers; Daniel Gelin, who held them all together was 28 and Brigitte Auber was 21, though Nicole Courcel weighed in at 19. With the exception of Gelin most non-French viewers may well assume that these people came out of nowhere, shot this movie and disappeared without trace but not so; Pierre Trabaud, for example, dubbed Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront and was still acting four decades after this movie when he featured in Round Midnight; Nicole Courcel had already appeared (uncredited) in Les Amoureux sont seuls au monde and would go on to Gibier de potence and La Marie du Port whilst Brigitte Auber, who had also been in Les Amoureux sont seuls du monde would go on to Duvivier's Under Paris Skies, which IMDb refuses to accept in French.

This is a Hymn to Youth and a wonderful contrast to stuff like City Across The River, released the same year or Rebel Without A Cause; in all three teenagers are 'troubled' but in Becker's movie they handle it with much more maturity and zest for life as they drive around Paris - in an amphibious vehicle that was probably a remnant of World War II and resembles something known as a 'duck' that is as much at home on the Seine as on the boulevards - in between sessions in jazz clubs. A real gem and a joy to watch.

Unique.

[dbdumonteil · 31 May 2003]

Another missing link between the patriarchs and the overrated new wave.But this one is unique:nothing had been done before ,and a lot of directors tried to imitate it later ,to no avail.

This movie cannot be taken out of context :it has to be considered at once. in its era and in Becker's work.

1949,just after the war,it's the rise of a new youth ,who is still enthusiast and who has almost nothing to do with the blasé characters of the 1960 generation (Claude Chabrol's "les cousins" ,particularly Jean-Claude Brialy's part).Daniel Gélin and Brigitte Auber epitomize this soif de vivre ,and their optimism -almost absent in the nouvelle vague works- is quite infectious :the audience sides with them from the first line.It's really a brand new world they want to build and it's not a matter of chance if Gelin gives up the father's company and looks for broader horizons:ethnography in Africa.Old Europa is a thing of the past.

Becker had made four movies,but now the first is forgotten and impossible to find.So "Goupi Mains Rouges" -one of his very best and which too many people overlook-,"falbalas" and "Antoine et Antoinette". The latter movie and its follow-up (this movie) have strong analogies:both describe the fulfillment of a dream,even if the first one takes place in a working-class milieu whereas "Rendez-vous" depicts a bourgeois -not meant pejoratively- youth.In "Antoine et Antoinette" ,the hero wins at the French national lottery,then lost his wallet in which...(it showed a René Clair influence ("le million" 1931),but it has stood the time much better than Clair's thirties works)

Filmed on location in the streets of Paris,it paved a reliable royal way for the nouvelle vague,but its charms are more pristine and more delightful than these of Godard and co.No smugness,no self-consciousness,and a strong screenplay -which will often lack in the works of the nouvelle vague young Turks-,and no contempt for the directors who came before (as the René Clair and Jean Grémillon ("le ciel est à vous" 1943)influences testify).The female star Brigitte Auber had another strong part in the marvelous but much less optimistic Duvivier's "sous le ciel de Paris" ,then worked with Hitchcock (in a minor film though:"to catch a thief" and then got lost in mediocrities.Another Brigitte had taken her place .

Optimism will continue in the follow-up "Edouard et Caroline" (1951) and "rue de l'estrapade" (1953)(both movies featuring Gélin too)but will finally come to an end with "touchez pas au grisbi"(1954) :maybe for the characters who are older (Gabin) it's too late.Becker's final masterwork "le trou" will be pessimism flesh on the bone, a terrifying death metaphor.

SEE THIS CLASSIC JACQUES BECKER FILM, IT'S AMAZING; IT'S FINALLY OUT ON VIDEO AND AMAZON HAS IT FOR SALE

[Aw-komon · 10/10 · 1 November 2000]

So it's finally out on video, huh? Let's hope for a DVD soon (highly unlikely, simply because hardly anyone has seen this film recently, in order to be knocked out by it, like I was, and create enough of a demand for a release).

I saw this thing, last year, with about 30 other people at the Egyptian in Hollywood as part of a Becker retrospective. It really is an amazing piece of work; it's a New-Wave film made some ten years before there was a New-Wave. Most of the film is shot in the streets and night-clubs of Paris with a realism and raw poetry that was non-existent in most French cinema of the time. In the late '40s and the '50s, Becker was a relatively popular filmmaker, and besides Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, Rohmer and all the rest of the future New-Wave guys who idolized him, Polanski in Poland used to catch quite a few of his flicks (the only French filmmaker they got to see over there).

