. . . . March 6 – 16, 2014 Rating Rendez-Vous 2014Time for a quick look at the Rendez-Vous now the two weeks of press screenings are over and I've seen all 24. In the first week definitely the opening night Catherine Deneuve vehicle,
On My Way/Elle s'en va was worth seeing, and also the clever mashup of a couple battling over visitation rights and the Hollande election on the same day,
The Age of Panic/La bataille de Solférino, is energetic and quite original. One might have time for the nuclear plant love affair
Grand Central, since it has some good actors and a realistic atmosphere, though it's not that great a movie (Ben Nacir's
The Marchers/La marche is in a similar category). I was very intrigued by
Going Away/Un beau dimanche, Nicole Garcia's film about a mysterious young aristocrat; and (everybody agrees) Ozon's in fine form in
Young and Beautiful/Jeune et jolie, his new movie about a well-off young lyçée student who has a fling as a high-paid call girl at 17.
The second week of press screenings started off with the splendid and touching documentary about immigrant kids in a Paris school,
School of Babel/La cour de Babel.
Apaches/Les apaches, about the class divide on the island of Corsica, is a neorealist noir worth a patient look.
Eastern Boys, about a man who gets into trouble when he negotiates for sex with a youth met in the Gare du Nord, was surprisingly fine, with several remarkable set pieces.
Suzanne, with the bold Sara Forestier, the saga of a young woman's mad love for a sexy young criminal, is thoroughly involving. Agnès Jaoui is reliably polished and entertaining even if her fairy tale series of resolutions
Under the Rainbow/Au bout du conte is a bit too much on the soft and sweet side for her. The closing night film about being a speechwriter for Doninique de Villepin,
The French Minister/Quay d'Orsay (Bernard Tavernier) is fun and a bit strange. Some might like Michel Gondry's super-surreal Boris Vian adaptation
Mood Indigo/L'Écume des jours; I and others found it unbearably high-concept from the get-go. Links to all my reviews are below.
Links to the reviews on FILMLEAF: 2 Autumns, 3 Winters /2 autunnes 3 hivers(Sébastien Betbeder 2013)Age of Panic, The/La bataille de Solférino (Justine Triet 2013)Apaches/Apaches, Les (Thierry de Peretti 2013)Castle in Italy, A/Un chateau en Italie (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi 2013)French Minister, The/Quay d'Orsay (Bertrand Tavernier 2013)Eastern Boys (Robin Campillo 2013)Gilded Cage, The/La cage dorée (Ruben Alves 2013)Going Away/Un beau dimanche (Nicole Garcia 2013)Grand Central (Rebecca Zlotkowski 2013)His Wife/Son épouse (Michel Spinosa 2014)If You Don't, I Will/Arrête ou je continue (Sophie Fillières 2014)Love Battles/Mes séances de lutte (Jacques Doillon 2013)Love Is the Perfect Crime/L'amour est un crime parfait (Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu 2013)Marchers, The/La Marche (Nacir Ben Yadir 2013)Miss and the Doctors/Tirez la langue, mademoiselle (Axelle Ropert 2013)Mood Indigo/L'Écume des jours (Michel Gondry 2013)On My Way/Elle s'en va (Emmanuelle Bercot 2013)Playing Dead/Je fais le mort (Jean-Paul Salomé (2013)School of Babel, The/La cour de Babel (Julie Bertuccelli 2013)Suzanne (Katell Quillévéré 2013)Tip Top (Serge Bozon 2013)Tonnerre (Guillaume Brac 2013)Under the Rainbow/Au fin du conte (Agnès Jaoui 2013)Young and Beautiful/Jeune et jolie (François Ozon 2013)[/b]