Les Mauvaises rencontres (1955)
Directed by Alexandre Astruc

Film Review

Before the French New Wave, there were other directors willing to challenge the dowdy complacency that beset French cinema in the 1950s, although their efforts were mostly undermined by a distinct lack of talent, restraint and/or artistic integrity.  Of these pre-Nouvelle Vague renegades, the most successful was Roger Vadim, who set several balls rolling with his early Bardot hit, Et Dieu... créa la femme (1956).  Former critic Alexandre Astruc offered more promise than the commercially minded Vadim, but having made an impact with his first two films - Les Mauvaises rencontres (1955) and Une vie (1958) - he soon fell out of favour with both critics and producers, and he ended up spending most of his career working for French television.

Today, Astruc's debut feature appears laughably pretentious, particularly when it is compared with the first films of the New Wave directors.  There is scarcely a shot in the film that does not appear over-directed, coldly synthetic or self-consciously arty.   Add to this a hideously muddled plot and a plethora of uninteresting characters, and it is no surprise that the film struggles to retain the viewer's attention.  It was, however, a critical success and won Astruc the Most Promising New Film Director award at the 1955 Venice Film Festival (it makes you wonder what the competition was like).  Flawed though it is, Les Mauvaises rencontres does mark a dramatic break away the tepid sterility of mid-1950s French cinema and a move towards a more personal approach to filmmaking, where the film director, not the producer, was in control.

The first twenty or so minutes of Astruc's film are genuinely enticing. and you can almost feel the cinematic tsunami that is just around the corner.   But after this, ennui and disappointment soon set in and the film's lack of substance, together with Astruc's irritating habit of over-emphasis, soon becomes wearisome.  Anouk Aimée has a captivating presence, her aloof character prefiguring her most famous screen role in Demy's Lola (1961), but cast adrift in a film that has no focus or emotional pull, she might as well have been replaced with a dressmaker's dummy.  Astruc's next film, Une vie (adapted from Guy de Maupassant's famous novel), is a far more conventional piece, but, directed with far more restraint and subtlety, it manages to be far more rewarding than the wild and vacuous experiment that preceded it.

Film Synopsis

At the Quai des Orfèvres in Paris, Inspector Forbin is interrogating Catherine Racan about Dr Daniély, a man accused of practicing abortion.  As she refuses to answer Forbin's questions, Catherine recalls the different men she knew in Paris.  First their was Pierre, an old friend and her first lover.  After he left her to return to his home town, Catherine was charmed by Blaise Walter, a brilliant but cynical newspaper manager.  It was he who warned her about the dangers of Paris and it was thanks to him that she became a successful journalist.  In the end, Blaise left her because he didn't want to commit himself to her.  Then there was Alain Bergère.  It was with this talented photographer that, one evening, she attended a party given by the famous Dr Danièly.  The party proved to be a disaster, owing to the presence of Daniely's mistress, Hélène, who was once Alain's lover, and Blaise, who seemed to regret his breaking up with Catherine.  Inflamed with jealousy by what he saw  and heard at the party, Alain abandoned Catherine, leaving her alone and pregnant...