The Woman in the Fifth

If you enjoy a movie with loads of atmosphere that leads you deeper and deeper into a complex mystery, and then refuses to give easy answers, then you will love "The Woman in the Fifth" - I know I do. An American writer, Tom Ricks (Ethan Hawke), arrives in Paris to try to meet with his daughter. His ex-wife immediately calls the police and we realise that there has been some ugly history between them. Broke, Tom is given a room in a seedy hostel in exchange for taking a job as a nightwatchman in the basement of a strange building. At a literary gathering he meets Margit Kadar (Kristen Scott Thomas). Margit lives in the fifth arrondissement - the woman in the fifth - and they have an affair. His life starts to take unexpected turns. At the hotel, he also has an affair with a young Polish waitress, and a confrontation with the aggressive man in the next room. All the while, trying various ways to see his daughter. By the end of the film there has been a murder, a kidnapping, and revelations about Margit Kadar that reveal that all is not right with Tom Ricks. Not much is explained at the end - the last scene leaves us wondering. Movies that blur the line between what is real and what is being imagined have been around for a while now. Back in the days of Film Noir it usually turned out that it was all just a dream - a not too satisfying resolution that quickly became trite. However, over the last couple of decades, movies that blur the line have become much trickier. The process in more recent times may have started with movies that are not exactly ghost stories, but feature people who don't know they are dead. A forerunner was "Carnival of Souls" in 1962, but Haley Joel Osment in "The Sixth Sense" wasn't the only one to see dead people, they popped up in "Jacob's Ladder", "The Others", "Passengers", and "November" to name a few. Then there are the split personalities - the cinematic interpretation of schizophrenia. David Lynch's films, "Lost Highway" and "Mulholland Dr." come to mind. Then there is "Fever", "A Beautiful Mind", and the recent "I, Anna" as well as "Trance", which have explored this phenomenon. "The Woman in the Fifth" belongs with this group. Although that tricky shift between the real and the imaginary has probably been seen a few times too often now, "the Woman in the Fifth" does it well. This intriguing film has an affecting central story, a fascinating location and compelling performances all round.

OK I watched his then I got on here to see if the rest of the world agreed that this was a steaming pile of Poo ! But apparently I must of missed something ? I sat here and thought over the movie and came to the conclusion that my first response was right, this was a steaming pile of poo ! It started off OK, Guy on the skids, broken marriage, child with the ex, down on his luck, then it went into the great mystery boredom spin. when it finished I thought WTF? Please trust me, some here saying its some kind of tantric genius movie , don't fall for it ! It has parts that you think are important but go nowhere, it has parts that make no sense and are unexplained. This reminded me of some poncy Uni student assignment where they were given a camera and 60 minutes to write a script. This was a waste of time!

The American professor of literature and novelist Tom Hicks (Ethan Hawke) travels to Paris to see his beloved daughter Chloé (Julie Papillon) that lives with her mother Nathalie (Delphine Chuillot). However, Nathalie uses the restraining order to call the police and avoid letting Tom to meet Chloé. Tom flees from the police and takes a bus but he is tired and sleeps. When he awakes in a poor neighborhood, he finds that his luggage and money were robbed. He goes to a bar and the Polish waitress Ania (Joanna Kulig) brings a coffee for him. He asks for a room and explains that he had been robbed and she asks him to talk with the owner Sezer (Samir Guesmi) that allows him to stay in a very low budget room and pay him later. Then Sezer offers a job of night watchman in a suspect building. One day, Tom goes to a bookstore and is invited to a party with writers where he meets Margit Kadar (Kristin Scott Thomas), who is a translator and widow of a Hungarian writer. She gives her address and telephone to Tom. Soon Tom has a love affair with Margit at her apartment and with Ania on the roof of the bar. But Tom is also obsessed by his daughter, snooping around Chloé during the days. When his next door neighbor at the hotel that is blackmailing Tom is found dead, his only alibi is Margit. But when the police officers go to her place, they discover that she had committed suicide many years ago. "La femme du Vème" is one of those movies like "Triangle" where there is no explanation for bizarre and surrealistic situations. I am not sure whether the director Pawel Pawlikowski had this intention or not, but forget any explanation about the plot and simply enjoy (or not) the movie. David Lynch is the master of this style while Claude Chabrol was the French master of thrillers with open endings to make the viewer think and discuss possibilities. But this is the practically unknown Pawel Pawlikowski and I was disappointed with the lack of conclusion of the good plot. But as an unconditional fan of Kristin Scott Thomas and Ethan Hawke, I do not regret this strange experience. My vote is five. Title (Brazil): "Estranha Obsessão" ("Weird Obsession")

Bad luck ... I happened to purchase - on a whim - the original "arrow" paperback novel a sheer week prior to finding out that the motion-picture adaptation was being shown nearby, with tentative acting by no less than Etan Hawke and (!) Kristin Scott Thomas ...; all the more than tantalizing ...; Having read through Kennedy's incredible/unbelievable story, I was more than curious how -the heck- both script-writer and Director would/had rendered , or came-out of this lame ending tale ?! Lo and behold, it's even worse than I had expected ...: gloomy, pessimistic, unhinged -since some/most characters' interaction(s) are left out- with Ricks and Margit factual plain physical relationship wholly left out ... being compensated by an 'end-of-second World War' Parisian feel and atmosphere ... ?! Neither are these credits any justification for leaving-out some of the original script justification &/or relating's ...; The whole experience become/come-out as an WIDE AWAKE NIGHTMARE of unrealistic happenings ...; P.S.: credited appraisals by 'Mail on Sunday' and 'The Times' literary critics must have been disclaimers ...