Daniel Gelin plays a young dude (much like Becker himself used to be) who wants to go with his pals to Africa on some kind of documentary film assignment. While he's trying to get the goods together to set this enterprise up, he and his friends and their girlfriends drive around town in a big convertible car that turns into a boat, party up a storm at Jazz clubs, and in general rebel against the establishment of the period. They all have a deep sense of solidarity and common purpose in their youth, a magical bond that's bound to disappear as the societal pressures, temporarily on hold, reassert themselves. Gelin, however, is single-minded and dedicated, determined not to let his friends cop-out on him; he knows that if he can keep everyone united, he might be able to work their particular non-conformist angle into a success.

"Rendezvous in July" captures the poetry of youth like very few films before or since. It is one of those amazing films that's a joy to watch from start to finish, it literally transports you to 1949 Paris and lets you hang-out with these young characters. Upon seeing it once, I immediately wanted to see it again many times, but the retrospective was a one-shot deal and there was no video on the market. Buy this film and watch it (Amazon has it for sale, IMDB should show a link for it) and you'll see what I'm talking about (your video store will probably not have a copy for rent), it's more than worth the few extra dollars you pay for it and the DVD is probably not going to come out for ages.

"And now ask me politely the way to Opera Avenue."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 9/10 · 4 June 2016]

Taking a look at auteur film maker Jacques Becker IMDb page, I spotted a title which sounded like a companion piece to Becker's 1947 movie Antoine and Antoinette.Since Antoine was my first ever Becker viewing,I felt that it was the perfect time to meet at a time slightly earlier than the rendezvous in July.

View on the film:

Caught up in the swirls of optimism covering France in the post-WWII era,co-writer/(along with Maurice Griffe) director Jacques Becker & cinematographer Claude Renoir wipes away any blocks of darkness for ultra-stylish, exuberant light darting out of the seems.Getting ahead of the French New Wave beat,Becker and Renoir deliciously capture the enthusiast atmosphere gripping the gang with superb "on the street" reporting placing the viewer in the middle of the happening Jazz club and the front seat to the new roads of Paris.

Hanging out in the Jazz clubs,the fantastic screenplay by Becker & Griffe brilliantly reveal the camaraderie connecting Bonnard and his pals,which flows free-Jazz style from Thérèse Richard's struggle on the stage and the gangs issues in the bedroom, to a final,joyful dash to the airport.Whilst he keeps the lights on,Becker also delicately explores his passionate theme of loyalty,as Bonnard is given a startling sincerity over making his and the gangs new dreams come true.

Leaping around with his pals, Daniel Gélin gives an amazing performance as Bonnard,whose high spirits Gélin makes tastefully sweet.Joined by an eye-catching (uncredited) Capucine,the beautiful Brigitte Auber gives a magnetic performance as Thérèse Richard,via Auber sharply expressing Richard's teen troubles in awkward stage fright,as Richard and Bonnard meet in July.

Camaraderie!

[ulicknormanowen · 10/10 · 11 February 2020]

If I had to choose a movie which epitomizes the joie de vivre of the French youth ,just after the hard times of WW2, without a moment's hesitation ,I would go for Jacques Becker 's masterpiece .

Now these youngsters wage a war against a stilted society ( the fathers and mothers find it hard to realize that "their sons and daughters are beyond their command" )Their parents left them a row to hoe,and they do hoe it.

Not only this youth displays a rage to live ,but the actors are also a brand new generation:Daniel Gélin is the stand-out , bursting with vitality, enthusiasm and hoping against hope even when his mates want to let him down (the way the talks to him would convince the wimpishest of the wimps); Pierre Trabaud ,in spite of his hangdog look, makes no bones when it comes to steal meat from his dad butcher's store( to swap it for gas;reminiscence of the occupation days ,probably) );Maurice Ronet in his pre-"Plein Soleil " ("purple noon") days plays jazz on his trumpet every night for dancers bubbling with excitement.Jazz was then a rebellious music .

The precedent generation was dreaming of the island in the sun,this one does not dream : they want to make their dream come true : an expedition to study the pigmies 'life ; it's hard to find funds and ,although most of them come from the bourgeoisie , they cannot get any help from their family: they have to manage :hence their discouragement .

Only one thing bothers me : if the girls favor a stage actress career over the straight and narrow way of marriage , they are not even considered for the expedition and are relegated to wave them goodbye and to provide the love interest before they (the boys) are off to see the world;and however ,Madame Margaret Mead began her anthropological studies out in the field at 23!It was well before our story began .

Filmed on location in the streets of Paris , "rendez-vous de Juillet" ,one of Becker's masterpieces,is also perhaps the most optimistic work in a filmography which ,by large ,is not.