Product Description

IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA is one of the most acclaimed European films of recent years and marks the international breakthrough of Spanish director, José Luis Guerín. In the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock, Eric Rohmer and Robert Bresson, Guerín presents the deceptively simple tale of a man seeking the woman he met six years before. With only a sketch to identify her, he searches the streets and cafes of Strasbourg, hoping to encounter the object of his desire. Seductively shot and featuring excellent performances by Xavier Lafitte and Pilar López de Ayala, IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA is a sensual and enigmatic journey that beautifully captures the complexity of human emotions. Special Features: Interviews with director José Luis Guerín, cinematographer Natasha Braier and actor Xavier Lafitte Trailer Stills gallery

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18907 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-06-22
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 84 minutes

Synopsis
At a cafe in Strasbourg, a young artist waits for the mysterious girl he glimpsed there years before. This nearly silent film observes him as he sketches and searches the faces of passersby--making for a quiet, purely cinematic meditation on city life and lost time.

Customer Reviews

A stunning sensual odyssey
In the City of Sylvia is that rarest of things..an almost unique cinematic experience.
Let's start by getting the obvious out of the way:
This film contains little to almost no dialogue, has the flimsiest of narratives and is in absolutely no hurry to get anywhere.
If this doesn't, at the very least, intrigue you then I'd suggest you steer well clear.

The opening sequence of a young man staring into space, silently addressing an unspoken dilemma is a definite teaser of things to come.
The film is cut into three segments (Night 1, Night 2 and Night 3)which create a very relevant and coherent structure for the ensuing tale.

The young man walks through town and visits a cafe where he sits and observes those around him. Sometimes he sketches the other customers but often he is simply our eyes at the table and unhurriedly watches them...focusing specifically on the women. We hear snatches of indistinct conversation and gradually start to notice the overlaying ambient sound-scape of everyday life. The camera wanders from face to face, to backs of heads, to hands and we are invited to scrutinise at length. We watch how people move, how they watch others and even how hair blows in the gentlest of breezes. Some juxtapositions are jokingly deceptive but the visual compostion is always fascinating. People close-up being seemingly kissed by other people further away, couples who appear together actually being on separate tables with separate partners. The film lazily basks in this glorious reverie and we find ourselves sinking deep into its languorous rhythm.
The young man is suddenly removed from this dreamy state by the appearance of a woman who we have already noticed through the window behind him. He gets up from his table and follows her, eventually getting closer and finally calling out "Sylvie?".

To say more would spoil what plot there is but this film is certainly not there for plot reasons. This action serves as a device to create the three distinct sections and moods of the film itself.

At risk of sounding awfully pretentious this is an audio-visual symphony which is almost a love-letter to the city itself (Strasbourg) and to the complex ballet of how people move within a city and in relation to each other.
The absence of any traffic allows every other sound to act as the vibrant soundtrack to this exceptional sensual odyssey.

The street scenes are just as amazing as the cafe scenes. Long static "takes" of the streets before and after the characters have passed through give a real feel to the location and then you start to notice the other people. You think "Isn't that the man I saw earlier outside the hotel?" and "I'm sure that girl was at the cafe earlier." As the film progresses you begin to identify totally with the beautifully crafted sense of place.

This is a stunning and lovingly created film with many, many, subtle pleasures not least the knowledge that people are still able to make films like this celebrating the medium and the art rather than merely pandering to the baser pleasures of mainstream cinema.

Pinch me.
If anyone is familiar with the style and structure of an Impulse advert, the smelly spray that drives men bonkers for the girls, then this film is that idea extrapolated to a feature film length minus the flowers. The film revolves around a cafe stalker who sneaks peeks at women and doodles them whilst he chugs the booze down. It is mesmeric at times with the ambient sound and interesting compositions and framing, but the result is an over long, over embelished French movie postcard.

The use of echoing themes through the film is trite, with the limping florist and fat lady extra being used again and again. In any other film this would have been used more subtley as a mechanic, but here it is a wasted event as it jarrs the viewer out of the hypnotic spell the film tries to cast. The echo theme is used with the sounds of birds, particular areas and music too, but again is clumsily handled.

There is very little dialogue in the film, and what bit there is is in French. The words spoken by the characters spoil what would have been a great murder mystery, but all that is said takes the picture down a confusing dead end with nothing resolved and leaving this viewer in particular feeling short changed.

Also, the scenes are portrayed as though a documentary edge is employed, but the scenes themselves, as mundane as they are, are so contrived and carefully choreographed that this ruins the continuity. It feels like you are watching a very carefully made ballet but it is so obvious that everything that happens is considered and unnatural. If a little more care was employed, this technique could have taken the film upto classic status, as it is it falls way short of expectations.

All in all, watch this film if you like French films that exude Frenchisity, but avoid if you do not want to watch tick tock clockwork structured, fake nature and tedious flirtations between a serial stalker and a mixed up, big-lipped French tart. A waste of time, avoid.