Rendezvous à Bray (Appointment in Bray). 1971. France/Belgium/West Germany. Directed by André Delvaux. Screenplay by Julien Gracq. With Anna Karina, Mathieu Carrière, Bulle Ogier. DCP courtesy La Cinémathèque royale de Belgique. In French; English subtitles. 90 min.
“As much as I revere some of the Belgian films of Chantal Akerman, if I had to choose only one Belgian film to take with me to a desert island, I’d have a pretty rough time forsaking this 1971 masterpiece by André Delvaux…. Derived from a short story by Julien Gracq, a writer whose rather specialized terrain seems midway between the Gothic novel and Surrealism…the film’s principal pleasures mainly seem somewhat incidental: Odile’s wide-eyed delight in the adventures of Feuillade’s Fantômas and her gauche attempts to cut and eat a piece of chicken at the Hausmann soirée while standing up (both rendered by Bulle Ogier in her most charming semi-autistic manner); Jacques’ nocturne, composed by Frédéric Devreese as a Brahms pastiche; Anna Karina’s function and presence as an erotic wish fulfillment; painterly shots framing each of the women and various settings in a dreamy ambience recalling Delvaux’s namesake” (Jonathan Rosenbaum).