Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Failed musician Jay abandoned 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 learns about her. This eventually disrupts their relationship.
Intimacy, directed by Patrice Chéreau, is a raw and unflinching exploration of anonymous desire and emotional disconnection. Based on Hanif Kureishi's novellas, it gained notoriety for its explicit, unsimulated sex scenes, which serve a genuine dramatic purpose rather than mere provocation. The performances by Mark Rylance and Kerry Fox are naturalistic and brave, grounding the film's emotional core. The handheld, grimy cinematography suits the London setting and the characters' alienated lives, though it doesn't distinguish itself especially. The plot's examination of how knowledge and identity disrupt purely physical connection is thematically rich but unevenly paced. The ending feels somewhat deflating and unresolved, leaving threads dangling without the resonance of true ambiguity. As a New French Extremism-adjacent work, it has a distinctive voice, but its exploration of similar territory to other European art films of the era tempers its overall novelty.