Private Fears in Public Places
TORONTO -- In Coeurs or Private Fears in Public Places, which is the English title of the Alan Ayckbourne play on which Alain Resnais bases this film, the director presents a melancholy comedy of manners about six characters in a forlorn search for love. This is a minor film from a master, which is disappointing, but nevertheless it has its charms, most notably in the acting by a cast of stage and screen veterans.
Certainly the film will play the festival circuit, but any domestic distributor will come up against its highly limited commercial appeal.
Private Fears still feels like a play as its characters are all connected to each other, often without their knowledge, as they move in and around a handful of interior locations. French playwright, director and author Jean-Michel Ribes has turned Ayckbourne's dialogue into French and reasonably transformed the English story into a Parisian setting.
Nicole (Italian star Laura Morante) is searching for a new apartment for her and her longtime fiance Dan Lambert Wilson), an alcoholic and recently cashiered career soldier. She employs harried real estate agent Thierry (Andre Dussollier), who would love to find a way to romantically connect with co-worker Charlotte (Sabine Azema), a religious woman with a secret erotic passion.
Charlotte takes a job as a night nurse for the dying yet unbearably cranky father of Lionel (Pierre Arditi), so he can tend the hotel bar where Dan does most of his drinking. When Dan and Nicole decide to separate, his first blind date at that bar, via a newspaper ad, is with Gaelle (Isabelle Carre), who is Thierry's lonely sister.
The latter casting makes little sense given the age differences between the two actors. The siblings' papa must have had the children by women far apart in years. Carre is also too beautiful to be credible as a socially inept wallflower no man notices in bars or cafes.
That illogic aside, the story's characters are all too much the same. They mope through days and nights, their romantic aspirations dashed at every turn. The actors give each a subtlety and emotional depth that allows individual scenes to work well. Yet collectively those scenes add up to very little. Indeed no one is any better off at the end and arguably a few are worse.
The sets look cool and artificial in the usually soft light. Scenes are ended by falling snow as winter envelops these characters in its icy embrace. This is the winter of desire, Resnais seems to say, as he observes people acting out private hopes and anguish in very public places.
PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES
Soudaine Compagnie
Credits:
Director: Alain Resnais
Writer: Jean-Michel Ribes
Based on the play by: Alan Ayckbourn
Producer: Bruno Pesery
Executive producer: Julie Salvador
Director of photography: Eric Gautier
Production designer: Jacques Saulnier
Music: Mark Snow
Editor: Herve de Luze.
Cast:
Nicole: Laura Morante
Dan: Lambert Wilson
Lionel: Pierre Arditi
Gaelle: Isabelle Carre
Thierry: Andre Dussollier
Charlotte: Sabine Azema
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 125 minutes...
Certainly the film will play the festival circuit, but any domestic distributor will come up against its highly limited commercial appeal.
Private Fears still feels like a play as its characters are all connected to each other, often without their knowledge, as they move in and around a handful of interior locations. French playwright, director and author Jean-Michel Ribes has turned Ayckbourne's dialogue into French and reasonably transformed the English story into a Parisian setting.
Nicole (Italian star Laura Morante) is searching for a new apartment for her and her longtime fiance Dan Lambert Wilson), an alcoholic and recently cashiered career soldier. She employs harried real estate agent Thierry (Andre Dussollier), who would love to find a way to romantically connect with co-worker Charlotte (Sabine Azema), a religious woman with a secret erotic passion.
Charlotte takes a job as a night nurse for the dying yet unbearably cranky father of Lionel (Pierre Arditi), so he can tend the hotel bar where Dan does most of his drinking. When Dan and Nicole decide to separate, his first blind date at that bar, via a newspaper ad, is with Gaelle (Isabelle Carre), who is Thierry's lonely sister.
The latter casting makes little sense given the age differences between the two actors. The siblings' papa must have had the children by women far apart in years. Carre is also too beautiful to be credible as a socially inept wallflower no man notices in bars or cafes.
That illogic aside, the story's characters are all too much the same. They mope through days and nights, their romantic aspirations dashed at every turn. The actors give each a subtlety and emotional depth that allows individual scenes to work well. Yet collectively those scenes add up to very little. Indeed no one is any better off at the end and arguably a few are worse.
The sets look cool and artificial in the usually soft light. Scenes are ended by falling snow as winter envelops these characters in its icy embrace. This is the winter of desire, Resnais seems to say, as he observes people acting out private hopes and anguish in very public places.
PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES
Soudaine Compagnie
Credits:
Director: Alain Resnais
Writer: Jean-Michel Ribes
Based on the play by: Alan Ayckbourn
Producer: Bruno Pesery
Executive producer: Julie Salvador
Director of photography: Eric Gautier
Production designer: Jacques Saulnier
Music: Mark Snow
Editor: Herve de Luze.
Cast:
Nicole: Laura Morante
Dan: Lambert Wilson
Lionel: Pierre Arditi
Gaelle: Isabelle Carre
Thierry: Andre Dussollier
Charlotte: Sabine Azema
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 125 minutes...
- 9/15/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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