IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA *

Almost wordless and plotless, more of an observational documentary rather than a conventional narrative Jose Luis Guerin's "In the City of Sylvia" is certainly not like other films. How much you respond to it depends on how much pleasure you get from simply watching people rather than interacting with them. There's a central character, a handsome young man who sits and watches, looking we discover for the elusive Sylvia, finally settling on one particular girl whom he follows around the nameless city before finally confronting her.


It's a creepy scenario, if it's a scenario at all. Are his motives romantic or menacing? Hardly menacing you might think, given the almost lackadaisical style employed by Guerin. There are other characters on the periphery but they are not on screen long enough to concern us. Visually, it's very attractive. Our handsome hero does like to look at beautiful young women and sketch them. The unattractive don't really figure. Since nothing actually happens you may find that, even at less than 90 minutes, this is something of a long haul. This is the kind of art-house cinema perhaps best viewed in a gallery and dipped in and out of; never quite boring but hardly