Intimate Strangers (French: Confidences trop intimes) is a 2004 French film directed by Patrice Leconte. An off-beat romance, it tells the story of a troubled young woman who in error starts telling her problems not to a psychiatrist but to a lonely tax consultant in the office next door.

Plot

William, a reserved and solitary tax consultant in Paris, is surprised when a distressed young woman comes into his office and starts telling him her marital problems. Her name is Anna and her appointment was in fact with Dr Monnier, a psychiatrist on the same floor. Before William can clear up the misunderstanding, she says she will come again next week and leaves. The next time, she gives even more intimate details and William again fails to make clear that he can only handle her tax problems.

When she does not reappear in the following weeks, William worries if she is alright and consults Dr Monnier. The shrink guesses where his interest lies and does not interfere. William also confides in his former partner Jeanne who, as a woman, quickly guesses what Anna is up to. Anna does come back to William s office and a strange relationship develops, where she tells tales of her life and sexual activities while he listens sympathetically. Her husband appears and threatens William, who is not deterred.

Eventually Anna, who has been getting less neurotic and taking more care of her appearance, tells William she is leaving her husband and moving away. He wishes her well. A few months later, he moves his business to the south coast, where he has discovered she is working as a ballet teacher. Anna arrives at William s office and lays on the bed in the office, and William starts telling Anna his problems …..

Cast

• Sandrine Bonnaire as Anna
• Fabrice Luchini as William
• Michel Duchaussoy as Dr. Monnier
• Anne Brochet as Jeanne
• Gilbert Melki as Marc
• Urbain Cancelier as Chatel
• Laurent Gamelon as Luc
• Hélène Surgère as Mrs. Mulon

Release

The film was shown in competition at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival.

Paramount Classics acquired the United States distribution rights of this film and gave it a limited U.S. theatrical release on July 30, 2004; this film went on grossing $2.1 million in the United States theaters, which is considered a good result for a foreign language film. Ruth Vitale (who was the president of Paramount Classics at that time) was pleased with this film s performance in the United States market. Paramount Pictures (the parent studio of Paramount Vantage/Classics) was developing a comedic Hollywood remake of the film, with Hilary Swank attached to star and Kelly Fremon Craig writing the script.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 86% based on reviews from 104 critics. The site s consensus states Intimate Strangers is Hitchcockian noir with a Gallic twist: Rather than simply imitating the genre s form, director/screenwriter Patrice Leconte delves into the underlying psychological drama. On Metacritic the film has a score of 71% based on reviews from 28 critics.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars, and wrote: We find we cannot take anything for face value in this story, that the motives of this woman and her husband are so deeply masked that even at the end of the film we are still uncertain about exactly what to believe, and why.

Year	2004
ReleaseDate	2004-09-03
RuntimeMins	104
RuntimeStr	1h 44min
Plot	A Frenchwoman tells her marital troubles to a man she mistakes for a psychiatrist, and soon they form an unusual relationship.
Awards	Awards, 3 nominations
Directors	Patrice Leconte
Writers	Jérôme Tonnerre, Patrice Leconte
Stars	Sandrine Bonnaire, Fabrice Luchini, Michel Duchaussoy
Produced by	Christine Gozlan,Alain Sarde
Music by	Pascal Estève
Cinematography by	Eduardo Serra
Film Editing by	Joëlle Hache
Production Design by	Ivan Maussion
Costume Design by	Annie Périer
Makeup Department	Eric Benazet,Michèle Constantinides,Isabelle de Araujo,Patrick Girault,Claire Vivet
Production Management	Stephan Arnoux,Yvon Crenn,Helene Glabeke,François Menny,David Poirot-Gozlan
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Hubert Engammare,Elizabeth Marre
Art Department	Alain Bergé,Maurice Borghese,Xavier Buffin,Tranquillo Cimenti,Jacques Dalla-Mura,Charles de Dainville,Christophe De Vos,Virginie Denis Roy,Yvan Dupont,Philippe Durand,Jacky Frankiel,Madjid Hamzaoui,Jacky Hardouin,Jacques Kazandian,Jean Labille,Jérôme Larivière,Pierre Mery,Victor Piazza,Enrico Pittiglio,Nicolas Raffy,Didier Royer,Patrick Schmitt,Patrick Tombette,Annie Vandevandele,Patrick Veron,Gerard Wehrle
Sound Department	Annabel Acquaviva,Hervé Bénard,Frédéric Cattoni,Pascal Chauvin,Isabelle Filippi,Michel Filippi,Jean Goudier,Eric Grattepain,Dominique Hennequin,Paul Lainé,Jean-Louis Lebras,Alexis Leverve,Didier Lizé,Gilles Missir,Michel Monier,Christophe Vingtrinier
Special Effects by	Gary Pieri,Michel Vialla
Visual Effects by	Benjamin Ageorges,Stephane Bidault,Christophe Chanvin,Jean-Antoine Lacolle,Christophe Lucotte,Mitch Paulson,Matthias Weber
Camera and Electrical Department	Claude Atanassian,Jean Atanassian,Michel Atanassian,Rene Basso,Florent Bazin,Bruno Boban,Catherine Cabrol,Stéphane Cry,Guillaume Dreujou,Patrice Leconte,Margot Lestage,Axel-Charles Messange,Martial Negre,Marc Nove,Didier Petit,Denis Scozzesi,Jean-Pierre Supe,Paul Triboulet
Casting Department	Catherine Deserbais
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Sandrine Bernard,Hélène Cassard,Anne-Marie Castaño-Padovan,Sandrine Kerner
Editorial Department	Fanchon Brulé,Richard Deusy,Christian Dutac,Anne-Marie Etcheverry,Emilie Monod,Nicole Souchal,Sylvie Van der Vorm
Location Management	Jean-René Coulon
Music Department	Edouard Dubois,Pascal Estève,Valérie Lindon,Bernard Wystraete
Script and Continuity Department	Maggie Perlado,Annick Reipert
Additional Crew	Tony Arnoux,Tahar Boualam,Laure Darie,Yves Derhi,Sarah Fouquet,Patrick Lemaire,André-Paul Ricci,Gisèle Vuillaume
Genres	Drama, Romance, Thriller
Companies	Les Films Alain Sarde, France 3 Cinéma, Zoulou Films
Countries	France
Languages	French
ContentRating	R
ImDbRating	6.9
ImDbRatingVotes	5106
MetacriticRating	71
Keywords	orgasm,cheating,rape,dancer,adultery