The Official Xavier Lafitte Web Site

IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA / Variety, May 15th, by Jonathan Holland

A young romantic trails a gamine around Strasbourg in "In the City of Sylvia" a finely tuned meditation on looking and longing in which auteur Jose Luis Guerin brings the same keen attention to romantic frustration he brought to urban change in 2001's "Under Construction". Pic is an airy, ultra-Galic delight whose apparent weightlessness is anchored by real substance. Largely dialogue-free, this is the kind of rarefied romance that should garner a select coterie of dedicated fest and arthouse followers, who'll find their own cinematic voyeurism reflected in the anxious gaze of its protag.

Said brokenheart (elfin-featured, flaxen-haired Xavier Lafitte) sits in a shabby hotel room, staring lengthily into space before starting to make sketches. He leaves and heads through the streets to a sidewalk cafe where he spends more time woman-watching and sketching. A bird defecates on his sketchpad; a waitress spills coffee.

Then, through glass, he sees Sylvia (Pilar Lopez de Ayala) and follows her, in real time, and with increasing agitation, trough the streets of Strasbourg. Her phone rings; he loses her for a while, but a little later, he spies her getting onto a streetcar and finally confronts her to ask whether she remembers meeting him in a club six years ago.

After an awkward conversation - speech comes as a crude intrusion on the silence - she gives her reply. All this has taken close to an hour: The heated five-minute exchange between them is pic's only dialogue.

Helmer, apparently on a quest to remake the visual language of docus for fiction, uses many of the same lensing techniques as in "Under Construction" - often lengthly takes, apparently random, but actually precision-engineered - except that this time, we know who's watching.

Protag's quest has him staring almost pathologically at the (most beautiful) women who might be Sylvia.

Sometimes they caych his eye and turn away, but more often they are unaware. The complex dynamics of human love relationships are suggested by this elegant visual shorthand.

Dramatically stranded between the desire and the act, the omnipresent Lafitte, whose feyness makes Johnny Depp look like Tommy Lee Jones, might as well have "lovelorn romantic" tattooed on his forehead.

It may be hard to identify with the kind of nerd who obsesses widly over a six-year-old fling, but Lafitte just about makes it work despite being short on facial nuance.

The 10-minute sequence in which he trails Sylvia through the streets makes superficially frustrating viewing, but is actually rich in significance.

Main character holds back from approaching her because he knows the reality of Sylvia will destroy the fantasy.

Lopez de Ayala spends most of her time wandering rapidely around Lafitte in close pursuit, but her qualities are evident when she finally speaks. She's a worthy object of desire.

Lensing occasionnally slips over into the emptily beautiful, as in the jaded image of leaves in the protag's sketchpad being flipped over by the breeze, but an extended sequence, featuring multiple reflections in complex counterpoint, is genuily striking, dovetailing neatly into pic's thesis that there's a world of romance in a simple glimpse.

Super sound design by Marisol Nievas is crucial to pic's effect, given the lack of dialogue, and amounts to a crisp, thickly textured symphony of the over-heard.

Lensing is an homage to the romance of the backstreets of Strasbourg.

Jonathan HOLLAND - VARIETY - Thursday, May 15, 2008.

Xavier Lafitte and "In the City of Sylvia". In 2007 Spanish top 10.

In Spain, the readers and the Critics of the magazine "Cahiers du Cinema Espana" have nominated "In the City of Sylvia", directed by Jose Luis Guerin, one of the top 10 features of 2007. (web site CAHIERS DU CINEMA ESPANA) Top 20 cahiers du cinema ESPAÑA ref: N°8 Enero 2008.

Hollywood Reporter Sept. the 7th, by Ray Bennett

From the Mostra, Ray Bennett wrote...

Utterly charming film about a lost love.

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 Xavier Lafitte is so assured in his portrayal of honest yearning and Pilar Lopez 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.