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In the City of Sylvia

Original title: Dans la ville de Sylvia
  • 2007
  • Unrated
  • 1h 24m
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
2.6K
YOUR RATING
Pilar López de Ayala and Xavier Lafitte in In the City of Sylvia (2007)
Drama

A man returns to a city to try to track down a lovely woman he met six years earlier.A man returns to a city to try to track down a lovely woman he met six years earlier.A man returns to a city to try to track down a lovely woman he met six years earlier.

  • Director
    • José Luis Guerín
  • Writer
    • José Luis Guerín
  • Stars
    • Pilar López de Ayala
    • Xavier Lafitte
    • Laurence Cordier
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    6.9/10
    2.6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • José Luis Guerín
    • Writer
      • José Luis Guerín
    • Stars
      • Pilar López de Ayala
      • Xavier Lafitte
      • Laurence Cordier
    • 25User reviews
    • 69Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 3 wins & 4 nominations

    Photos

    Pilar López de Ayala and Xavier Lafitte in In the City of Sylvia (2007)
    Pilar López de Ayala in In the City of Sylvia (2007)
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    Top cast

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    Pilar López de Ayala
    Pilar López de Ayala
    • Ella
    Xavier Lafitte
    • Él
    Laurence Cordier
    Tanja Czichy
    • Tanja
    Eric Dietrich
    Charlotte Dupont
    Aurelio Texier
    • L'éternel étudiant
    • (as Aurelio Bellois)
    Coralie Audret
    Françoise Félicité
    • La dame à la terrasse
    Michaël Balerdi
    • Un passant
    • (uncredited)
    Gladys Deussner
    • Woman reading a book
    • (uncredited)
    Philippe Ohrel
    Philippe Ohrel
    • The strange man
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • José Luis Guerín
    • Writer
      • José Luis Guerín
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Connections
      Featured in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #1.22 (2011)
    • Soundtracks
      Heart of Glass
      Written by Debbie Harry (as Harry), Chris Stein (as Stein)

      Performed by Blondie

    User reviews25

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    An Everyman romance
    Gone with the Wind. When Harry Met Sally. The English Patient. While these are all great love stories, I have to ask: is ANYONE's life really like that? Here we have a film that's just as cinematically powerful, and yet it tells a love story which most of us have probably experienced. Plain & simple, this is the story of a missed encounter revisited years later. Based on director José Luis Guerín's real life experience, this is the story of an artist who meets a girl and, years later, returns to the city where they met. He has only a handful of clues as to who she is or where she may be: a cocktail napkin with a map drawn on it, a box of matches, and a vague recollection of what she looked like.

    What follows is a very poetic 80 minutes of people-watching. He sees girls who look like her but he's not sure, so he scrutinizes them from a distance, draws them, on occasion follows them or tries to strike up a conversation. Wow, that sounds sorta creepy. But it's not. That's largely due to the lead actor's innocent boyish looks--the kind where he could stare at you for 10 minutes and you never feel threatened. He is purely an observer, and for anyone who has always wanted to indulge in people-watching but never dared for fear of being arrested, "In the City of Sylvia" is a real treat.

    One thing to bear in mind is that this is a very motionless story. I mean that literally as well as figuratively. Camera shots are very still and lingering while the plot is equally slow. So if you're looking for a typical Hollywood love story you shouldn't even bother with this. But if the phrase "a picture is worth 1,000 words" means anything to you, then this is worth checking out.

    Like I said in the beginning, this is a love story we've all been through, whether literally or in our whimsical reveries. All of us have that certain stranger burned into our brain from years ago: someone at a bus stop, the person you sat behind in junior high, the checkout person at a grocery store whom you had a momentary soul connection with. Wouldn't it be interesting to try to find them years later? Or is it best left idealized in our nostalgic memory? One way or another, it's this sort of mysterious longing that embodies the essence of romance. I'm grateful to director José Luis Guerín for showing us the beauty in it.
    helpful•9
    2
    • rooprect
    • Aug 13, 2014

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 14, 2007 (Spain)
    • Countries of origin
      • Spain
      • France
    • Official site
      • Official site (Japan)
    • Languages
      • French
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • 尋找希薇亞
    • Filming locations
      • Café du TNS-Théatre National de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France
    • Production companies
      • Eddie Saeta S.A.
      • Château-Rouge Production
      • Televisión Española (TVE)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Gross worldwide
      • $319,032
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 24 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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