Rendez-vous
36 Fillette
An aspiring actress (Binoche) arrives in Paris and develops an intense sexual relationship with both a timid real estate agent (Wadeck Stanczak) and his disturbed roommate (Wilson), an actor who performs in public sex shows. While her romantic entanglements become destructive, her acting career prospers when a mysterious theater director (Trintignant) casts her in the leading role of a production of Romeo and Juliet. André Téchiné was awarded Best Director at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival for this provocative work, which he co-wrote with Olivier Assayas.
A fourteen-year-old girl (Zentout) goes on vacation with her family in Biarritz with the goal of losing her virginity. She seduces a forty-something businessman (Chicot) but has second thoughts when the time comes to consummate their relationship. She finds some solace when she encounters a famous French personality at the resort (played by former angry young man Jean-Pierre Léaud) who offers some world-weary advice. No stranger to controversial material, Catherine Breillat (Romance, Anatomy of Hell) offers a more restrained vision of female sexuality than the more provocative explorations of her later films.