With such classics Night And Fog, Last Year In Marienbad and Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Alain Resnais was one of the forerunners of French New Wave in the '50s and '60s and although his eye for a shot is in evidence here, there's nothing to really sink your teeth into. Adapted from the play Couers, the story floats in and out of the lives of six people: real estate agent Thierry (Doussollier) has fallen for his religious secretary Charlotte (Azema), whom he believes is shooting pornos of herself and putting them at the end of the tapes of religious programmes she's recorded for him. Charlotte is moonlighting, taking care of Lionel's (Pierre Arditi) bed-ridden father while he tends bar in a local hotel. One of Lionel's regulars is ex-army officer Dan (Wilson) who, when his long-term relationship with Nicole (Laura Morante) hits the rocks, replies to a Lonely Hearts ad and meets up with Thierry's live-in sister Gaelle (Carre). Divisions and how we don't really communicate with each other are the themes of Private Fears In Public Places. Resnais litters his film with partitions to symbolise emotional detachment: the beads in the bar, the curtain in the bedroom, the glass in the office and the other room in the apartment. The spiralling, go-nowhere dialogue reinforces this idea, that although we chat incessantly, we aren't really getting to the bottom of things, what we're really feeling - we will be forever alone until we can open up, cut the crap and be honest with each other. Which is fair enough but did Resnais really need the full two hours to tell us this? With a light-hearted mood and odd performances (the cast play their characters like they're kids pretending they're adults), Private Fears In Public Places is worth a look.
