A failed London musician meets once a week with a woman for a series of intense sexual encounters to get away from the realities of life. But when he begins inquiring about her, it puts thei... Read allA failed London musician meets once a week with a woman for a series of intense sexual encounters to get away from the realities of life. But when he begins inquiring about her, it puts their relationship at risk.A failed London musician meets once a week with a woman for a series of intense sexual encounters to get away from the realities of life. But when he begins inquiring about her, it puts their relationship at risk.
- Awards
- 6 wins & 5 nominations
- Jay's Child
- (as Vinni Hunter)
- Woman at the Audition
- (as Siân Reeves)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe first mainstream English language film with an unsimulated sex scene to be passed uncut in Great Britain.
- Quotes
Ian: You know when you're with someone there's only a very short time when you can really give each other things for free... with neither of you having to ask. Because later on all you do is make demands of each other. Perhaps the only difference between her and all the rest is that she's asking you for nothing.
- Alternate versionsTo achieve an R-rating, the original two-hour long film was cut down to just 107 minutes in the U.S. and almost all the real sex acts were cut. The Blu-Ray versions, however, restore the original running length.
- ConnectionsFollows An Affair of Love (1999)
- SoundtracksA Night In
Performed by Tindersticks
Composed by Stuart Staples, Dickon Hinchliffe, Dave Boulter, Neil Fraser (as Neil Frazer), Mark Colwill and Alasdair Macauley
Meeting once a week, and hardly speaking to each other, both Claire and Jay seem to be satisfied with little more than sex; but his curiosity takes over, he begins to follow her, and is resentful and envious when faced with the realisation that she has a life of her own and may simply be using him. The movie explores questions such as - how far can sex alone can take a relationship; and do words add to or detract from love? Another theme is that of role playing, on the stage and in life.
Both Fox and Rylance are superb in their scenes together; and Timothy Spall is excellent as Claire's talkative, down-to-earth husband. But I confess to finding Claire's friend Betty (Marianne Faithfull) a baffling character. Some sequences, particularly those involving Jay's friend Victor (Alastair Galbraith) and gay French barman Ian (Philippe Calvario), seem simply to be padding. Possibly, Chereau felt the need to insert personalities and scenes from Kureishi's books, even though these were not relevant to the central Claire-Jay situation. Finally, yes, the over-hyped explicit sex is necessary for the movie to work.
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Người Tình Quen Thuộc
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $405,094
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $33,808
- Oct 21, 2001
- Gross worldwide
- $2,672,527
- Runtime1 hour 59 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1