DVD Review | "In the City of Sylvia"

While the Cinema Guild has established itself as one of the strongest independent distributors in recent years, they have also started acquiring DVD rights to films they didn't distribute theatrically, such as Manoel de Oliveira's Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench and Pedro Costa's Ne Change Rien. In the City of Sylvia was given a very small theatrical release in the United States in 2008 to a smattering of effusive critical acclaim, but then seemingly disappeared, with no sign of it on home video.
But now Guerin's sublime meditation on memory and missed connections has been given the DVD treatment it deserves, and is available to a much wider audience than it ever was before.
There's something reminiscent of the work of Manoel de Oliveira at work here, except in place of de Oliveira's characteristic formalism, there is a kind of fluid formlessness - a plotless but engaging drive toward feeling and emotion rather than a conventional story or specific idea. In the City of Sylvia unfolds like something out of a hazy memory; faded, sun-dappled recollections revisited on a warm summer day.

Then, as if by magic, his eyes light up. We know immediately that he has spotted Sylvie before we even see her. His face tells us all we need to know. He follows her, and unwittingly embarks on a journey that will take him through the streets and back alleys of Strasbourg, chasing a shadow in order to recapture a dream.

For our young artist, happiness is always just around the corner, but it always presents itself as something abstract, a concept rather than a story, an idea rather than a plot. It's there, but it is felt rather than seen. The effect is strangely hypnotic. We are given little plot, little history, and yet the plight of the protagonist remains endlessly compelling and lushly romantic. Our artist is chasing a dream, and his singular determination is both beautiful and endearing. Guerin draws the audience in with an intoxicating simplicity, linking together images, sounds, and music that add up to something uniquely magical.
As usual, Cinema Guild's presentation doesn't just add throwaway extras for the sake of padding. The extras enhance the film, and include Guerin's 2007 film Some Photos in the City of Sylvia, which strings together photos from the director's own trip to Strasbourg that provides a sketch of the film that would eventually become In the City of Sylvia. Like the drawings in the young artist's book, the extras open up a window into the artistic process. It's a fascinating insight into the evolution and inspiration for the film. It's a fitting package for one of the hidden gems of the last decade - a beautiful and poetic paean to youthful love and second chances that stands tall as one of the most significant DVD releases of the year.
GRADE - ★★★½ (out of four)
IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA | Directed by Jose Luis Guerin | Stars Pilar Lopez de Ayala, Xavier Lafitte, Michael Balerdi, Laurence Cordier | Not rated | In French w/English subtitles | Available on DVD from the Cinema Guild on Tuesday, May 24.
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