Horizons - Awarded Films 2001 / Intimacy / France, Italy 2000
The filmmaker says that Intimacy starts where most films leave off: in bed, or more precisely on the floor, because that’s exactly where Jay and Claire’s Wednesday appointments are held: they meet to have sex and both stick to an unwritten vow of silence. They know nothing about each other and when Jay feels the need to find out his partner’s identity their relationship begins to fall apart. Jay left his wife a while ago and lives in a borrowed flat; he works at night as a bartender in a low-class pub. After following Claire one day he finds out that she’s an actress, and that she’s married. Her husband Andy is quite open and soon Jay and Andy become friends. He doesn’t seem to know much about his wife or is wise enough to grant her her freedom. From the time he begins to probe into her private life Claire ceases to come for their unspoken, though once regular, Wednesday appointments. Jay decides to act. . . .
119 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Patrice Chéreau
/ Screenplay Anne-Louise Trividic, Patrice Chéreau
/ Dir. of Photography Eric Gautier
/ Music Eric Neveux
/ Editor Francois Gedigier
/ Producer Charles Gassot, Patrick Cassavetti, Jacques Hinstin
/ Production Telema Productions
/ Cast Mark Rylance, Kerry Fox, Timothy Spall, Alastair Galbraith, Philippe Calvario, Marianne Faithfull, Susannah Harker
Patrice Chéreau (b. 1944, Lézigné) began working as a theatre director at the age of twenty. In 1966-69 he was director of the theatre in Sartrouville near Paris, and was later engaged as a director at Milan’s Piccolo Teatro (1969-73). In 1969 he directed opera for the first time. In 1973-78 he was director of the Theatre National Populaire, and later worked in Nanterre. He has been a film director since 1974. Selected filmography: Flesh of the Orchid (1974, La chair de l’orchidée), The Wounded Man (1983, L’homme blessé), Queen Margot (1994, La Reine Margot), Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (1998, Ceux qui m’aiment prendront le train). He has also acted, notably in Andrzej Wajda’s Danton.
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