If you're a bit perplexed about Les-Rendezvous d'Anna, it is instructive to know something first about the director, Chantal Akerman. Back in the early 70s, Akerman, a French-speaking native of Belgium, spent two years in NYC. She often frequented the Anthology Film Archives, known as the premiere arthouse "experimental' cinema where experimental filmmakers such as Akerman would hone their craft and mix with other aficionados of the offbeat, arthouse "hipster" scene. Akerman is considered even today as a pioneer feminist filmmaker with affiliations with the lesbian community. In fact, her first big success, Jeanne Dielman, was shot on a shoestring with an all-female crew. In 1978, when Les-Rendezvous d'Anna was shot, Akerman was criticized by some feminists for working with a largely all-male crew. Throughout her career, Akerman eschewed being labeled a feminist or lesbian filmmaker and simply wanted to be recognized for her craft, rather than any sexual preference.
Akerman's films are characterized by long takes and camera angles chiefly involving centering of her subjects on the screen. There is a certain symmetry to her cinematography, which is really her strong suit. Akerman often revels in the mundane (for example, toward the end of "Les-rendezvous," she spends an inordinate amount of time with her protagonist, Anne Silver (Aurore Clément), a Belgian film director (undoubtedly modeled on Akerman herself), as she travels to a pharmacy to pick up medicine for her ex-lover who has taken ill. Then there are the aforementioned long takes, which frustratingly appear throughout the film (right away, one finds oneself fidgeting with the over long opening static take inside a train station as passengers disembark).
Akerman is not concerned so much with narrative in her film; in fact, her later documentaries were chiefly unscripted-she simply filmed what she encountered. In her narrative films, she has no problem with dialogue, but often the characters end up speaking in drawn out monologues, In Les-Rendezvous, the characters all suffer from being alienated (particularly, her film director protagonist). Indeed, Anna Silver, is very much a "cold fish" throughout, choosing to let others ramble on and on, while she takes in what they're saying. Her first "rendezvous" is with a West German man whom she meets after one of her film screenings in Cologne. He's a sensitive man whose wife left him and he now takes care of his young daughter. A one-night stand with Anna ends unsuccessfully after Anna calls it off in the middle of love-making (apparently she feels it's pointless since she doesn't love this man, despite his apparent sensitivity).
Additional encounters transpire, with Anna displaying detachment and a lack of emotion throughout. There is an older woman from Belgium who takes Anna to task for failing to get married to her son after she called off the engagement twice. There's a man on the train, a German who's spent his entire life trying to find himself, now headed for a new life in Paris. Anna's most significant encounter is with her mother (Lea Massari) whom she hasn't seen in quite awhile. They end up sharing a bed together at a hotel (not in a sexual way), where Anna confesses that she had a lesbian relationship which also did not lead anywhere. The encounter with her mother is perhaps the only time during the narrative, that Anna opens up at all.
The film ends with Anna's final encounter with the ex-lover-the one who takes sick and whom she helps obtain some medicine. Anna retires to her apartment where she answers a series of messages on her answering machine.
What Akerman apparently lacked was the ability to develop conflict between characters. As previously mentioned, there is a reliance on monologue to move the story along but decidedly not a whiff of suspense. Those who like these "experimental" type of films are more enamored with the atmosphere, established by the director's technical expertise. Ultimately, however, the ability to ramp up the conflict in a film, is perhaps one of the most important aspects of engaging screenwriting. Akerman deserved accolades for her very accomplished cinematography, but ultimately it was the nature of her detached world view that prevented her from reaching greater heights in cinematic direction.
Akerman spent her life extremely attached to her mother, a Holocaust survivor. When her mother passed away in 2014, Akerman ended up taking her own life a year later, presumably because the bond she had with her mother was now irretrievably lost.
Akerman's films are characterized by long takes and camera angles chiefly involving centering of her subjects on the screen. There is a certain symmetry to her cinematography, which is really her strong suit. Akerman often revels in the mundane (for example, toward the end of "Les-rendezvous," she spends an inordinate amount of time with her protagonist, Anne Silver (Aurore Clément), a Belgian film director (undoubtedly modeled on Akerman herself), as she travels to a pharmacy to pick up medicine for her ex-lover who has taken ill. Then there are the aforementioned long takes, which frustratingly appear throughout the film (right away, one finds oneself fidgeting with the over long opening static take inside a train station as passengers disembark).
Akerman is not concerned so much with narrative in her film; in fact, her later documentaries were chiefly unscripted-she simply filmed what she encountered. In her narrative films, she has no problem with dialogue, but often the characters end up speaking in drawn out monologues, In Les-Rendezvous, the characters all suffer from being alienated (particularly, her film director protagonist). Indeed, Anna Silver, is very much a "cold fish" throughout, choosing to let others ramble on and on, while she takes in what they're saying. Her first "rendezvous" is with a West German man whom she meets after one of her film screenings in Cologne. He's a sensitive man whose wife left him and he now takes care of his young daughter. A one-night stand with Anna ends unsuccessfully after Anna calls it off in the middle of love-making (apparently she feels it's pointless since she doesn't love this man, despite his apparent sensitivity).
Additional encounters transpire, with Anna displaying detachment and a lack of emotion throughout. There is an older woman from Belgium who takes Anna to task for failing to get married to her son after she called off the engagement twice. There's a man on the train, a German who's spent his entire life trying to find himself, now headed for a new life in Paris. Anna's most significant encounter is with her mother (Lea Massari) whom she hasn't seen in quite awhile. They end up sharing a bed together at a hotel (not in a sexual way), where Anna confesses that she had a lesbian relationship which also did not lead anywhere. The encounter with her mother is perhaps the only time during the narrative, that Anna opens up at all.
The film ends with Anna's final encounter with the ex-lover-the one who takes sick and whom she helps obtain some medicine. Anna retires to her apartment where she answers a series of messages on her answering machine.
What Akerman apparently lacked was the ability to develop conflict between characters. As previously mentioned, there is a reliance on monologue to move the story along but decidedly not a whiff of suspense. Those who like these "experimental" type of films are more enamored with the atmosphere, established by the director's technical expertise. Ultimately, however, the ability to ramp up the conflict in a film, is perhaps one of the most important aspects of engaging screenwriting. Akerman deserved accolades for her very accomplished cinematography, but ultimately it was the nature of her detached world view that prevented her from reaching greater heights in cinematic direction.
Akerman spent her life extremely attached to her mother, a Holocaust survivor. When her mother passed away in 2014, Akerman ended up taking her own life a year later, presumably because the bond she had with her mother was now irretrievably lost.