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Confidences trop intimes (2004) More at IMDbPro »

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23 out of 27 people found the following review useful:
Highly recommend, 24 September 2004
Author: topatate16 from Virginia, USA

I actually went to my local "art house" movie theater to see "Napoleon Dynamite." I walked out of that movie after the first 10 minutes and walked into the movie playing in the room next to it, which happened to be "Intimate Strangers." I had no idea what this movie was about - in fact, had never heard of it but anything had to be better than "Napoleon Dynamite." What a pleasant surprise. Even though I missed the very beginning of the film, I figured out that Anna had a reversal problem and was visiting the wrong professional.

This movie explores a relationship of the mind, only hinting at the sexual. How refreshing!

This movie was entrancing. I fell in love with all of the characters. Who could not fall in love with Anna? How many times has a stranger walked into your life and you've found yourself captivated? Once - maybe twice? Perhaps I can ask that question since I met my husband due to circumstances that allowed our paths to cross (and any change in the smallest decision would have meant we would never have met) and within three days, we were planning a wedding. That was 20 years ago.

So no wonder I love this movie!

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19 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
clever and brilliant, a light hearted exploration of the depths, 30 July 2004
Author: Fiona-39 from Belfast, N.I

This is a very clever film with a lot to say about life, death, sex, human relationships, human fragility and loneliness - but it does it all with a wonderfully light hearted touch. Luchini dancing just has to be one of the best scenes - eat your heart out Hugh Grant!! Bonnaire is quite wonderful as Anne, literally blossoming before our eyes, her hair lightening, her skin glowing, her dress changing, becoming lighter and brighter. It seems her accidental psychiatrist does help her. Of course, we never know the full truth - can we believe everything she says - and the device of the windows, so key to the film's turning point, is Hitchcockian in the extreme - vision as deception. The most wonderful insight of this film, though, is that paying taxes and dealing with deep disturbing psychological issues have similar concerns - what do you declare and what do you try desperately to hide? And of course, both actions are undertaken in the name of individuals integrating themselves into society. Another excellent film from Leconte. Just because it is so polished and masterful story telling doesn't mean that it doesn't address other issues that a director such as Rohmer would tackle.

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17 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
Superb, absorbing psychological dramedy, 12 September 2004

Author: anhedonia from Planet Earth

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

[WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS]

What's it about French auteur Patrice Leconte's films? They're essentially talk-fests. Yet, whether he's delving into the life of a reclusive peeping tom, enjoying games of wit at court at Versailles or celebrating a middle-aged man's sensual obsession with getting haircuts from women, Leconte turns simple stories into unforgettable films.

In "Intimate Strangers," Leconte reunites with actress Sandrine Bonnaire and works from a script by Jérôme Tonnerre, who penned the exquisite love story, "Un coeur en hiver" (1992).

Most filmmakers would have saved the twist about Anna (Bonnaire), an attractive woman, finding out the man she believed was a shrink actually is a tax lawyer, William Faber (Fabrice Luchini). But not Leconte. He gives it to us early and uses then that tidbit to make this a mesmerizing film. As Anna returns to William to unload her problems, Bonnaire and Luchini slowly build a thoroughly absorbing intimacy.

Anna reminded me of an older version of Alice, the young woman strangely fascinated by her peeper in Leconte's brilliant, "Monsieur Hire" (1989). So, I suppose, it's fitting that Bonnaire played both women. Just as odd Mr. Hire captivated Alice, Anna finds William intriguing.

Leconte and Tonnerre also toss in a goodly amount of humor. William seeks counsel about Anna from the very man she mistook him for - Dr. Monnier (Michel Duchaussoy), who looks like a stouter John Huston; and William also remains tangled with his ex, Jeanne (Anne Brochet), who hasn't quite gotten over the breakup despite finding a new lover.

Leconte's genius is that he constantly keeps us guessing. Everything may not be quite as it seems in this film. Is someone being conned? We get snippets about Anna from others, including her husband Marc (Gilbert Melki), but they might not be truthful, either.

