Intimacy

Intimacy (2001) is a French-British drama directed by Patrice Chéreau — watch it online on iFILM. Mark Rylance plays Jay, a failed musician who walked out on his family and now tends bar in a London pub. Every Wednesday a woman shows up at his flat. No names. No conversation. Just an hour together, and then she's gone.

Jay knows nothing about her. One day he follows her — and pieces together a life she never mentioned: a husband played by Timothy Spall, a son, a part in a small theatre production. Kerry Fox, who plays Claire, won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin International Film Festival; the film itself took home the Golden Bear in 2001. The screenplay draws on short stories by Hanif Kureishi.

Chéreau treats the physical scenes without glamour or evasion — what the camera keeps returning to is the silence between the two characters, the gap between what they do and what they cannot say. Stream Intimacy (2001) in full online on iFILM.