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Intimacy
2001
A man wakes in mid-afternoon in a grungy London flat. A woman knocks at the door. He lets her in, to an awkward silence. She touches his face tenderly--almost immediately they have stripped and are making love on a mattress on the floor. It is the first of many intense, real-time, sexually-explicit, encounters between Jay (Mark .. Read more
| Starring | Kerry Fox, Mark Rylance, Timothy Spall, Marianne Faithfull |
|---|---|
| Director | Patrice Chereau |
| Genres | Drama |
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Intimacy
A man wakes in mid-afternoon in a grungy London flat. A woman knocks at the door. He lets her in, to an awkward silence. She touches his face tenderly--almost immediately they have stripped and are making love on a mattress on the floor. It is the first of many intense, real-time, sexually-explicit, encounters between Jay (Mark Rylance) and Claire (Kerry Fox). And director Patrice Chereau reinforces the intensity by keeping his widescreen camera very close to the actors.
Jay and Claire agree to separate their meetings from the rest of their lives. But after one encounter, Jay follows Claire. He discovers that she acts in a basement theater, and is married to a taxi driver, Andy (Timothy Spall). Following her again, Jay loses her. And, in a reversal of roles--like that in Christopher Nolan's FOLLOWING--when she re-emerges from a shop, she follows him. She is amused at first, but is disturbed when he goes to the basement theater.
Using Hanif Kureshi's stories as a basis, Chereau shifts the emphasis from Jay and his pain at separating from his wife. Instead, INTIMACY reveals a woman trying to start feeling again, who is caught between a needy lover and an anguished, insecure husband. Fox gives a fine performance (that won Best Actress at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival) that is the backbone of this powerful drama.
| Starring | Kerry Fox, Mark Rylance, Timothy Spall, Marianne Faithfull, Susannah Harker, Frazer Ayres, Phillippe Calvario, Alastair Galbraith |
|---|---|
| Director | Patrice Chereau |
| Studio | PATHE DISTRIBUTION |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 55 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Subtitles | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: not available Production year: 2001 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (3)
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The highly controversial first English-language film from French director Patrice Chéreau (La Reine Margot) is based on two works by My Beautiful Laundrette writer Hanif Kureishi. Something of a flawed experience, it hovers unsatisfactorily between the cranial and the carnal while depicting the sexual act in some of the most explicit scenes ever passed by the British Board of Film Classification. Estranged love rat Mark Rylance and bored paramour Kerry Fox indulge their desperate sexual passions every Wednesday afternoon at his sleazy flat. As their casual, clumsy affair grows ever more compulsive, the anonymity Rylance thought he wanted starts to drive him so crazy that he begins to follow his nameless lover. When he accidentally befriends her husband (Timothy Spall), complications and recriminations ensue. Chereau's “Last Tango In London” is, on the one hand, an intriguing and urgent exploration of the tortured dynamics between intimate love and physical sex, and, on the other, an overly theatrical and wordy treatment of erotic obsession. Yet it deserves serious attention for daring to deal with adult topics that rarely get a cinematic airing, while Rylance and Fox's commitment to their roles is both ground-breaking and startling.
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This English-language European art movie (from stories by Hanif Kureishi) examines the anonymous, almost wordless,... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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11 out of 12 people found this review helpful
disappointing
very gritty, bleak drama set in South London about broken relationships, casual sex and the impacts on the lives (and families) of those involved.
the sex scenes are unnecessarily graphic - one has the impression they were done like this to push the envelope and generate some publicity (which they did at the time) - rather than because it was necessary.
Timothy Spall gives a good performance as the cuckolded husband and Mark Rylance and Kerry Fox are believable - but it's such a depressing story without enough redeeming features to hold your attention or make you care about what happens that I can't recommend it. -
Most recent members' review
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6 out of 8 people found this review helpful
Bleak
Very bleak and depressing view of relationships and adultery. None of the characters were remotely likable, though their performances were very intense. The soundtrack was quite good, but the depiction of London left me cold. Incidentally I used to drink in the pub they used in the film, and it has certainly changed if they have a theatre there now. Can't recommend this one I'm afraid.
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Intimacy
A man wakes in mid-afternoon in a grungy London flat. A woman knocks at the door. He lets her in, to an awkward silence. She touches his face tenderly--almost immediately they have stripped and are making love on a mattress on the floor. It is the first of many intense, real-time, sexually-explicit,...
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