"Love is an incurable sickness," Marc tells William. That's the crux of this story. William would never tell Anna how enraptured he is by her, but she's too smart not to know this and subtly toys with him. When we first see Anna, she's a drably dressed, a bit nervy. As she visits more often, her confidence grows, her dresses more revealing. In one lovely moment, Leconte tantalizes us with a sly look at her cleavage. Meanwhile, William, who lives and works in the apartment where he was born and now runs his dad's business, also changes, less obviously, but more importantly. He breaks out in rare spontaneity and removes his tie.

This is crafty, witty, sophisticated storytelling, using the vagaries of marriage to create a superbly written psychological drama with deft touches of humor. Leconte revels in subtleties. Nothing's overwrought about his film. There's no sex, but Bonnaire and Luchini make their relationship sexy and deeply romantic. Contrast this with the American film, "The Door in the Floor," which also dealt with marital woes. It was labored and lacked focus, humor and emotional heft; in "Intimate Strangers," Leconte makes William and Anna's scenes more gripping than many suspense yarns.

As I wrote in my review of "Monsieur Hire," I don't know whether only the French are capable of making such movies. But I am glad they do. Because "Intimate Strangers" is one of those films that made me ecstatic to be a cineaste.

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12 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
A case of mistaken identity crisis, 3 October 2004
Author: livewire-6 from Ottawa, Canada

The gimmick in "Intimate Strangers" is that a young woman, Anna Delambre (Sandrine Bonnaire), mistakenly enters the office of a tax consultant, William Faber (Fabrice Luchini), instead of a psychoanalyst, and tells him her most intimate secrets. The question then arises: Did she make an honest mistake, or is the whole thing a setup? Which of the two is the doctor, and which is the patient? Is she telling the truth, or is she a pathological liar? And why does he maintain the illusion instead of calling her bluff?

"Intimate Strangers" works well as a psychological thriller, an elaborate cat-and-mouse game. But it is also a meditation on loneliness and the lengths to which we are willing to go to overcome it ... or not. In other words, do we allow ourselves to be intimate with each other, or do we remain strangers walled in our fortresses of solitude?

Fabrice Luchini's character epitomizes the latter type of person. He leads a solitary and uneventful life, is obsessive-compulsively neat (he uses shoe trees, for heaven's sake), is unable to keep his on-and-off girlfriend happy, and voyeuristically observes the quiet joys and turbulent passions of his neighbors across the way. (Shades of "Rear Window".) Other minor characters exhibit similar tics: his secretary admits to watching rubbish on television while gorging herself on potato chips, and the doorkeeper of the office building spends all her time watching an idiotic soap opera.

Sandrine Bonnaire is, as always, a lovely, delicate vision. She succeeds in conveying the mystery and intrigue of her character, and yet makes Anna wholly believable.

Unfortunately, Fabrice Luchini does not lend the same degree of realism and reality to William. He is too stereotypically anal-retentive and full of hangups, and we never see William as more than two-dimensional. He remains basically the same, unchanged, even by the closing credits. In short, we never get to know him intimately. He begins and ends the film as simply strange.

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9 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Intriguing, minimalist, and yet uplifting, 11 September 2004

Author: Paolo A. Gardinali from United States

It is sometimes difficult to walk the fine line between comedy and banality, as well as hiding all the wire and papier mâché that form the construct known as thriller. "Confidences trop intimes" cunningly avoids the traps of both genres by simply shaking the constructs off, layer by layer.

The movie belongs to a genre, "comédie dramatique" ("dromedy"?) which usually in US movies is reserved for romance "chick flicks". Yet these intimate strangers bring quite a bit more to the screen. It's a pleasant relief to see them saying so much with so little, avoiding those deep memorable lines that are so out of place in the mouth of the common people movies of these kind are supposed to represent.

It's by juxtaposition that Leconte achieves the best effect, by not saying too much and underplaying it, always. In one memorable scene the lonely célibataire glances at the stages of life through his window. Through the glass of the opposite building he sees passion, argument and old age as the seemingly inevitable stages of life. His life seems codified, chosen by others and kept and controlled, in the good and in the bad: add the secret ingredient, an excellent Sandrine Bonnaire, and stir.

