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MOVIES / ON DVD / PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES
Private Fears in Public Places

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Private Fears in Public Places (2007)

79%
70%
72%
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79 %
Reviews Counted: 62 Fresh: 49  Rotten:13 Average Rating: 7/10
 
Consensus: Attention to detail and smooth camerawork gives this movie a delicate edge. The premise isn't anything new, but director Alain Resnais' attention to detail and smooth camerawork gives this movie a delicate edge. more
 
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 2 hrs 1 min
Theatrical Release: Apr 13, 2007 Limited
Synopsis:
Nominated for eight César awards in its native France, PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES is an intelligent, adult look at loneliness in the twenty-first century. Directed by French master Alain Resnais (LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR), the film examines the interrelated lives... [More]
Nominated for eight César awards in its native France, PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES is an intelligent, adult look at loneliness in the twenty-first century. Directed by French master Alain Resnais (LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR), the film examines the interrelated lives of six main characters who are trying desperately but failing at making real, long-lasting connections. Charlotte (a bewitching Sabine Azéma) is a Bible-reading real estate agent who takes care of Lionel's (Pierre Arditi) vile, ailing father at night. Thierry (André Dussollier), a coworker of Charlotte's, is showing apartments to Nicole (Laura Morante) and Dan (Lambert Wilson), an engaged couple who can't agree on anything. And Gaëlle (Isabelle Carré), who lives with Thierry, her older brother, is looking for love through the personal ads but instead keeps coming home alone. Based on the play by Alan Ayckbourn, PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES is beautifully shot by Eric Gautier, particularly the scenes in the colorful bar where Lionel works and Dan drinks away his frustrations. Scenes are linked together by falling snow, adding a chilling cold to the pervasive loneliness. The acting is uniformly excellent, with especially good turns from Azéma, Arditi, and Morante, who won the Francesco Pasinetti Best Actress award at the 2006 Venice Film Festival, which also awarded octogenarian Resnais the Silver Lion as Best Director. Resnais eschews modern technology in this carefully stylized world; the characters don't spend their time endlessly on computers and cell phones, and Charlotte even gives Thierry a videotape to watch, one that has been taped over many times yet still retains some of its previous recordings, as if parts of the past can never be erased. [Less]

Genre: Foreign Films

Starring: Sabine Azema, Lambert Wilson, André Dussollier, Pierre Arditi, Laura Morante

Director: Alain Resnais
Screenwriter: Jean-Michel Ribes
Producer: Bruno Pesery
Composer: Mark Snow

DVD Info

Release:

Aug 7, 2007

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Keep Case
  • Widescreen - 2.35

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 - French
  • Subtitles - English - Optional

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
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Ratings Image

What makes Private Fears so extraordinary is not just how it completely upends the expectations that have come to seem inherent in such a structure, but how Resnais constantly pushes the boundaries of his, well, let's call it visual depiction.

Full Review | Comment
01/04/08 11:15 AM
Glenn Kenny
Premiere Magazine
Ratings Image

There is a different side to everyone in Alain Resnais' enigmatic film about six strangers whose Parisian lives randomly intersect.

Full Review | Comment
11/30/07 08:26 PM
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Ratings Image

What reaches us, most of all, are the hidden, unmet longings that keep the film's Parisian characters from finding true happiness.

Full Review | Comment
10/27/07 06:19 AM
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

A gentle look at the pain of loneliness that almost all of us feel from time to time.

Full Review | Comment
09/12/07 09:18 PM
Tim Brayton
Antagony & Ecstasy
Ratings Image

A feast for the eyes.

Full Review | Comment
09/07/07 06:20 PM
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ratings Image

Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
08/04/07 06:15 AM
Steven Rea
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

Warm and wry, funny and sad, cute and complicated.

Full Review | Comment
07/20/07 07:06 AM
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
Ratings Image

Not one he'll be remembered for, but a cut above.

Full Review | Comment
07/20/07 06:26 AM
Nick Funnell
Little White Lies
Ratings Image

While there’s a quirky humour at work, the overall mood is of sadness, eloquently, if repetitively, expressed.

Full Review | Comment
07/20/07 06:13 AM
Stuart McGurk
thelondonpaper
Ratings Image

Private Fears is so fluently made that its edginess only gradually becomes evident. It's both funny and sad, without underlining anything, and the playing is as good as you would expect from Resnais's regulars.

Full Review | Comment
07/20/07 04:54 AM
Derek Malcolm
This is London
Ratings Image

Ayckbourn's play might have made frothy fun of this comedie humaine, on screen this feels a poor, airless thing.

Full Review | Comment
07/20/07 04:46 AM
Anthony Quinn
Independent
Ratings Image

This French film based on a play by Scarborough’s finest Sir Alan Ayckbourn is best described as a little bit pedestrian.

Full Review | Comment
07/20/07 04:37 AM
Sun Online
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Quiet desperation is an emotion you’ll probably feel as you wait for the movie to end.

Full Review | Comment
07/20/07 04:29 AM
Daily Mirror [UK]
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The theatrical, colour-coded sets, graceful camerawork and scene-bridging snowfall motif create a quasi-fairytale feel. But it’s the beautifully tuned ensemble acting that infuses this funny, sad treat with real humanist heft.

Full Review | Comment
07/20/07 04:02 AM
Tom Dawson
Total Film
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No one would argue that this slight six-hander is one of Resnais's greatest movies, but it's far from an embarrassment, and even its strained comic business is enclosed within a prevailing atmosphere of wistful resignation.

Full Review | Comment
07/20/07 03:50 AM
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph
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Neither comic, nor tragic, nor tragicomic, the movie manages to be entirely inconsequential, gesturing at emotional truths which it is quite unable to embody.

Full Review | Comment
07/20/07 03:32 AM
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
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Although now well into his eighties, Resnais brings an elegance and lightness of touch to this romantic roundelay – it’s not the most profound musing on life and love, but it’s eminently watchable.

Full Review | Comment
07/20/07 03:19 AM
James Christopher
Times [UK]
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Beautifully judged ensemble pieces.

Full Review | Comment
07/20/07 02:52 AM
Tom Dawson
BBC
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An insightful reflection on relationships and solitude.

Full Review | Comment
07/20/07 02:19 AM
Patrick Peters
Empire Magazine
Ratings Image

Resnais and his superb cast have poured their hearts into this film adaptation and anyone seeking mature entertainment should search for this gem.

Full Review | Comment
07/14/07 11:15 AM
Ted Murphy
Murphy's Movie Reviews
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Related Forums

subtitles for this FRENCH movie?
by: strategic 5/6/07


REEL_REVIEWER
(2007 USA release)-Alain Resnais' PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES opens on April 13th!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/2/07


REEL_REVIEWER
(2007 USA release)-Alain Resnais' PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES opens on April 13th!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/2/07


REEL_REVIEWER
(2007 USA release)-Alain Resnais' PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES opens on April 13th!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/2/07


REEL_REVIEWER
(2007 USA release)-Alain Resnais' PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES opens on April 13th!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/2/07
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