This stylish ensemble drama from one of France’s greatest directors, Alain Resnais (Hiroshima Mon Amour, Last Year In Marienbad, Same Old Song), was awarded the Silver Lion at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. Released in France as Coeurs (literally translated as 'Hearts"), you’d be hard pressed to find a more poetic film.
Based on a play by celebrated Brit writer Alan Ayckbourn (whose play Intimate Exchanges was also adapted by Resnais in 1993 as Smoking/No Smoking), Private Fears circles the lives of six Parisians as they struggle to find meaning in their contemporary lives. The characters are dour – in that living-in-a-big-soulless-city kind of way – but also blackly humorous. Their existence is best exemplified by Charlotte (Resnais’ real life wife Sabine Azema), a devout Christian, who loves nothing more than lending co-workers a video tape of her favourite TV show in which famous people go through the songs that changed their lives. But once the recording finishes, who is that headless woman stripping for the camera that takes up the rest of the tape???
Filled with beautifully judged performances from a cast of Resnais regulars (even the voice of legendary thesp Claude Rich pops up, hilariously) and newcomers (hot French actresses Laura Morante and Isabelle Carre are both brilliant) and with so many textures that you would enjoy it even more on repeat viewing, Private Fears In Public Places is like sitting by the window of a contemporary Parisian cafe in winter, listening in on the lives of the intriguing passers-by and occasionally finding your own reflection in the window.
Filmink 4/5
