Intimate Strangers

Rating:
Summary: In The Spider's Lair
Review: Anna (Sandrine Bonnaire) enters an old office building, goes up to the sixth floor and rings the buzzer to be lead into the office of William (Fabrice Luchini), a Tax advisor. Anna talks pretty much non-stop about her marriage, her brutish husband, and her lack of sex life. Then stops, gets up and leaves: having embarrassed herself by her ramblings. There is a problem though: Anna thinks that William is her new therapist and William, seemingly so fascinated with Anna that he says nothing to the contrary even going so far as to schedule another appointment for the following week.
Director Patrice Leconte has plowed this territory before especially in his "Man on the Train" and the ruse succeeds for as long as it needs to as William comes clean to Anna early on in the film. Nonetheless, Anna continues to spill her guts to William and a sort of friendship develops between the two.
Most of "Intimate Strangers" takes place in William's stuffy conservative office and Anna is dressed in layers of dark colored heavy clothing. But as she blossoms from the benefits of her "analysis," her makeup, hair, clothing becomes lighter and more revealing: obvious but effective. William also changes and there is one odd though funny scene of him dancing solo a la Tom Cruise in "Risky Business" to Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness" that has to be seen to be believed.
"Intimate Strangers" is a strange little movie that expects a lot from its viewers but just manages to stay on our good side by treating us like we have some intelligence and taste. Though it teeters on the edge of facetiousness, it doesn't ever make the leap over.

Rating:
Summary: The risks of being spatially dyslexic
Review: Anna's spilling her guts to a tax accountant, mistaking his office for that of a therapist down the hall, is rendered understandable when she explains that she gets lost easily, confuses right with left, etc. The accountant can't get a word in edgewise as this woman unloads intimate details of her relationship with her lover; his face undergoes a huge range of befuddled emotions, and suddenly, without him quite realizing how all this could be happening, he find himself confirming an appointment with her for the next week.
Until that day, the accountant's life had been pretty boring, and he expected nothing more. The volatility of Anna's presence, her interest in continuing to use him as a sounding board even after she discovers her mistake, and the attachment that develops between these two `strangers' is funny, touching, and revelatory.
Top-notch.


Rating:
Summary: Excellent Film
Review: I know this film received mixed reviews, but if you break apart all the components: the progression from dark to light in the clothes, music, settings, dialogue - it is a beautifully crafted and rich film.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing Premise, but Ultimately an Unconvincing Cliché.
Review: In "Intimate Strangers", a case of mistaken identity leads two strangers to become so emotionally entwined that their shared secrets become a means to sort out their neuroses. Anna (Sandrine Bonnaire) seeks the help of a psychiatrist in dealing with her marital problems, but mistakenly arrives at the office of a tax attorney down the hall instead. The attorney, William (Fabrice Luchini), at first thinks she is a new client seeking financial advice concerning a divorce. When he realizes that Anna wanted the office of M. Monnier, the psychiatrist, he is too intrigued to correct her. She eventually discovers her error, but continues to tell her troubles to William. The more she explains, the less he understands, and so he ends up consulting the psychiatrist Monnier (Michel Duchaussoy).

"Intimate Strangers" succeeds in making the audience curious to understand Anna's situation and motives. We're intrigued, as William is, and this holds our attention for most of the film. But "Intimate Strangers" suffers from an utter lack of credibility and pervasive Freudian clichés. Anna is a fantasy. She does what a lonely, aging, cloistered man might fantasize that a younger woman who confides in him would do. She doesn't act realistically. People are given to act oddly and unpredictably, of course, but not in accordance with others' desires. The ending of the film is especially unbelievable. Director Patrice Leconte draws attention to the camera by shaking it at the worst moments, which only diminishes his characters. "Intimate Strangers" did keep my interest nearly until the end, but it did so by hinting at something more interesting than ever materializes. It's not bad as it goes along, but the film is almost completely lackluster in retrospect. In French with English subtitles.

The DVD: There are no bonus features. The movie is preceded by 6 unavoidable previews that last 15 minutes. The English subtitles cannot be turned off.

Rating:
Summary: A little slow, but Bonnaire and Luchini are marvelous
Review: Much like Kurosawa for Japanese cinema and Ingmar Bergman for Swedish films, the entire onslaught of the 1960's New Wave has set a stereotype for our perception (and expectations) of French movies. We hear "Japanese movie" and Toshiro Mifune comes charging forth - sword in hand - in a mental image; someone says "Swedish film" and there's Gunnar Bjorstrand staring out at a wintery landscape mourning the absence of God; the words "French movie" arise and thoughts of lengthy dialogue and mildly pretentious camerawork form in our heads. I'd like to say that Patrice Leconte's astutely written Intimate Strangers breaks free from what the average filmgoer thinks of les films francaises, but that would be somewhat of a fib. Then again, Leconte (who made last year's fantastic Man on the Train) is good at what he does, no matter how stereotypically "French" it may outwardly seem.

The plot of Strangers is a sociologist's wet dream: a beautiful (but deeply disturbed) woman mistakenly walks into a tax attorney's office thinking he's a therapist, she starts telling him all her deep secrets, he's too enthralled to tell her the truth. Leconte and master cinematographer Eduardo Serra (Girl with a Pearl Earring) keep things low-key but mysterious for a while, everything heightened by Sandrine Bonnaire's delicate performance as Anna and Serra's narrow-focused hand-held camera. The atmosphere of the movie almost feels like that tax attorney's office: claustrophobic and secretive. Suddenly, though, we learn something that changes the entire dynamic of the relationship of Anna and tax attorney William (Fabrice Luchini), and the movie begins to branch out a bit. In come wry comic moments, new characters that may or may not be crucial, and - yes - more and more secrets about the sexy Anna. Ever so slowly, Intimate Strangers becomes less and less a social/moral dilemma and more an intricate little character study.

