Rendezvous in July (Rendez-vous de juillet) (1949)

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Jacques Becker's Rendez-vous de Juillet has been credited as the first postwar European film to accurately depict the Continental "youth culture." Teenaged Lucien (Daniel Gelin) aspires to become a filmmaker, and to that end organizes his friends into a film unit. The young cineastes hope to make a… More Jacques Becker's Rendez-vous de Juillet has been credited as the first postwar European film to accurately depict the Continental "youth culture." Teenaged Lucien (Daniel Gelin) aspires to become a filmmaker, and to that end organizes his friends into a film unit. The young cineastes hope to make a journey into Africa, there to film an uncompromisingly realistic documentary. Amusingly, Lucien and his friends are shown to be rather ill-equipped for "real life," shuttling as they do between theatre classes, jazz bars and coffee houses. Also, Lucien will have to overcome some family problems before he can embrace the responsibilities of adulthood. The winner of a critics' award at the Cannes Film Festival, Rendez-vous de Juillet was released in the U.S. as Appointment with Life. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr.
Directed By: Jacques Becker
Written By: Jacques Becker, Maurice Griffe
Genres: Drama, Art House & International, Comedy

On DVD: Dec 22, 1998

Critic Reviews

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Jacques Becker was one of the best French directors to emerge after the occupation, combining the elevated realism of Jean Renoir (for whom he'd worked as an assistant) with a flair for black comedy and caricature.
, Time Out
Allowing that the film's milieu and range of situations had not yet become hackneyed, Becker's characters are still very thin (the dreamer, the schemer, the cheeky comic relief), the tone rather uncertain.
, Film4
An interseting portrait of the period, it provides refreshing roles for a number of newcomers.