Intimacy (2001)

Brève traversée / Brief crossing - by Catherine Breillat (2001)

Desire for a subject that functions like a brief fling with no future as such, yet embellished by that very fact. Because something fleeting and futureless is not necessarrily pathetic or trivial. A brief crossing, perhaps an initiatory trip. Filming a guy's "first time", filming him like a girl. Gut level skin deep… Nostalgia for vast ocean liners, for places "beyond the law" where you can venture outside of life, safe within an interlude.

Chekhov in contemporary Argentina. Mecha and Gregorio are at their rundown country place near La Ciénaga with their teen children. It's hot. The adults drink constantly; Mecha cuts herself, engendering a trip to the hospital and a visit from her son José. A cousin, Tali, brings her children. The kids are on their own, sunbathing by the filthy pool, dancing in town, running in the hills with shotguns, driving cars without licenses. One of the teen girls loves Isabel, a family servant constantly accused of stealing. Mother and son, son and sisters, teen and Isabel are in each other's beds and bathrooms with a creepy intimacy. With no adults paying attention, who's at risk?

Is the story of Samantha and Dov Ernst, American Zionists who emigrated to Palestine. Kalkofsky, a German Jew and bookseller, left behind his family in Europe. He accommodates Silvia, a young revolutionary against British rule.