Years after the two-part work Smoking/No Smoking (1993), Alain Resnais again films a work by the British playwright Alan Ayckbourn: Private Fears in Public Spaces. Resnais moved the action from London to Paris – because there too people wrestle with love and with visible and invisible separation that sometimes seems to exist between them.
Nicole is desperately looking for an apartment for her and her fiancé Dan. But he does little else than hang around the bar, unemployed. He doesn’t feel like applying for a job. Thierry, the estate agent who shows Nicole a house, faces advances from an unexpected corner: from his happy and pious colleague Charlotte. Charlotte, in turn, looks after Lionel’s old father and he works in Dan’s favourite bar. When Nicole and Dan break up, Dan puts a contact ad in the paper.
Resnais (now in his eighties) is still a master at directing actors. The entire cast is excellent. Lightly and subtly in many short scenes, Resnais takes us through occasionally depressing situations in which he uses pictures of a beautiful snow shower to distinguish the scenes. Separations can also be seen in the mise en scène in the form of curtains and walls which serve to stress loneliness and inaccessibility.
Film details
- Countries of production
- France, Italy
- Year
- 2006
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2007
- Length
- 120"
- Medium/Format
- 35mm
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