Intimacy (2001 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Intimacy is a 2001 film starring Mark Rylance and Kerry Fox. It tells the story of a London bartender who has casual sex with a mysterious woman every Wednesday. He becomes more curious about her life and begins spying on her, with unintended consequences for their relationship. It features a soundtrack of 1970s and 1980s hits.
The film is an international co-production between production companies in France, the UK, Germany and Spain. It was directed by Patrice Chéreau, and written by Chéreau with Anne-Louise Trividic, based on stories by Hanif Kureishi. A French dubbed version features voice actors Jean-Hugues Anglade and Nathalie Richard.
Synopsis
The story of a London bartender who is intimate (i.e. has casual sex) with a mysterious woman every Wednesday. He becomes more curious about her life and begins spying on her, with unintended consequences on their relationship. It features a soundtrack of 1970s and 1980s hits and was adapted from a story by by Hanif Kureishi.
Plot
Jay is a bartender (formerly a musician until his first son arrived) who left his family because his wife lost interest in both him and their sexual relationship. Their relationship failed as their jobs prevented them from spending enough time together- he worked at night while she worked during the day.
Now living alone in a decrepit house, he has casual weekly sex with an anonymous woman. They do not speak much. He doesn't even know her name. At first, their relationship is purely physical. However, he begins to fall in love with her as he thinks she is special. She is indeed, because of her extraordinarily uncomplicated way of dealing with this situation.
Wanting to know more about her, Jay follows her across the streets of London to the grey suburbs where she lives. He then follows her to a theater pub where she is working as an actress in the evenings. She is also a teacher for acting, dreaming and playing roles after being an ordinary housewife during daytime. Unbeknownst to her, Jay learns that she has a warmhearted (but rather fanciless) husband (Timothy Spall) and a son. Subsequently, he breaks up the relationship immediately, as he thinks of his own sons, whom he loves and misses so much. Also Claire cannot continue when she learns by accident about what Jay has found out.
