FRANCOIS DUPEYRON

Bil’s rating (out of 5):   BBBB

Alternate title:  A Strange Place To Meet, Strange Place For An Encounter

France, 1988.  DD Productions, Deneuve, Films A2, Hachette Première, Hachette Productions, Les Editions Sidonie, Orly Films.  Screenplay by Francois Dupeyron, Dominique Faysse.  Cinematography by Charles Van Damme.  Produced by Catherine Deneuve.  Music by Nicola Piovani.  Production Design by Carlos Conti.  Costume Design by Caroline de Vivaise.  Film Editing by Francoise Collin.  

Catherine Deneuve produced this sweet-natured romantic comedy, in which she stars as a married woman thrown out of a car by her husband and abandoned at a rest-stop outside of Paris. It’s the middle of a cold night, and she meets a doctor (Gerard Depardieu) who is busy taking his car apart. He insists she find a ride home with the next person who stops, but she is determined to wait for her husband to come back for her. How a film can take place between two people at only two locations (they go to a coffee shop later) and be so enjoyably diverting is a credit to a wonderful screenplay and two terrific performances. Deneuve is both glamorous and pitiable, a woman unable to face the truth of her marriage being in crumbles, while Depardieu craftily walks the mark between coldly reserved and vulnerable as he slowly realizes that he’s in love with her. It’s lovely, and funny too.