Private Fears in Public Places

WOE IS MOI Laura Morante and Lambert Wilson are among Private Fears' troubled pairs in Paris

Six elegant, unsettled French people who can't always get what they want move around beautiful Parisian rooms in Private Fears in Public Places, Alain Resnais' mature adaptation of a dramatic daisy chain by veteran British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. The interlocking relationships (real estate broker and his sister, broker's assistant and a bartender, etc.) play out in adult dialogue triste but philosophical. The grand old filmmaker frames each scene like a fine painting. And fake snow falls with happy artificiality between rueful vignettes.