There can’t be a more dazzling combination than Alain Resnais and well-known British dramatist Alan Ayckbourn. This is the second occasion they’ve teamed up, this time producing shrewd portraits of six people of different ages living in contemporary Paris; all of them are looking for true love, and loved ones they can rely on.
Contemporary Paris, select elegant settings and six equally elegant characters, yet all of them, behind their accommodating gestures and smiles, hide their own anxieties. Their fear of being alone or being abandoned by their partners. Dan and Nicole want to find a luxury apartment in the centre, but it seems this will only put a curse on their crumbling relationship; the romantic Gaëlle, in search of love, unfortunately happens upon the spineless Dan. Gaëlle’s brother Thierry, who lives with the young woman, is afraid she’ll leave and, what’s more, he’s shocked by the discovery of an obscene secret his pious colleague Charlotte has tried to hide. At the same time, in his role as an estate agent, he obligingly shows Dan and Nicole round various flats, and Charlotte, as a hired nurse, does night shifts caring for the dying father of the bartender Lionel... Over the course of several winter days, the paths of strangers cross one another at random. Their story is told with esprit and with a certain Buñuelesque bizarreness, but the enduring sense is one of underlying melancholy.
123 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Alain Resnais
/ Screenplay Jean-Michel Ribes podle hry / based on the play Private Fears in Public Places by Alan Ayckbourn
/ Dir. of Photography Eric Gautier
/ Music Mark Snow
/ Editor Hervé de Luze
/ Producer Bruno Pesery
/ Production Soudaine Compagnie
/ Cast Sabine Azéma, Isabelle Carré, Laura Morante, Pierre Arditi, André Dussollier, Lambert Wilson
/ Contact Studiocanal
Alain Resnais (b. 1922, Vannes, France), one of the most celebrated filmmakers of the latter half of the 20th century, whose films greatly influenced the development of film narration. His extensive filmography reflects his commitment to social and political issues (Muriel, 1963, The War Is Over, 1966, Far from Vietnam, 1967), and also his attempts to penetrate deep into the heart of man (Hiroshima, mon amour, 1959; Last Year in Marienbad, 1961; Providence, 1976). His latest films betray a combination of keen intellect, sophisticated humour, ironic detachment and a certain degree of bizarreness. Perhaps because of this way of viewing the world, he decided for the second time to opt for the plays of Alan Ayckbourn, with their weighty subject matter and sparkling intellect (the result of their first collaboration was the title Smoking / No Smoking, 1993).
Studiocanal
50 rue Camille Desmoulins, 928 63, Issy les Moulineaux Cedex 9
France
Phone: +33 892 393 910
E-mail: [email protected]
Géraldine Lepicard
Sales Agent
First-hand brews throughout the year.
Be among the first to learn about upcoming events and other news. We only send the newsletter when we have something to say.
