En la ciudad de Sylvia (2007)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

José Luis Guerín

Writer:

José Luis Guerín (writer)

Release Date:

14 September 2007 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A man returns to a city to try to track down a lovely woman he met six years earlier. |

Plot Keywords:

Pursuit | Sketching | Street

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Pilar López de Ayala	...	Ella
Xavier Lafitte	...	Él
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Michaël Balerdi	...	Un passant
Laurence Cordier
Tanja Czichy	...	Tanja
Gladys Deussner	...	Woman reading a book
Eric Dietrich
Charlotte Dupont
Philippe Ohrel	...	The strange man

Also Known As:

In the City of Sylvia (Europe: English title) (festival title) (USA) (new title)

Runtime:

Canada:84 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Spain

Language:

French | Spanish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Ireland:G

Filming Locations:

Café du TNS-Théatre National de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France

Company:

Château-Rouge Production

Soundtrack:

Gasn Nign

An abstract film about a city, its women, and a romantic obsession

After arriving at a city, an artist waits at an outdoor café and anticipates Sylvia's appearance. He then proceeds to follow a girl, but it turns out to be a mistake.

Without much dialogue or dramatic genuflections, viewers may find that José Luis Guerin's latest film takes some time to absorb. Pushing the clichéd man searching for woman narrative aside it is possible to interpret the film from several view points. It is an abstract film about Strasbourg (almost unidentifiable as several languages are heard), it is about observing women (mediated through the male gaze), and may also be seen as simply tracing an obsession.

The title is somewhat misleading as Sylvia remains absent and emerges only as an image (a combination of all the women "elles" the man has sketched) throughout the film. Even the subheadings (the first, second, and third night) are ambiguous as most scenes happen during the daytime. Yet the three parts are ingeniously linked by the café waitress with slightly different but highly related scenes. The ending in which the man follows the waitress suggests a continuation of his romantic search. The narrative ambiguities are successfully compensated by Guerin's reinvention of cinema as a tool to record and provide a vision beyond one's naked eye. Other details, such as the repetitions (the same graffiti and wallet peddler, even the girl's gesture resembles the advertisement model's), sound effects (the woman's footsteps), and use of off-screen space further generate pleasure for perceptive viewers of this light piece.