Film

The Woman in the Fifth

Name: The Woman in the Fifth
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Released: 2011
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas, Joanna Kulig, Samir Guesmi, Delphine Chuillot

Drama

A tense, deliberately opaque thriller set in Paris where an American writer descends into obsession and paranoia. It's deliberately frustrating rather than fun—all atmosphere and psychological erosion, never quite explaining what's really happening. For viewers who can sit with ambiguity and don't need every door opened.

TMDb rating

2.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like films that drift in a fog of loneliness and unease, where atmosphere and a half-lost protagonist matter more than tidy answers, and Paris feels like a character in its own right.

Skip it if you need a story that clicks into place, since this one stays slippery and murky, and its mystery is more mood than puzzle to be solved.

What it asks of you: Roughly 84 minutes, paced slowly and deliberately, with long silences and the gloom allowed to settle rather than pushed toward plot beats.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Mulholland Drive2001

David Lynch's Los Angeles nightmare has that same architecture of mystery and obsession, where reality fractures the closer you look. Gorgeous and bewildering in equal measure.

But It's nearly three hours of Lynch's most cryptic work. Some people find it deliberately obscure rather than meaningfully mysterious.

The Third Man1949

Another film about an outsider in a European city chasing someone he cannot quite understand. The mystery deepens rather than resolves, and the atmosphere is everything.

But It's a postwar spy film, so if you're expecting modern pacing or explicit answers, you'll find it deliberately elusive.

Last Year at Marienbad1961

A film about memory, desire, and what might actually be happening. Like The Woman in the Fifth, it refuses to let you settle into certainty, and the editing creates genuine unease.

But It's a puzzle with no solution. Some find that liberating; others find it maddening and cold.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Woman in the Fifth

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Immigrant2013

Both are studies in entrapment and the psychology of vulnerability. Both use a city—real and beautiful—as a character that eats people alive. Both are about outsiders who can't quite see what's being done to them.

James Gray's film about a woman arriving in New York with nothing, shot with the same painterly, suffocating precision. Like The Woman in the Fifth, it's about vulnerability in a city that doesn't care, and about people who seem to be offering rescue.

But It's almost glacially paced and deeply sad. There's no real triumph, only survival and compromise.

The Insider1999

Ethan Hawke gives one of his best performances in a different register—this one's about systems and corruption and a man grinding against forces he can't quite name. That same sense of mounting dread.

But It's nearly three hours and very procedural. The tension is slow-burn and institutional rather than visceral.

Sexy Beast2001

Ben Kingsley destroys everything in this film about a man in paradise when an outsider arrives to shatter it. That same poisoned-well feeling, where something wrong infects everything.

But It's violent and abrasive and doesn't care if you like the people in it. Some viewers find that tiresome.

Under the Skin2014

Another film that refuses to explain itself, where atmosphere and dread matter more than plot. You're as confused as the protagonist, and that's the point.

But It's extremely slow and often feels like watching someone walk through darkness. Patience isn't optional.

Caché2005

Michael Haneke's film about surveillance, shame, and things you can't quite see. Like The Woman in the Fifth, it slowly corrodes its own narrative, leaving you questioning what you witnessed.

But It's glacial and uncomfortable and deliberately doesn't provide catharsis. Some find that principled; others find it exhausting.

Before Sunset2004

A long conversation between two people in Paris, shot almost in real time. It has that same focus on mood and psychology over plot, and that same sense of a man unable to get what he wants.

But It's literally two people talking. If that sounds boring to you, it will be boring to you.

Possession1981

An Andrzej Żuławski film where a marriage explodes into surrealist nightmare. It shares that same refusal to make sense rationally, and that same sense of watching someone lose their grip.

But It's deliberately grotesque and difficult and very 1981. The performances are operatic in a way some find brilliant and others find overcooked.

The Lives of Others2006

Both are psychological thrillers about surveillance and obsession where you can't trust your own reading of events. Both feature protagonists slowly realizing they're being manipulated, but not fast enough to escape.

A Stasi spy falls under the spell of the artist he's meant to be monitoring. It has that same moral quicksand, where it becomes impossible to know who deserves trust or what the truth actually is.

But It's a Cold War film, so if you need recent or contemporary settings, it might feel distant. It's also, ultimately, more hopeful than The Woman in the Fifth, which might feel like a tonal whiplash.

Holy Motors2012

Both are films about Paris and identity and the gap between what you see and what's real. Holy Motors asks 'who is anyone really?' while The Woman in the Fifth asks 'can you trust anything you're seeing?'—they're the same question in different keys.

Leos Carax's hallucinogenic film about an actor moving through Paris in disguise, becoming different people. It has that same dreamlike, paranoid unreality, but where The Woman in the Fifth suffocates, this one explodes into surrealism.

But It's willfully strange and makes no conventional sense. It's more of an experience than a story, and if you need plot logic, you'll hate it.