Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more

 

Intimacy (2000)

Director: Patrice Chéreau

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

This English-language European art movie (from stories by Hanif Kureishi) examines the anonymous, almost wordless, sexual relationship that married, working-class Claire (Fox) and embittered head barman and divorced father Jay (Rylance) embark on in his seedy flat in New Cross, London. The media's concentration on the explicit sex angle in this troubling, uneven but stimulating and cinematically intriguing film has been excessive, as the treatment is resolutely serious and meaningful. The film is about inevitable human incompleteness, living with contradictions, the irreconcilable conflicting hungers of the body and the heart. Fox and Rylance's performances, their lack of ingratiation and their plain, professional courage are the most remarkable things about the film - cameraman Eric Gautier's exciting, jagged, rich-toned rendering of London notwithstanding. At their best in the little theatre of the bedsit room, trouble only starts outside, where they, and the film, lose direction. The behaviour of other Londoners seems all wrong, if entirely plausible. This process of de-familiarisation is fascinating: it's invigorating to be made to feel, for an hour or so, an alien in your own city.

Author: WH 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide


  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Features

Do overs!

Do overs!

After Race to Witch Mountain, what should Disney remake next?

Gray's anatomy

James Gray wants to push buttons—again.

The next big thing?

Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.

Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema

So you think you can dance, comrade?

Puppet master

Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.

Socratic method

Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.

Wander woman

Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.

Oscars

Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.