Intimacy
Intimacy
NR | 20 January 2001 (USA)
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Jay, a failed musician, walked out of his family and now earns a living as head bartender in a trendy London pub. Every Wednesday afternoon a woman comes to his house for graphic, almost wordless, sex. One day Jay follows her and finds out about the rest of her life. This eventually disrupts their relationship.

Reviews
Spoonatects

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Hayden Kane

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

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Cheryl

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Billy Ollie

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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kikoshaus

This movie is not good at all. Apart from the explicit sex scenes, which seemed to be the first ones to be screened in the UK, I do not see what's new about this movie.A man and a woman sharing their bodies for pleasure only. Sex-based communication and that's it. So, what else?Kerry's acting is fine enough though. A couple of scenes in foggy weather are interesting to watch. However, the man getting obsessed about her without being able to ask her a thing instead... it's just pathetic.If a movie needed to show explicit sex scenes without being in the category of "pornographic film" in the UK, then I don't get it why to write such a very simple plot with anything extraordinary in this. I think it's just a waste of time watching this film!

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Imdbidia

Intimacy is a European co-production directed by French director Patrice Chereau in his first English speaking feature, also set in the UK. The script is based on two pieces by writer Hanif Kureishi: the book "Intimacy", and the short story "Nightime".Intimacy tells the story of Andy, a divorcée bartender who meets Claire at his apartment on Wednesday to have sex, no words involved... until they start to click emotionally and Andy starts following her to know more about her.Intimacy is a soaring and raw movie about mid life disenchantment, and the need of physical contact to built emotional one.The film has been controversial due to the presence of explicit sexual scenes. However, reducing such a good film and story, to just the sex scenes is intentionally misleading, moralistic, and completely unfair to a story that presents many of the problems of middle-agers in a honest and raw way: abandonment, divorce, loneliness, the feeling of being lost and emotional empty, the sense of not going anywhere in life, the trouble to fulfill your responsibilities as an adult despite being all messed up in your head and soul, fracas and rejection, unhappiness and hope. All of this is beautifully blended and portrayed in the film.The sex scenes are very strong, very demanding both physically and emotionally, simulated most of them, but very convincing as they really and feel very real. The viewer gets the impression that is watching a real couple having sex. The sex is always raw, and goes from almost brutal to sweet, from hungry to delightful, from anxious to comforting, with all the body language and emotions associated to different emotional states. Being so, the viewer does not feel aroused by the images, but sad and anxious about the couple being so needy of contact, and so unable to contact. The sex, in that sense, is a proof of the soul and feelings of the characters, not a dirty thing. In that regards, the film creates a clear line between what sex is not, and sets a clear boundary with porn, despite the fellatio in the film being non simulated, which is portrayed as a sweet moment of sharing and not a as woman mechanically sucking a man off for his own pleasure and as a sexual slave.The mood of the movie is great, with a mix of night and interior greenish/yellowish depressing scenes and warm and luminous ones. The art direction is great, as well as the music.The performances by all actors are terrific, convincing, powerful, and masterful, especially the leading couple Mark Rylance as Jay and Kerry Fox as Claire, in two roles that are extremely demanding both at a physical and emotional level. The supporting actors are also good and convincing: Alastair Galbraith as Claire's husband Victor, Philippe Calvario as the gay bartender Ian, Timothy Spall as Jay's drug addict brother Andy, and Marianne Faithful as Claire's friend Betty, among others. Although Galbraith is always terrific, I don't think he was the right person, physically, for his character, as it is difficult to believe that Claire would be with this sort of guy, to be honest.A very sad movie, not easy to watch, with confronting images and themes, moving at times, with a very powerful story, wonderfully performed and directed. Abstain from viewing if you are a puritan, as you will only see the sex.

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alstarship

I thought that this movie was interesting because one does not see 'Real Sex' in regular Hollywood movies, real sex is only seen in X rated movies. Its nice to see a different 'Real' take on what is illuded to in most films with sex scenes in them. I would have given this good movie a higher rating but I had not much if anything to compare it to other than any NC-17 movies I have seen in the past. NC-17 movies I thought contained the most nudity next to adult rated X movies. Even though mostly teenage boys will like this film for its inherent sexual content, I watched this film with my girlfriend and she said that it was a very enjoyable and very different movie in the way sex is used to explain the story.

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rosscinema

With it's premise of anonymous sex and emotionally distant characters this in some ways resembles a cross between "Last Tango in Paris" and the recent "Closer" but the manner in which the material is handled fails to come even remotely close to those superior films. Story is about Jay (Mark Rylance) who's a divorced father of two boys and now is head bartender in a popular English pub. Every Wednesday afternoon he meets Claire (Kerry Fox) and the two of them have sex but do not discuss with each other who the other person is.*****SPOILER ALERT***** Claire stops coming by on Wednesdays and Jay starts to follow her around and discovers that she's an amateur actress working in a play in the back of a pub. Jay enters the establishment and views the play and actually meets Claire's husband Andy (Timothy Spall) and starts a friendship with him but after a few visits it becomes apparent to Andy what is going on between them.Patrice Chereau is an actor/director/writer and has worked a good deal in the theater and there are several scenes that take place with the actors that appear could have fit well in a stage production. The story takes an angry approach to it's characters as their portrayed as people who just cannot commit completely emotionally and while as interesting as that is it's hard to feel one way or another for those involved. In "Closer" we don't feel remorse but we do understand (and feel) their pain and anger but here the story tries so hard for the viewer to know how distant these people are that it ultimately becomes impossible to have one feeling or another. Spliced into this film are some pretty good performances and while Rylance shows he can carry a picture it's the always reliable Fox that is easier to identify with. Arguably the best performance comes from Spall (Secrets and Lies) who shows us a character that has good instincts but after all the years of marriage finds out that his wife is terribly unhappy. Chereau presents us with characters that had real potential but the script fails in terms of allowing the viewer to be interested in their struggles.

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