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PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES Send This Review to a Friend
Shown at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, Alain Resnais’ “Coeurs,” is being released under the English title “Private Fears in Public Places,” the name of the Alan Ayckbourn play from which the film was adapted. Whatever the title, the work is a gem. Although British playwright Ayckbourn wrote about Brits in England, the switch to France works extremely well, probably because of the universality of the relationships examined.
The story involves an assortment of characters, all of whom are lonely in one respect or another. There are Thierry (André Dussollier), a real estate agent, and his colleague Charlotte (Sabine Azéma), who fights to maintain her religious morality but secretly makes porn videos of herself and gives them to Thierry without revealing that she is on them.
Thierry’s sister Gaëlle (Isabelle Carré) is seeking a man through lonely hearts ads, and she is smitten when she meets Dan (Lambert Wilson), who also falls for her. Dan is in the process of breaking up with Nicole (Laura Morante), who is fed up with him and decides to leave.
Meanwhile Gaëlle spends part of her time helping barman Lionel (Pierre Arditi) care for his ill, nasty father, whom we hear but never see. She develops her own method of pacifying him. The film, ultimately a sad one because the relationships do not get the chance to flourish and bring people out of their loneliness, is beautifully constructed and meticulously acted in a way that is emotionally moving and touching.
There is a lyrical tone to the look of the film, as well as to the depiction of the relationships. I had seen the film on stage with a superb ensemble cast, and in the tight theatrical package, the scenes shifted smoothly between the characters. The film has of necessity been opened up, and yet the ensemble quality still shines through. An IFC First Take release.
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