Feature

In the City of Sylvia

Man meets woman meets 24 in Jose Luis Guerin’s latest visually lyrical love tale

by Brian Schimpf   |   Dec 1, 2008

In the City of Sylvia

 

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While a handsome stranger sits and sketches in a local cafe he  meditates on a woman he met six years earlier. Not unlike Vincent Gallo’s character Bud Clay in The Brown Bunny, our male lead, called El, is searching for his lost lady in the face of every woman he sees. El, this remembered woman and the city of Strasbourg itself are the three main characters of Jose Luis Guerin’s latest film.

Guerin’s work is undoubtedly more atmospheric and visually lyrical than conventional storytelling techniques. The movie contains almost no dialogue. It does, however, give you all the pace and feeling of the city: from shadows to graffiti to faces of the beautiful women El encounters. What you don’t hear in conversation you glean through Guerin’s lens.

We follow El on his chase for this mystery woman over the course of 24 hours. Six years of longing recapped in one day, told in three chapters. The third—night—reveals to the audience the outcome of El’s pursuit.

Screened at last year’s 45th New York Film Festival, the film’s New York theatrical run will be at Film Forum, December 12–18.