C'était un Rendez-vous ("It was a date") is a short film (under 10 minutes) made in 1976 by Claude Lelouch, showing a high speed drive through Paris.

Exposition

The film shows an eight-minute drive through Paris in the early hours of the morning (05:30hrs) in August 1976, accompanied by sounds of a high-revving engine, gear changes and squealing tires. It starts in a tunnel of the Paris Périphérique at Porte Dauphine, with an on-board view from an unseen car exiting up on a ramp (and from there following this route) to Avenue Foch. Well-known landmarks such as the Arc de Triomphe, Opéra Garnier, and Place de la Concorde with its obelisk are passed, as well as the Champs-Élysées. Pedestrians are passed, pigeons sitting on the streets are scattered, red lights are ignored, one-way streets are driven up the wrong way, center lines are crossed, the car drives on the sidewalk to avoid a rubbish truck. The car is never seen as the camera seems to be attached below the front bumper (judging from the relative positions of other cars, the visible headlight beam and the final shot when the car is parked in front of a kerb on Montmartre, with the famous Sacré Cœur Basilica behind, and out of shot). Here, the driver gets out and embraces a young blonde woman as bells ring in the background, with the famous backdrop of Paris.

Rendezvous or rendez-vous refers to a planned meeting between two or more parties at a specific time and place. The terms may also refer to:

In arts and entertainment

In film and television

In music

Albums

"Rendez-vous" was the Belgian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1983, performed in Dutch by Pas de Deux.

The song was performed nineteenth on the night (following Austria's Westend performing "Hurricane" and preceding Luxembourg's Corinne Hermès performing "Si la vie est cadeau"). At the close of voting, it had received 13 points, placing 18th in a field of 20.

The song is an up-beat synthpop number, which despite its modest success in the actual Contest still held a record in Eurovision history until 1998; the lyrics consist of one single line and a total of eleven - apparently nonsensical - words; "Rendez-vous, maar de maat is vol en m'n kop is toe" ("Rendez-vous, but that's the limit, and I clam up") with the duo repeating the phrase on multiple occasions. The band also recorded an English-language version of the song, then with one word less than the Dutch original; "Rendez-vous, better give it up, I don't have a clue." Fifteen years later Finland would go on to beat Pas De Deux's record in the 1998 Contest with "Aava", which in turn only contains six words repeated throughout the song. Norway currently holds the record for the winning Eurovision entry with the shortest lyrics, in 1995 they won with "Nocturne" performed by Secret Garden, with a total of twenty-four words.

Rendez-vous is an album by In-Grid released in 2003.

Track listing

English version

Singles

Certifications

References