Chantal Akerman continues her semi-autobiographical journey as filmmaker that started with her ‘New York’ set of films, followed by Je, tu, il, elle, where she played the lead herself, to “Les rendez-vous d’Anna” [Eng. Title: The Meetings of Anna], with Aurore Clément starring as a young film director of a similar age to Akerman.
In a sense, Les rendez-vous d’Anna is the culmination of a journey undertaken by Akerman, both creatively and personally – her themes on living in a foreign environment, the sense of displacement it creates, and her study in isolation or self-inflicted loneliness, as response to traditional expectations that are no longer relevant (in Je, tu, il, elle) find resonance here too.
Anna, a Belgian filmmaker living in Paris, is in a German town promoting a film, and her return journey over the next two days will take her past Cologne and Brussels. Preferring the anonymity of hotel accommodation to friends’ and relatives’, Anna’s dealings with people she meets portray a hesitance to engage beyond the necessary, whether it is with strangers for one-night stands, or old family acquaintances who want to get in touch.
During her various meetings, Anna is largely a listener, barely responding as people pour their hearts out, and her persona seems to particularly attract the talkative-types. She appears content enough, and believes she knows what she wants, never having the need to talk about herself – we get to know Anna only through the way others respond to her. The only time she opens up in person is during a bedtime chat with her mother in a hotel room, when she confesses to being in love with an Italian woman, but who has since been elusive to get hold of over phone during her journey.
When Anna arrives in Paris, she’s picked up by ex-lover Daniel (Jean-Pierre Cassel), and they end up in a hotel room. After he falls ill, Anna, out of character, even attempts to comfort him. The film ends with Anna alone in her flat, listening to messages left on her answering machine. She’s home..!
The film is reminiscent of some of Michelangelo Antonioni and Wim Wenders’ works, in the way space and architecture is exploited to observe characters from a detached perspective. There is a lot going on in the film that surprised me retrospectively too, after reading Darren Hughes’ essay. For an appreciation of the film’s technical merits, you should find the insightful and well-studied piece quite helpful.
But aficionados aside, this film also affects and moves the casual viewer with its straightforward narrative and thoughtful direction, and I’m sure that is what Akerman also wanted to achieve. Those additional layers, people can discover in their own time, thanks to DVD technology. Talking of which, the collection released by Criterion in its Eclipse series is definitely the one I’d recommend, as it includes her New York films along with Je, tu, il, elle, which connects Akerman’s theme and creative process very aptly. Among her early films, Chantal Akerman’s Les rendez-vous d’Anna remains my absolute favourite, and is therefore Highly Recommended Viewing..!
Amazon Criterion 3-DVD Collection [NTSC]
The Nudity: Aurore Clément and Jean-Pierre Cassel
The film is also a nude-scene classic. Beautiful Aurore Clément gives an ethereal performance as the titular character Anna, and appears nude during four lengthy sequences. Most of them are formal compositions – non-erotic but sensual nevertheless. There is also brief nudity from Jean-Pierre Cassel who plays Daniel, a businessman and Anna’s former lover that she turns to.
Aurore Clément is beautiful and resplendent in Chantal Akerman’s exceptional film, “Les rendez-vous d’Anna” aka “The Meetings of Anna”.
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Compilation: Aurore Clément and Jean-Pierre Cassel
This is a nude-scene classic – and highly recommended.
Aurore Clément is beautiful and resplendent in Chantal Akerman’s exceptional film, “Les rendez-vous d’Anna” aka “The Meetings of Anna”.
Scene Guide:
- Anna (Aurore Clément) befriends Heinrich (Helmut Greim) at a cinema. Once they’re in bed, Anna suddenly decides that they don’t know each other well enough to take things further, and asks him to get dressed.
- After seeing him off at the hotel lobby, Anna wants to get some sleep, but couldn’t.
- Anna spends a night with her mother (Lea Massari) at another hotel on her return journey – the mother learns that she’s broken up with her erstwhile boyfriend.
- No nudity, but plenty of groping as Daniel (Jean-Pierre Cassel) ‘reacquaints’ himself with Anna.
- Daniel asks Anna to lie on top of him, but after a while begins to feel unwell.
- Anna returns from the pharmacy with some remedy to comfort him, but when she attempts to get physical, Daniel asks her to stop.
About the Download Links:
I had a bit of a nightmare making this compilation. My first attempt at de-interlacing the video (i.e., getting rid of banding that happens when viewing a DVD on a computer) using the normal method resulted in lingering artefacts in the highlight areas which I wasn’t happy with. I re-cut the scenes using a different method, which largely got rid of the interlacing, but is slightly less sharp, and also twice the normal frame rate. I suspect it may not play smoothly in older machines, and have therefore included links to both the versions.
I’d appreciate if people let me know which one they prefer for future compilations from interlaced DVD’s – the faster frame rate gives a smoother result even if it takes longer to process, but may not play well in slower machines.
Download Links for improved 60 fps video: (faster frame rate)
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
(All links required – unpack with Winrar)
Download Links for the regular 30 fps video:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
(All links required – unpack with Winrar)
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I downloaded both versions ( thank you ! ) and I don’t see any problems with any of them. I don’t have a new computer, not even a dual-core , but the clips play smoothly with my Daum Potplayer so the 30 fps bitrate seems ok for further work especialy since it involves less time
Thanks for checking it out cris1 – greatly appreciated. It’s good to know that 60fps can also play in single processors. I haven’t used your player, but unless it has de-interlacing turned-on by default, in the 30 fps version you should intermittently see some disturbance.
In the first example, it is visible around the highlight areas on the face of the lady in the foreground. In the second example, the striped bed-sheet will appear as if we’re looking at it through a hen fence. The above screen-grabs are only in medium resolution so they won’t be obvious there, but you certainly will notice them when watching the video on full screen, especially if your monitor is 1080p or higher.
But I’m glad the 60fps video doesn’t stutter for you, which means I can do this at least for some special scenes in future even if it takes more time.
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