Intimacy (film)

This article is on the film. For other works of the same name, see Intimacy (disambiguation).

Intimacy (2001), directed by Patrice Chéreau, featuring Mark Rylance and Kerry Fox. In London, a bartender who has regular, casual sex with a mysterious woman every Wednesday, becomes curious about her life and spies on her, with unintended consequences for their relationship.

Intimacy is an international co-production among production companies in France, the U.K., Germany, and Spain featuring a soundtrack of 1970s and 1980s popular songs. It was written by Chéreau with Anne-Louise Trividic, based on stories by Hanif Kureishi. A French dubbed version features voice actors Jean-Hugues Anglade and Nathalie Richard.

The film has been associated with the New French Extremity.

Plot

Jay is a bartender (a musician until the birth of his first son) who abandoned his family, because his wife lost interest in him and their (sexual) relationship. Their relationship failed because work prevented them from spending time together — he worked nights, she worked days.

Now living alone in a decrepit house, he has casual weekly sex with an anonymous woman. They do not speak much. He doesn't even know her name. At first, their relationship is purely physical. However, he begins to fall in love with her as he thinks she is special. She is indeed, because of her extraordinarily uncomplicated way of dealing with this situation.

Wanting to know more about her, Jay follows her across the streets of London to the grey suburbs where she lives. He then follows her to a theatre pub where she is working as an actress in the evenings. She is also a teacher for acting, dreaming and playing roles after being an ordinary housewife during daytime. Unbeknownst to her, Jay learns that she has a warmhearted (but rather fanciless) husband (Timothy Spall) and a son. Subsequently, he breaks up the relationship immediately, as he thinks of his own sons, whom he loves and misses so much. Claire cannot continue either when she learns by accident about what Jay has found out.They meet for a final time when they make love with an intimacy that has been missing during the illicit sex sessions of their previous encounters.

Cast

• Mark Rylance - Jay
• Kerry Fox - Claire
• Susannah Harker - Susan, Jay's wife
• Alastair Galbraith - Victor
• Philippe Calvario - Ian
• Timothy Spall - Andy
• Marianne Faithfull - Betty
• Fraser Ayres - Dave
• Michael Fitzgerald - Bar owner
• Robert Addie - Bar owner

Controversy

The film was controversial due to its inclusion of an uncensored scene of fellatio between Rylance and Fox.

Awards

Intimacy won the Golden Bear for Best Film and the Silver Bear for Best Actress (Kerry Fox) at the Berlin Film Festival in 2001.

External links

References