Intimacies

A long film about a theatre company. The narrative splits in two, and the halves are not a continuation of each other but a counterpart. The first half shows the preparation. A young group is trying to put on a play; the director argues with the writer, the actors question the text, rehearsals stall, and the relationships inside the company seep into the play. The conversations are long and run without cuts. The second half is the play itself. It is performed on stage from beginning to end, and the audience watches the people they met in the first half inside their parts. We know who is saying which line and why; that knowledge turns the play into something else entirely. What the film is interested in is not the process of making but how close people can get to each other: the arguments about the text are really arguments about personal distance. It runs over four hours and does not hide it. It was made in a film-school setting, with students; the budget is low and the locations are few. Ryusuke Hamaguchi directed. Much of what he would repeat in later films is already set up here: long dialogue scenes, the blur between rehearsal and life, and acting itself as a subject. Who it is for: anyone who likes Hamaguchi's later work and is curious where theatre and cinema meet. Who it is not for: anyone without patience for length and pace; the film is deliberately tiring and asks work of its audience.