Private Fears in Public Places (Coeurs) (2006)

78% of critics liked it
(65 reviews)
49% of users liked it
(4,788 ratings)

A handful of characters struggle to hold on to relationships with the people they care for in this collaboration between playwright Alan Ayckbourn and filmmaker Alain Resnais. Dan (Lambert Wilson) has recently finished up a hitch in the Army, but rather than deal with his emotional issues, Dan… More A handful of characters struggle to hold on to relationships with the people they care for in this collaboration between playwright Alan Ayckbourn and filmmaker Alain Resnais. Dan (Lambert Wilson) has recently finished up a hitch in the Army, but rather than deal with his emotional issues, Dan prefers to get drunk. While he barely communicates with his girlfriend, Nicole (Laura Morante), she's convinced they will still marry and opts to ignore his obvious problems. Lionel (Pierre Arditi) is a bartender who has become increasingly isolated and cut off from his friends as he looks after his father, Arthur. Arthur, however, is in failing health and has little appreciation of his son's sacrifices. Thierry (André Dussollier) is a real-estate salesman who has fallen for one of his co-workers, Charlotte (Sabine Azéma); however, Charlotte's mild-mannered exterior hides a personality that thrives on emotional gamesmanship. And Gaëlle (Isabelle Carré), Thierry's sister, is lonely and looking for a relationship, but her efforts bring her neither joy nor companionship. Coeurs (aka Petites Peurs Partagées) received its world premiere at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Play Trailer

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr.
Directed By: Alain Resnais
Written By: Jean-Michel Ribes
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Apr 13, 2007 Wide
On DVD: Aug 7, 2007
Studio: IFC Films

Critic Reviews

Desson Thomson, Washington Post
What reaches us, most of all, are the hidden, unmet longings that keep the film's Parisian characters from finding true happiness.
Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle
Private Fears suffers from [director Alain] Resnais' inability to open it up and give it the look and pulse of a film.
Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times
Resnais shapes affecting performances from a polished cast. He creates a warm, comic melancholy.
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Resnais has always been an expressionist, using his settings and compositions to evoke the inner states of his characters. Here, tying expressionism to social critique, he becomes an improbable but unmistakable blood brother of Carl Dreyer.
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
A film about love and blunders done from the perspective of age, crafted by writer Alan Ayckbourn, 68, and director Alain Resnais, 85. Our younger directors and screenwriters should show this much brilliance and feeling.
Ty Burr, Boston Globe
Few filmmakers portray emotional detachment so achingly well.
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion
A graceful roundelay of disconnection
Glenn Kenny, Premiere Magazine
What makes Private Fears so extraordinary is not just how it completely upends the expectations that have come to seem inherent in such a structure, but how Resnais constantly pushes the boundaries of his, well, let's call it visual depiction.
Urban Cinefile Critics, Urban Cinefile
There is a different side to everyone in Alain Resnais' enigmatic film about six strangers whose Parisian lives randomly intersect.
Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
A gentle look at the pain of loneliness that almost all of us feel from time to time.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
A feast for the eyes.
Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
Warm and wry, funny and sad, cute and complicated.
Nick Funnell, Little White Lies
Not one he'll be remembered for, but a cut above.
Stuart McGurk, thelondonpaper
While there's a quirky humour at work, the overall mood is of sadness, eloquently, if repetitively, expressed.
Derek Malcolm, This is London
Private Fears is so fluently made that its edginess only gradually becomes evident. It's both funny and sad, without underlining anything, and the playing is as good as you would expect from Resnais's regulars.
Anthony Quinn, Independent
Ayckbourn's play might have made frothy fun of this comedie humaine, on screen this feels a poor, airless thing.
, Sun Online
This French film based on a play by Scarborough's finest Sir Alan Ayckbourn is best described as a little bit pedestrian.
, Daily Mirror [UK]
Quiet desperation is an emotion you'll probably feel as you wait for the movie to end.

Read all 18 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Gordon A

Uneven but beautifully crafted study of the modern malaise of trying to connect. Not all the scenarios ring true but they are skillfully entwined with an affecting score.
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]"Private Fears in Public Places" starts with Thierry(Andre Dussollier), an estate agent who lives with his younger sister, Gaelle(Isabelle Carre), showing an apartment to Nicole(Laura Morante) which she rejects because it is not large enough. Her… More
[font=Century Gothic]"Private Fears in Public Places" starts with Thierry(Andre Dussollier), an estate agent who lives with his younger sister, Gaelle(Isabelle Carre), showing an apartment to Nicole(Laura Morante) which she rejects because it is not large enough. Her fiance, Dan(Lambert Wilson), just thrown out of the army, wants a study just like his dad's. Dan spends most of his time indulging in two activites - sleeping and drinking. The latter he does in the company of his favorite bartender, Lionel(Pierre Arditi). Lionel lives with his elderly, invalid father who is so nasty that Lionel goes through caretakers on an hourly basis. The latest is Charlotte(Sabine Azema) who works with Thierry during the day.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]Of all the things I expected from an Alain Resnais film, a pleasnt day at the theatre is the least of them, but that's what "Private Fears in Public Places" is similar to. All of the characters are entirely sympathetic but Gaelle and Nicole are the least well-defined and come close to being simple plot devices. Overall, this is a diverting and well-acted movie about loneliness and how one can be lonely even in a crowd or with someone. It is also about why one should be very, very careful about which videotapes one reuses. [/font]
Nicolas K

I felt unattached from what should have been a touching and moving drama theatrical piece. Was the title intended to be Curse?
William G

Middle-aged cast sorts out relationship problems so convincing, it's a bore.