Independent Films, Film Profiles

Intimacy (film)

Intimacy is a 2001 film directed by Patrice Chereau, starring Mark Rylance and Kerry Fox.Intimacy is an international co-production among production companies in France, the U.K., Germany, and Spain featuring a soundtrack of pop songs from the 1970s and 1980s. It was written by Chéreau with Anne-Louise Trividic, based on stories by Hanif Kureishi. A French-dubbed version features voice actors Jean-Hugues Anglade and Nathalie Richard.The film has been associated with the New French Extremity.Jay (Rylance) is a bartender who abandoned his family, because his wife lost interest in him and their relationship.Now living alone in a decrepit house, he has casual weekly sex with an anonymous woman (Fox), whose name he doesn't know. At first, their relationship is purely physical, but he eventually falls in love with her.Wanting to know more about her, Jay follows her across the streets of London to the grey suburbs where she lives. He then follows her to a theatre pub where she is working as an actress in the evenings. Jay learns that her name is Claire, and has a husband (Timothy Spall) and a son. Subsequently, he breaks up the relationship, as he thinks of his own sons, whom he loves and misses. They meet for a final time, and have sex with an intimacy that has been missing during the illicit sex sessions of their previous encounters.