[ThisWeek] Intimate Strangers at the Kenworthy

[thisweek at kenworthy.org]

This week at the Kenworthy-

Intimate Strangers (R)
Friday, November 12
7:00 PM
Saturday & Sunday, November 13 & 14
4:45 & 7:00 PM
Tickets: $5 adults
KFS passes valid for Sunday shows
(See Reviews below)
* * *
November/December 2004-

The Corporation (NR)
Nov 19 at 7:00 PM
Nov 20 & 21 at 4:00 & 7:00 PM

Spiderman 2 (PG13)
Nov 26 - 28
4:15 & 7:00 PM

Maria Full of Grace (R)
Dec 3 at 7:00 PM
Dec 4 & 5 at 4:30 & 7:00 PM

It¹s a Wonderful Life
Dec 10 at 7:00 PM
Dec 11 & 12 at 4:15 & 7:00 PM

Regular Movie prices:  $5 adults, $2 children 12 and younger.
KFS passes accepted for Sunday movies

508 S. Main Street, Moscow, Idaho
For more information, call 208-882-4127.
* * *
This week¹s review-

INTIMATE STRANGERS
(Confidences trop intimes)

Directed by Patrice Leconte;
Written (in French, with English subtitles) by Jérôme Tonnerre
Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes
This film is rated R. Advisory: This film contains lewd sex talk.

As Reviewed by Kimberly Jones writing for the Austin (Texas) Chronicle

This modest French-language film follows the time-honored cinematic
tradition of plot as spearheaded by a simple twist of fate. Case in point:
Had Anna gone six doors down to the left, as instructed, she might have
endured years of psychoanalysis and prescription drugs. But Anna, a bit of a
ditz when it comes to directions, goes right instead of left and winds up
not at the office of Dr. Monnier, her new psychoanalyst, but at the office
of a mild-mannered, meticulous tax attorney named William.

As reviewed by Mick LaSalle writing for the San Francisco Chronicle

The premise of "Intimate Strangers" sounds like the basis for a farce or
screwball comedy: A troubled woman, making her first visit to a
psychiatrist, goes through the wrong door and pours her heart out to a tax
lawyer. Used to hearing people's confidences, the lawyer doesn't realize the
mistake until the woman is so far into her story that he's too embarrassed
to say anything. Besides, she's beautiful. And he's lonely. And she's fiery
and intriguing, while he's placid and bored stiff with his life. So he lets
her make another appointment.

In the hands of director Patrice Leconte, this story becomes the basis for a
strange almost-thriller, a psychological drama with undertones of romance
and danger. Mostly, the film is a series of two-person conversations in
which the woman talks about her abusive husband and his sexual problems, and
the tax accountant listens. But "listens" is too weak a word. He discreetly
devours her every word and watches her as though the Eternal Feminine, by
some divine grace, has decided to smoke, pace and tell stories in his
office. He's so happy that he's afraid to smile. He doesn't want to breathe
on this situation. 

Throughout the film, we always know what the lawyer is up to. But the woman
remains a mystery. Is she truthful? Is she entrancing and neurotic or mad
and destructive? She becomes more puzzling and more alluring as the film
wears on. 

Is "Intimate Strangers" a romance? A thriller? A drama? It is, as they say,
what it is. It's a movie by people who know there are few things more
thrilling, or that seem more perilous, than meeting the romantic "other" and
having those first, careful conversations.

As Reviewed by Stephen Holden writing for the New York Times

In Patrice Leconte's sardonic psychological thriller, ''Intimate
Strangers,'' Sandrine Bonnaire portrays a Gallic answer to one of Alfred
Hitchcock's sleek blond women of mystery. Imagine the Grace Kelly of ''Rear
Window'' or the Kim Novak of ''Vertigo'' sprawled seductively on an
analyst's couch, smoking cigarettes and confiding her sexual frustration to
a repressed, wide-eyed shrink who is obsessed with her.

''Intimate Strangers,'' directed by Mr. Leconte from a screenplay by Jérôme
Tonnerre, establishes its mood of playful erotic suspense in the first 10
minutes and sustains its cat-and-mouse game between therapist and patient
through variations that are by turns amusing, titillating and mildly scary.

''Intimate Strangers'' takes place less in the real world than in the realm
of voyeuristic fantasy -- in other words, in the realm of film itself, which
allows us to ogle beautiful people under the cover of darkness.

Another variation on the same idea drives the recent and wonderful Italian
film ''Facing Windows,'' in which attractive neighbors who have
surreptitiously observed and desired each other finally connect and face
reality. Both films involve a lot of staring out of windows and gazing at
reflections. 

In the spirit of the best Hitchcock, ''Intimate Strangers'' is seriously
light. Or is it lightly serious?

Film reviews researched and edited by Peter Haggart
* * *

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PAMELA PALMER, Volunteer
Mailto:ppalmer at moscow.com
Film and Events Committee
Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

http://www.kenworthy.org
To speak with a KPAC staff member,
call (208) 882-4127
Mailto:kpac at moscow.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

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