Film Review

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

In the City of Sylvia
Directed by Jose Luis Guerin
Wanda Vision 10/07 Feature Film
Not Rated

Romantic yearning is a powerful force in our lives. It can consume much of our time and lead us down many new roads. A handsome young man (Xavier Lafitte) has returned to the city of Strasbourg in search of a woman he met there six years ago. In his hotel room, he sits on his bed lost in reverie about her. He walks down the street and stops in the café where he first encountered Sylvia. The place is filled with men and women talking and holding hands. He begins a series of sketches in his notebook; they are mainly of beautiful women talking with friends, whispering in each other's ear, or laughing at something funny.

The next day, he returns to the same café and begins sketching again. Then he spots a woman that looks like it might be Sylvia. She gets up and leaves the café, and he follows her down various streets, losing her once and finally catching up with her on a train where he calls out her name. The young woman (Pilar Lopez de Ayala) says she isn't Sylvia and that he has made her very uncomfortable following her all over the city. He apologizes profusely and realizes that his mission has ended in disaster. She bids him farewell and disappears.

Writer and director Jose Luis Guerin has captured the obsessive and mysterious compulsiveness of yearning and the ways in which it can take over our consciousness. A secondary theme is the delight the filmmaker has taken in the playfulness of people watching in an urban setting. A man with a limp carrying a bouquet of flowers appears several times as does a sarcastic beggar who calls the protagonist a rube for not giving him money.

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by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat