France’s Xavier Lafitte is slated to star in “Perhaps,”, a project under development by first time director Arima León.
He’s the latest actor to become announced for a project exploring the mismatched love between poet and writer, Natalia Sosa Ayala (1938-2000) and legendary Trapeze Artist Pinito Del Oro (1931-2017). Lafitte, in a supporting role, will play Jérôme, a painter in love with Natalia who herself carries this obsessive love for Del Oro. The project joins a host of Spanish films, pitching at Ventana Sur’s Spanish Screenings this week in Buenos Aires.
The role of Pinito will be played by Goya mominated, and much loved Spanish actress, Antonia San Juan well known internationally for her work with Pedro Almodóvar in “All About My Mother.” Also forming the key cast is Tania Santana and Marta Viera
It’s a story Arima León came across by chance, “in the middle...
He’s the latest actor to become announced for a project exploring the mismatched love between poet and writer, Natalia Sosa Ayala (1938-2000) and legendary Trapeze Artist Pinito Del Oro (1931-2017). Lafitte, in a supporting role, will play Jérôme, a painter in love with Natalia who herself carries this obsessive love for Del Oro. The project joins a host of Spanish films, pitching at Ventana Sur’s Spanish Screenings this week in Buenos Aires.
The role of Pinito will be played by Goya mominated, and much loved Spanish actress, Antonia San Juan well known internationally for her work with Pedro Almodóvar in “All About My Mother.” Also forming the key cast is Tania Santana and Marta Viera
It’s a story Arima León came across by chance, “in the middle...
- 11/28/2022
- by Callum McLennan
- Variety Film + TV
In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerin, 2007) A city of pedestrian streets, bicycles and terrace cafés, haunted by the image of a woman (Pilar López de Ayala) that the male protagonist (Xavier Lafitte) met six years previously. A city haunted by the traces of memories that fill its corners. In this film—a sublime lesson in montage and one of the most startling studies of the cinematic frame—Strasbourg is a dance of feminine gestures and expressions seizing the man’s look. A city where wall inscriptions evoke the obsessions of Italian poets, where ghostly encounters and partings occur in public space, a city where fugitive bodies and faces become an ever-changing landscape where the hero projects his fantasies. >> - Cristina Alvarez Lopez...
- 11/28/2014
- Keyframe
In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerin, 2007) A city of pedestrian streets, bicycles and terrace cafés, haunted by the image of a woman (Pilar López de Ayala) that the male protagonist (Xavier Lafitte) met six years previously. A city haunted by the traces of memories that fill its corners. In this film—a sublime lesson in montage and one of the most startling studies of the cinematic frame—Strasbourg is a dance of feminine gestures and expressions seizing the man’s look. A city where wall inscriptions evoke the obsessions of Italian poets, where ghostly encounters and partings occur in public space, a city where fugitive bodies and faces become an ever-changing landscape where the hero projects his fantasies. >> - Cristina Alvarez Lopez...
- 11/28/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
by Vadim Rizov
In the City of Sylvia stars Xavier Lafitte as a nameless young man who wanders through a Strasbourg summer with a notebook and a perpetually glazed look on his face. He sits in cafés and sketches, but really he's trying to get girls to contemplate his glossy hair and wispy mustache, though it's unclear if even he's aware of his obvious motivation. Later, he spends a lot of time following a poor young woman (Pilar Lopez de Ayala) he thinks might be Sylvie, a potential soulmate he met a few years ago and has been trying to find ever since. That, however, isn't an acceptable excuse for stalking, as the she tells him when he finally has the nerve to ask if she is who he thinks she is. Nicely but firmly, she tells him she isn't and he just scared the hell out of her. Suitably chastened,...
In the City of Sylvia stars Xavier Lafitte as a nameless young man who wanders through a Strasbourg summer with a notebook and a perpetually glazed look on his face. He sits in cafés and sketches, but really he's trying to get girls to contemplate his glossy hair and wispy mustache, though it's unclear if even he's aware of his obvious motivation. Later, he spends a lot of time following a poor young woman (Pilar Lopez de Ayala) he thinks might be Sylvie, a potential soulmate he met a few years ago and has been trying to find ever since. That, however, isn't an acceptable excuse for stalking, as the she tells him when he finally has the nerve to ask if she is who he thinks she is. Nicely but firmly, she tells him she isn't and he just scared the hell out of her. Suitably chastened,...
- 5/24/2011
- GreenCine Daily
Imagine, if you wish, Alain Resnais' "Last Year in Marienbad" filtered through the senses of Eric Rohmer, and you have a feel for "In the City of Sylvia" by Spanish filmmaker José Luis Guerin.
In "Marienbad," a gentleman meets a lady in a rambling hotel and insists that they had an affair the previous year in the Czech spa oasis Marienbad.
In "Sylvia," a young poet (scruffy Xavier Lafitte) follows a woman (Pilar Lopez de Ayala) through the side streets of Strasbourg, convinced she is the Sylvia...
In "Marienbad," a gentleman meets a lady in a rambling hotel and insists that they had an affair the previous year in the Czech spa oasis Marienbad.
In "Sylvia," a young poet (scruffy Xavier Lafitte) follows a woman (Pilar Lopez de Ayala) through the side streets of Strasbourg, convinced she is the Sylvia...
- 12/12/2008
- by By V.A. MUSETTO
- NYPost.com
by Nick Pinkerton (December 11, 2008) [An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.]
"In the City of Sylvia," Jose Luis Guerin's odyssey of perception, is so dedicated to getting inside the act of cosmopolitan female-watching, it might as well be called "City of Women." Alert, feline-eyed Xavier Lafitte is a quiet young flaneur and diarist, an enigmatic figure introduced at loose ends in a summertime Strasbourg populated largely by drifting, bare-armed twentysomething sylphs.
"In the City of Sylvia," Jose Luis Guerin's odyssey of perception, is so dedicated to getting inside the act of cosmopolitan female-watching, it might as well be called "City of Women." Alert, feline-eyed Xavier Lafitte is a quiet young flaneur and diarist, an enigmatic figure introduced at loose ends in a summertime Strasbourg populated largely by drifting, bare-armed twentysomething sylphs.
- 12/11/2008
- by peter
- Indiewire
Venice International Film Festival
VENICE, Italy -- Virtually a silent movie apart from the everyday sounds of the French city of Strasbourg, Spanish director Jose Luis Guerin's lyrical tale of forlorn love, In the City of Sylvia, is a treat for romantics and people watchers.
It's a simple tale of an artistic young man (Xavier Lafitte) who returns to Strasbourg in search of a woman named Sylvia with whom he had a brief affair six years earlier. He spends his time at cafes in the vicinity of their first meeting, writing notes and sketching images of the people he sees. In due course he spots someone (Pilar Lopez de Ayala) he thinks is Sylvia and follows her.
Slow moving and filled with tiny observed moments, the film is wonderfully crafted by director Guerin and cinematographer Nathasa Braier. Screened in competition at the Venice International Film Festival, it could be in line for awards and with its beautiful players and universal appeal it should do well internationally.
The anonymous young man who sits down one day at the Cafe du TNS-Theatre National de Strasbourg has the looks of Byron and an eye for human expression. The camera goes with him as he unobtrusively gazes at a range of mostly young people talking animatedly or sitting in silence; lovers kissing; couples disagreeing and individuals sitting, thinking, and staring at something or nothing.
It's a full 35 minutes before anyone speaks and that's when the young man calls out the name Sylvia. But the woman ignores him and follows a wandering course through the city's Old Town with the man in gentle pursuit. In other circumstances, the young man's behavior would be odd or threatening, and there comes a time when the object of his attentions makes that point.
