Grand old man of French cinema Alain Resnais is responsible for some of his country's most confrontational films, including the haunting Night and Fog the and challenging mindgame Last Year At Marienbad.

Now well ensconced in his eighties, Resnais is producing gentler fare, but with the energy and wit of a director half his age.

A deceptively simple, but quietly ambitious six-hander Private Fears in Public Places (French title: Coeurs) snatches a moment in time from lonely Parisian lives.

Thierry (Dussollier) manages an estate agents and frets that his daughter Gaelle (Carre) spends too many nights out with friends.

Charlotte, Thierry’s colleague, is a mildly repressed Christian with a sideline in evening charity work looking after invalid OAPS.

Charlotte’s current charge is the cantankerous father of Lionel (Arditi) an urbane bartender in a hotel often frequented by Dan (Wilson, The Matrix's Merovingian), whose increasingly estranged fiancée (Morante) is Thierry’s client.

During a severe winter, coincidence and contrivance mix together the six characters’ lives, as they each attempt to break out from their isolation.

What sounds contrived, leaden and overly-complex on paper is brought to life by Resnais’ composed direction that seamlessly blends together over fifty short scenes, bridged by beautifully photographed, chilly-looking falling snow.

Adapting Alan Ayckbourn’s play Private Fears in Public Places Resnais and writer Jean-Michel Ribes allow a slow-burn plot to gather momentum as the six characters cross each other’s paths, and troublesome secrets are eked out.

Loneliness and separation, Resnais’ two key themes, are at the core of Private Fears in Public Places, but a streak of playful humour and genuine eroticism offsets any undue moping.

A solid cast of established French thesps breathe life into their bittersweet characters, fully enjoying the wordy script.

Requiring maybe too much patience in the first half hour to hold most audiences, Private Fears in Public Places is an unexpectedly warm and moving story from one of France’s most reliable directors.

Rob Daniel