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Poster for Private Fears in Public Places

Private Fears in Public Places

For six strangers in search of love, the City of Lights can be a very lonely place.

2006 · 2h · N/A Drama, Romance
Directed by Alain Resnais

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Overview

In Paris, six people all look for love, despite typically having their romantic aspirations dashed at every turn.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
77%
Tomatometer
Fresh

What reaches us, most of all, are the hidden, unmet longings that keep the film's Parisian characters from finding true happiness.

Desson Thomson, Washington Post
Fresh

The tenderness with which Resnais observes their efforts makes for genuinely enchanting entertainment.

Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Rotten

Private Fears suffers from [director Alain] Resnais' inability to open it up and give it the look and pulse of a film.

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle
Fresh

Resnais shapes affecting performances from a polished cast. He creates a warm, comic melancholy.

Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times
Fresh

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.

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

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