In the City of Sylvia: Before Sunset with no talking

Jose Luis Guerin’s “In the City of Sylvia” (2007) follows a young man on his search through Strasbourg, France, for a woman named Sylvia.  He met her six years prior while visiting the city, and spends his first two days at a café, watching the other customers (primarily the women) while also sketching a select few in his notebook.  On the second day, he sees her leaving the café, and then proceeds to follow her into the city.  Early on, he is hesitant to get her attention right away, and when he does manage to call her name, she doesn’t respond, leading one to doubt whether this woman is indeed the Sylvia.  Nevertheless, he still maintains his pursuit.  At one point, he loses track of her, doubling back to where she was last seen.  During this portion, she appears to be walking in circles, almost comically so.  When he finally catches up with her on a train car, she responds with agitation, which makes sense because when he asks if she remembers him from the conservatory six years ago, she says no, and her name isn’t Sylvia.  He can’t believe she is not Sylvia, almost insisting she has to be.  When he finally accepts he has made a mistake, she admonishes him for following her around, forcing her to try and lose him, ducking into stores.  How did he expect her to react with a stranger following her?  As she leaves the train, she blows him a kiss and hopes he finds her.

Even when I first saw the trailer, part of me did think the premise was a bit creepy, the thought of a man following a woman around for a majority of the film.  As it turns out, the director agrees with this assumption.  Criticizing the main character’s actions is also a way of criticizing the trope of long lost lovers finding each other again after years of being apart.  Even if the woman was Sylvia, and she was lying to him, it would be even further criticism of this kind of plot.  Even if he was right, it has been six years, so what should he expect?  Even if they had a strong connection when they first met, did he really expect her to wait all that time for him?  What if she has a partner, a husband, or just, you know, moved on with her life.  The two days he spent trying to find her, he sees all these different women, who appear again at the end of the film while he waits at a train stop.  If he had not wasted his time trying to locate a woman he hasn’t seen in six years, he possibly could have met someone else.  When the woman says she hopes he finds Sylvia, she might as well have said she hopes he someone.  After his failed mission, he sleeps with a woman he meets in a bar.  While facing each other in his dark hotel room, it appears the woman is staring at him, as if she is saying, “are you happy now?”  The idea of there being just one person in the world for you is another overly romanticized theme.  Is there someone out there you would get along with more so than others?  Of course.  Is there someone out there worth waiting or looking for after six or nine years?  Probably not.