Which is both a strength and a weakness. Thing is, as interesting as the developments of the film may be, Strangers remains a little too tidy and a little too reigned-in for its own good. Leconte, who enriched Man on the Train with playful humor and a wonderful tear-jerker of a finale, seems content to just play it safe all the time here. Luckily, though, leads Bonnaire and Luchini don't suffer the movie's technical shortcomings at all. Luchini has a wan, faintly comical face that lends William some great little farcical moments that wouldn't work on anyone else. Bonnaire is a marvel of understatement, rendering a complicated woman accessible and intriguing without hysterics or melodrama. In short, this very odd couple makes Strangers worth it. In a general sense, this is a well-crafted-but-haughty French drama that satisfies without being moving or affecting. Pared down to Anna and William spilling secrets in a shadowy office, it's an actor's showcase. And that's never a bad thing. B


Rating:
Summary: A minor diversion from a major director
Review: Patrice Leconte is one of my favorite directors, but I found Confidences Trop Intimes little more than a pleasant but disposable diversion. Reunited with his Monsieur Hire star Sandrine Bonnaire, it's more a conceit than a movie, a character piece that never goes anywhere much but holds the interest. Bonnaire, not a favorite actress of mine, is increasingly impressive in a superb performance that really does evolve throughout the course of the film, easily outclassing Fabrice Lucini. Always a rather one-note actor, Lucini is at his best here, but the fact that his character is incapable of growth - even the final move is more a change of surroundings than of character and can actually be viewed as a retrograde step - makes him more of a sounding board for Bonnaire than a real focus for the film. Coming across as a somber Eric Idle cross-pollinated with a hesitant Jean-Louis Trintignant, we know everything about him very early in the film, and he is never quite drawn out of his shell enough to ever become genuinely interesting in his own right.

Despite the claustrophobic settings, Leconte never fails to make the film cinematic. In many ways he's like Sidney Lumet in his prime in his ability to find a way of making two characters sitting down and talking to each other more cinematic than most directors can make a street scene. Unfortunately, it doesn't amount to much by the time the end credits are rolling. A minor film from a major director.

Rating:
Summary: THE TALKING CURE
Review: Thinking she's keeping an appointment with a psychiatrist, a woman (Sandrine Bonnaire) enters a tax accountant's office by mistake and spills her guts.

Patrice Laconte's INTIMATE STRANGERS (Paramount) is a wonderful film. Elegant, intelligent and visually rich, it examines the growing bond between two people who start out knowing nothing about each other. Even after misunderstandings about identity are erased in the first act, the oddly platonic, verbal therapeutic relationship for both continues. Laconte has masterfully examined this central notion in the widely divergent but brilliant "Man on a Train," "Girl on a Bridge," and "The Widow of St. Pierre." (All worth owning for repeated viewings.) In French with English subtitles.



Rating:
Summary: "What to declare and what to hide."
Review: William (Fabrice Luchini), a Parisian tax lawyer, is at the end of his working day, when an attractive young woman named Anna arrives claiming that she has an appointment. Expecting the usual presentation of tax problems, William is both shocked and intrigued when Anna (Sandrine Bonnaire) begins to weepily unburden herself with a litany of marital woes. At first, William is too stunned to respond, but then it dawns on him that Anna think he's the psychiatrist, Dr. Monnier (Michel Duchaussoy), two doors down. At this point, William should do the ethical thing and reveal that Anna is in the wrong office. But he doesn't ... instead he makes an appointment with Anna for the following week.

Flirting with guilt, William approaches an old girlfriend, Jeanne (Anne Brochet) and explains his dilemma. She's horrified by William's lack of forthrightness, and she senses that William is attracted to Anna, and that's why he's reluctant to come clean.

While William struggles with his dilemma, Anna discovers the truth, but then she begins to show up for 'chats' anyway. The film explores the relationship between William and Anna--they now have no doctor-patient professional bond, and they're not exactly friends. William's disapproving secretary, Madame Mulon (Helene Surgere) is dying to get to the bottom of the relationship. With a strong Freudian approach, the film focuses on both William and Anna's contrasting backgrounds, and the appeal they hold for each other becomes increasingly clear. The film's delicate and ironic humour casts William--a man who's never, ever stepped out of line in his life--suddenly in a delectably untenable position. Is his own life so anemic that he's now become an armchair emotional vampire addicted to Anna's salacious confidences? And what about Anna's role? Does she just need a friendly (free) shoulder to cry on, or is something darker afoot? ...

Luchini is one of my favourite French actors, and his ability to act with just his facial expressions fits the role of William very well. This is a role in which William is supposed to listen, and Luchini's control over his facial expressions is--as always--quite extraordinary. As a fan of director Patrice Leconte's work, I consider "Hairdresser's Husband", "Monsieur Hire", "The Widow of St Pierre", "Girl of the Bridge" some of the best films I've ever seen. One of Leconte's favourite themes is the emotional distance between people whose ability to truly communicate and bridge these distances is usually adversely affected by the emotional scars of life. Can the emotional distance between people be bridged, and if it cannot, does it matter? Can an unconventional relationship with inherent emotional distances between the participants still exist? "Intimate Strangers" explores these questions through the main characters. This film is NOT a romance, and to see it as such is to underestimate its message. Discard the idea of a romance, and consider the final scene. In French with English subtitles--displacedhuman