Schedule:

1:00 PM - Jim's Story
Adrift in his early twenties, Aymeric (Karim Leklou) runs into former coworker Florence (Laetitia Dosch), six months pregnant with a child for whom already-married father Christophe (iconic actor and musician Bertrand Belin) refuses to take responsibility. Aymeric proves himself to be a generous partner to Florence and a perfect, loving parent, adored by his adoptive child—but when Christophe decides he wants to build a relationship with his growing son, Jim (Eol Personne), the security of Aymeric’s cherished role in the family unit begins to falter. Equally at ease applying their offbeat vision to thrillers (Love Is the Perfect Crime, Rendez-Vous 2014) and comedies (21 Nights with Pattie, Rendez-Vous 2016), the Larrieu brothers make a triumphant return with this impressive adaptation of Pierric Bailly’s novel of the same name, crafting a heartfelt and realistic portrait of the bonds of fatherhood, beautifully embodied by Leklou in a generous, vulnerable lead performance.

3:30 PM - When Fall Is Coming

Retiree Michelle (Hélène Vincent) lives in the countryside, peacefully enjoying her ample free time with lifelong friend Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko). Despite being estranged from her hostile daughter Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier), Michelle looks forward to a visit from her grandson Lucas (Garlan Erlos)—but when things don’t go as planned during his stay, a long-simmering mother-daughter conflict erupts. Applying his characteristically destabilizing artistry to the shapeshifting contours of this deceptively low-key drama, Rendez-Vous regular François Ozon (Everything Went Fine, Rendez-Vous 2022; Summer of ’85, Rendez-Vous 2021) devotes loving attention to the complex experiences of an elderly woman whose past keeps rearing its head in unforeseeable ways. Boasting impeccable turns from a strong ensemble cast, the film’s many pleasures include Ozon’s reunion with his Swimming Pool leading lady Sagnier for their first collaboration in more than two decades. A Music Box Films release.


6:00 PM - Cross Away
Q&A with Gilles Bourdos and Vincent Lindon

Rounding out strong ensemble casts in this year’s Rendez-Vous selections The Quiet Son and The Second Act, the great Vincent Lindon is virtually the entire show in Cross Away. In this Gallic take on Steven Knight’s acclaimed 2013 drama Locke, Lindon is Joseph Cross, a construction foreman who supervises concrete pours. The night before a particularly big job, he’s compelled to leave the worksite in a hurry and set out, for obscure reasons, to an undisclosed destination. As Cross, driving deep into the night while struggling—one phone call at a time—to keep his life and work from falling apart, Lindon crafts a wholly original take on the character indelibly played by Tom Hardy in the original film, resulting in a riveting one-man show that starkly externalizes a long, dark night of the soul.


8:30 PM - Meeting with Pol Pot
Q&A with Rithy Panh and Elizabeth Becker
In 1978, three French journalists arrive in Cambodia to survey the country and interview its leader, Pol Pot—but after a picture-perfect arrival, cracks begin to emerge in the murderous regime’s facade of respectability. For Cambodian-born Rithy Panh, the damage inflicted upon his homeland by the Khmer Rouge has fueled a lifetime of innovative work in the vein of 2013’s The Missing Picture, which reconstructed the period’s events in part through clay-figurine dioramas. This real-life journalistic excursion, based on true events detailed in Elizabeth Becker’s nonfiction book When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution, is brought to life thanks to exemplary lead performances from Irène Jacob, Grégoire Colin, and Cyril Gueï, meticulously conjuring the sights and sounds of 1978 Cambodia with the assistance of archival footage and more clay figurines. The result is a unique admixture—historical horror paired with a rich meditation on the impossibility of portraying it—that only Panh could make. A Strand Releasing release