The film amusingly deconstructs the myth of psychoanalysis, and thanks to the great empathy of the Luchini character, succeeds in expressing the inexpressible, the desire, the longing sometimes solitary and hopeless. 9/10!

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7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
It's all about the relationship, 31 December 2004

Author: George Parker from Orange County, CA USA

In "Intimate Strangers", a beautiful woman wanders into the office of a meek and unassuming tax consultant mistaking it for a psychiatrist's office. When the tax man realizes the error, the woman has already engaged him and wishes to continue their sessions. This relatively uneventful and mostly conversational drama is all about the symbiotic relationship which follows from the chance encounter and how it changes the lives of the pair of protagonists. The film features finely nuanced performances and penetrating insights into the relationship and little more. Don't expect any extremes of emotion, sex, nudity, or other titillaters as it's all about the interpersonal relationship; no more, no less. Excellent for what it is, "Intimate Strangers" will appeal most to mature audiences into French people flicks. (B)

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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
An interesting trip to the doctor, 31 August 2004
Author: wspears from Chicago Illinois

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I think Patrice Leconte is one of the more reliably interesting directors working today. His films have intelligent characters who can usually be counted on to examine their lives and talk about what they are doing and feeling.

Intimate Strangers is, unfortunately, one of his weaker films, which means that it is still worth seeing, but it may not leave much of an impression with you, like some of his other films, such as Ridicule.

The problem is that, for most of the film, only one of the characters, Anna (Sandrine Bonnaire) is doing much examining. The other main character, William (Fabrice Luchini), is all wound up in a ball of repression. He doesn't seem able to get in touch with his feelings, much less be able to express them. After about two thirds of the way through the movie, this character flaw starts to wear the viewer down.

***Possible Spoilers***

Anna is a prospective psychiatric patient, who inadvertently goes into the wrong office and ends up unknowingly confessing to a tax accountant. The tax accountant, William, who blinks and stares in amazement at Anna as she tells him her troubles, remains, for the most part, silent--especially about who he really is, and what his profession is.

This sounds amusing, and in part it is, but the problem is that, as William is written, he is too much of "one note". He's repressed, and unable to express himself, even when it becomes obvious to him and us that he has grown fond of Anna.

In theme, the movie reminds me of another French film of a few years ago, Un coeur en hiver, by Claude Sautet. That was a much better film, I think, because it explored the conflict (inner and outer) of a repressed man who is being pursued by an attractive woman (Emmanuelle Beart, in his case). It was a much sadder and more disturbing film than Intimate Strangers, but I think that is what makes it a better film. Unlike Sautet, Leconte can't seem to make up his mind whether to make his film an exploration of loneliness or a whimsical farce on repression. And in the end it becomes neither.

But it would be unfair to leave the impression that the film is not worth seeing. First, there is the acting. Fabrice Luchini does a wonderful job of portraying William's ever changing states of sorrow, sweetness, and concern--and often portraying the different states only with his eyes. And Sandrine Bonnaire is, as she has always been in anything I have ever seen her in, fascinating to watch. She portrays intelligence, mixed with an air of danger, better than just about any other actress I can think of. There is a real joy watching these two actors play off one another, and to try to figure out what is going on underneath the artiface of behavior.

And second, the supporting characters are very well drawn. Some are funny, like the "real" psychiatrist down the hall from William's office, who appears to be as much a mercenary as he does a healer. And William's secretary, who is just as good at showing what she is feeling by her facial expression, as William is good at hiding what he is feeling. And other characters,like William's ex-lover,are intriguing. She obviously knows William, and we suspect that part of what irritates us about him, after watching him for about an hour, is what has driven her away after what appears to have been years of association. Late in the movie, she ends up expressing the exasperation that many of us in the audience are feeling, when she says, "Either dump her, or hump her". Shockingly well put, I thought.

If you like "French" films, go see it.

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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
An Original Affecting Romantic Comedy Featuring an All-Too-Human Tax Lawyer!, 26 July 2004

Author: Ralph Michael Stein (riglltesobxs@mailinator.com) from New York, N.Y.

