EN LA CIUDAD DE SYLVIA
Spain/France, 2007, 84 minutes, Colour.
Xavier Lafitte, Pilar Lopez de Ayala.
Directed by Jose Luis Guerin.
In the City of Sylvie is what one might call an installation film - more appropriate to a museum with panels, which people can pass, by looking at its structure of day 1, day 2, day 3 there rather than in a cinema. However, fans of the film will note that it is pure cinema rather than dependent on any literary background.
The setting is three days in Strasbourg where a young man (opening with a three minute still focus on him) follows a young woman that he thinks is Sylvie. The film is a long stalking of Sylvie through the streets of Strasbourg until she discovers him and orders him away.
The film then shows his sitting and watching other people in the city. We are given practically no background to the young man so he remains something of an enigma - even a stalker. Sylvie, at least the girl he thinks is Sylvie, is very attractive, and makes a strong stand. However, that is all that the film offers, pure cinema, a glimpse of young people, infatuations, searching and yearnings.
1.The film as pure cinema? Not reliant on literature? The importance of visuals, framing, movement, colour, editing? An installation piece?
2.The structure of the film: the announcing of the three nights, the suggestion of the nights, the three days which followed? The musical score?
3.The Strasbourg settings, the city, the streets, apartments, shops? The transport?
4.The range of people observed, the people sitting in the restaurant, some having conversations, the silences, others simply observed? People in the street, the passers-by? The fixed camera and the people who came past, went in front? This technique repeated for the walk through the city? In the tram? In the club and the bar? The scene with the boy taking the woman home for the night?
5.The character of the young man: the first three minutes, steadily watching him in the single take, his blankness, thinking, writing, drawing? Getting dressed, going out, the map, finding the café, sitting and observing for such a long time, drawing? Watching the girl, the decision to follow her, the long sequences of his following, the various locations, the streets, his losing her? Finally finding her? His personality and the reason for stalking? His explanations, the error, his apologies? On the tram, her getting off? The further sitting in the café, watching people? Going to the bar? Picking up the girl, the night with her? The next day – the futility of his watching? His wanting to watch? Thumbing through his book of writing and sketches?
6.The young woman, at the restaurant? Her being followed, walking, discovering that she knew that she was being followed? Talking on the mobile phone, going into the shop? The confrontation at the bus stop, her criticising him, on the tram, wanting him to get off?
7.The range of people viewed, those speaking, those not speaking, the beggars in the street? The Africans and their trying to sell goods? The ordinary day in the life of Strasbourg?
