This weekend's Cinema Sunday at The Charles featured the French film Intimate Strangers by premier director Patrice Laconte. His last piece, Man on the Train, examined two exceptionally distinct men brought together by chance, and followed their relationship as it evolved. Laconte keeps this "chance meeting" element, but this time uses it to create a moving and dramatic story of how a man and a woman begin as less than strangers and end up experiencing specific lessons in the broad matters of life and love.
The audience meets the two central characters at the same time that they meet each other, as Anna (Sandrine Bonnaire) walks down the soon-to-be-infamous hallway and knocks on the door of William Faber (Fabrice Luchini), the second in a generation of tax analysts whom she mistakes for her shrink. This is not too far of a stretch, considering William's office furniture includes an inherited comfy couch and the real psychiatrist, Doctor Monnier, is located just one door down.
As their conversation begins, it is quickly apparent that William is surprised at Anna's comments about her marital dilemmas and her "fear of going mad," although one can guess that as a tax lawyer, he has seen it all. However, as she returns for several more visits of conversation and cigarettes, and it becomes apparent that taxes have nothing to do with her appointments, William chooses not to disclose his real identity to her. This is how their relationship begins -- by accident.
As the story continues, the audience learns that William has marital problems of his own; he has recently divorced. His interaction with his ex-wife's new lover serves as an attempt at much-needed comic relief, as do the actions of his secretary, Madame Mulon. However, both usually fall short of providing this relief, considering the intensity of the other scenes and the usually dramatic classical music that accompanies them.
One such scene occurs toward the beginning, when William is revisited by Anna after a week of her absence. Anna discloses to him her knowledge of his real identity, citing this being the reason she has not returned for a while. The intriguing plot turn is that she continues to see William, and together their relationship becomes something that each of these characters needs. For William, Anna's visits become crucial to his daily life, even if they involve stories from a woman who claims to have done "everything very young and very badly." For Anna, her visits become a way in which she can speak about her tenuous romantic relationship, with additional reasons left for the audience to discover for themselves.
The strong writing of this story is apparent in the commentary of the real Doctor Monnier, with whom William seeks counsel intermittently throughout the film.The doctor's lines explaining how "people have lost the art of listening" are accurately reflected in the plot, particularly because everyone seems so intent on listening to someone else. The film acts as an example for the audience in this way, and of course also centralizes on chance happenings, reinforced by the ending.