But Lafitte is so assured in his portrayal of honest yearning and De Ayala is such a radiantly beautiful mystery that the film is more succulent than piquant. Filled with small eye-pleasing images, it's a picture that audiences may wish to see more than once in order to relish it all.
IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA
Eddie Saeta S.A., Chateau-Rouge
Credits:
Director, writer: Jose Luis Guerin
Producers: Luis Minarro, Gaelle Jones
Director of photography: Natasha Braier
Production designer: Maite Sanchez
Costume designers: Valerie-Elder Fontaine & Miriam Compte
Editor: Nuria Esquerra
Cast:
Pilar Lopez de Ayala, Xavier Lafitte, Laurence Cordier, Tanja Czichy, Eric Dietrich, Charlotte Dupont
Running time -- 84 minutes
No MPAA rating...
VENICE, Italy -- Virtually a silent movie apart from the everyday sounds of the French city of Strasbourg, Spanish director Jose Luis Guerin's lyrical tale of forlorn love, In the City of Sylvia, is a treat for romantics and people watchers.
It's a simple tale of an artistic young man (Xavier Lafitte) who returns to Strasbourg in search of a woman named Sylvia with whom he had a brief affair six years earlier. He spends his time at cafes in the vicinity of their first meeting, writing notes and sketching images of the people he sees. In due course he spots someone (Pilar Lopez de Ayala) he thinks is Sylvia and follows her.
Slow moving and filled with tiny observed moments, the film is wonderfully crafted by director Guerin and cinematographer Nathasa Braier. Screened in competition at the Venice International Film Festival, it could be in line for awards and with its beautiful players and universal appeal it should do well internationally.
The anonymous young man who sits down one day at the Cafe du TNS-Theatre National de Strasbourg has the looks of Byron and an eye for human expression. The camera goes with him as he unobtrusively gazes at a range of mostly young people talking animatedly or sitting in silence; lovers kissing; couples disagreeing and individuals sitting, thinking, and staring at something or nothing.
It's a full 35 minutes before anyone speaks and that's when the young man calls out the name Sylvia. But the woman ignores him and follows a wandering course through the city's Old Town with the man in gentle pursuit. In other circumstances, the young man's behavior would be odd or threatening, and there comes a time when the object of his attentions makes that point.
But Lafitte is so assured in his portrayal of honest yearning and De Ayala is such a radiantly beautiful mystery that the film is more succulent than piquant. Filled with small eye-pleasing images, it's a picture that audiences may wish to see more than once in order to relish it all.
IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA
Eddie Saeta S.A., Chateau-Rouge
Credits:
Director, writer: Jose Luis Guerin
Producers: Luis Minarro, Gaelle Jones
Director of photography: Natasha Braier
Production designer: Maite Sanchez
Costume designers: Valerie-Elder Fontaine & Miriam Compte
Editor: Nuria Esquerra
Cast:
Pilar Lopez de Ayala, Xavier Lafitte, Laurence Cordier, Tanja Czichy, Eric Dietrich, Charlotte Dupont
Running time -- 84 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- Ioncinema.com presents: Best of Fests64th Venice Film Festival When: August 29th to September 8th, 2007 Counting Down: updateCountdownClock('August 29, 2007'); Where: Venice, Italy Official Website: http://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/Due in part to the ‘not ready for Cannes factor’, the surprise element was lacking today with Venice’s announcement of the 22 titles that would make up their official competition. The consensus was that this was going to be a strong year for American films and this will be confirmed by the newest film from the likes of Wes Anderson, Brian De Palma, Todd Haynes and Paul Haggis presenting their films and this doesn’t mean that the jury comprised of filmmakers Zhang Yimou, Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, Jane Campion, Paul Verhoeven, Catherine Breillat, Emanuele Crialese and Ferzan Ozpetek won’t have a tough time choosing the Golden Lion winner. Strong on war-themed films, English from the U.
- 7/26/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
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