"Intimate Strangers" brings to the screen an off-beat, original relationships comedy (with real drama too). Fabrice Luchini is Parisian tax lawyer William Faber who lives and works in the apartment he grew up in. His dad was a tax attorney and here the audit didn't fall far from the tree. He's not unhappy, his practice is flourishing, but inspired he's not either.

Almost falling into his office/pad is Anna Delambre, the sharp and beguiling actress, Sandrine Bonnaire. Anna has an ADD history with spatial disorientation deficit so she messes up a simple direction to the therapist's office where she's scheduled for an initial appointment. Instead of the shrink's domain she enters Faber's den and, unaware of her mistake, begins telling a tale of marital discord to the initially unaware counsel who thinks he has a new law client.

It doesn't take long for Faber to realize there's a mistake but he's become intrigued by her and so he schedules a second "therapy" consultation. Faber is sorting through (perhaps without full insight) his feelings about the recent breakup with his live-in girlfriend, Jeanne, Anne Bouchet. Anne is hooked up with a stereotyped muscle man (meaning a harmless jerk) but the two still spend time together including "off the cuff" sex. Bouchet is sympathetically real and touching, in a quiet way, as a smart woman who may not be as sure of what she wants as she claims.

William and Anne continue meeting regularly at his office even after the latter discovers her mistake. Initial anger melts away and a platonic but increasingly intertwined relationship develops to the consternation and barely concealed exasperation of Faber's matronly secretary, Madame Mulon, Mulon, beautifully acted by Helene Surgere, was Faber's dad's secretary and she came with the office. Technophiles will get a kick out of watching her work with a twentieth century electric document production device.

The dark side is Anna's lying to her supposedly impotent hubby about her simmering affair which the guy assumes, with the aid of a private investigator, is Faber. Anna is trying to get her no longer enraptured-with-her spouse back without first considering if that's really the best thing for her.

Slightly plain at the beginning of "Intimate Strangers," Anna morphs into a striking lady as she becomes more confident about handling her life's issues.

Veteran director and acclaimed French auteur Patrice Leconte has made the most of a film that largely centers on intense conversations in small places. The ultimate resolution is no less believable for its predictability.

A good evening at an art cinema.

8/10.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
A strange relationship, 3 October 2005

Author: michelerealini from Switzerland

A woman with marriage problems mistakes a financial adviser for a psychiatrist. She tells him all the secrets of her life, whereas the man has not the strength to tell he's not the person she needs to talk to...

"Confidences trop intimes" is a brilliant film directed by Patrice Leconte, with two big French actors -Fabrice Luchini and Sandrine Bonnaire. The film is an intimate comedy, action is made by good dialogs. There's no boredom at all.

It's an interesting movie which shows a strange relationship growing -maybe the woman understands, later, that she has not found the right person. But she's lonely and needs to talk, at the same time the financial adviser is another lonely person who needs someone who catches him out of a boring life. They have nothing in common, but they are made for each other.

The film has a strong screenplay and is supported by the two leading actors -the scenes are almost always between them. The two characters are very deep, the intensity of their words and of their expression doesn't make you feel that the picture misses something. Because everything it's here. The film is able to picture a situation of everyday life, without developing a foreseen love story... Will the two live a real love relationship? We don't know exactly, there's the same ambiguousness which often dominate the relation between a man and a woman...

A very good movie.

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
An honest story that could be a chapter out of real life, 25 January 2007
Author: Thomas_S from France

No special effects, no computer animation, no supernatural forces, no gloss, no predictability.

Real life! There is nothing in the story that could not have happened somewhere some time. Told with beauty, humour, understatement, feelings, sensitivity. Leaving you time to think instead of throwing one visual effect after another at you. There is time for detail. Time for silence. Time for emotions. But you are never bored.

The story is simple, yet you are grabbed by it and led into its mystery.

The atmosphere marvellously represents real life in France at the time the film was made. No shining up. No simplification. This is real France. Sandrine Bonnaire and Fabrice Luchini are very convincing in their roles. The behaviour of the secretary is incredibly real.

This is French cinema near its best.

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