François Ozon

[kieslowski_67]

Anyone liked this new Ozon's new film, Le Temps qui reste / Time to Leave? Watched it last night and feel it's a strong companion piece to his "Sous le sable" (2000).

This is really a wonderful little film that deals with the theme death. Romain isolating himself from his family and friends and dealing with several stages of the whole "accepting death" experience reminds me of Kieslowksi's "Blue" (a more sophisticated film). The only thing that irked me was when the hero treated his live-in BF like a total POS. It was understandable, but hard to take.

[Michael]

Is it out on DVD yet? I've not heard much about it. I saw Swimming Pool a few weeks ago. Really loved it a lot. A great film in every aspect. 8 Femmes...I never finished it.. gave up watching halfway through. It didn't keep my interest but I might give it another chance soon.

[Anonymous]

It's out in France on September 6. No word yet on extras.

[David Ehrenstein]

It's being released in the U.S. this summer. Saw it a few days ago. Quite good. Odd seeing Melville Poupaud all grown-up (in every way.)

Very much a gay Dark Victory. But Ozon doesn't have his anti-hero die of AIDS. he goes to a great deal of trouble to keep is hero from seeming "noble" in any way.

And Ozon gets to work with Jeanne Moreau who plays the hero's grandmother (and is the only person he informs that he's dying.) Asmight be expected she glows in the dark.

But then so does Valerie Bruni-Tedeschi as a roadstop waitress who asks Popaud to father her child as her husband is steril.

So they have a three-way.

[kieslowski_67]

I watched it on a Russian DVD. Watched it again this past weekend and really enjoyed it.

Melville Poupaud has become quite a good actor since I saw him last time in Rohmer's "a summer's tale".

Glad that Ozon did not go the cheap gay "dark victory" route to make it a full blown melodrama. Jeanne Moreau is always a delight to watch on the screen. There are several very powerful scenes including one between Poupaud's character and his father, and the final beach scene(s). It was marvelously done.

You still get the trade mark shocking twist as nearly in all Ozon features. However, this is leaps and bounds ahead of his early features like "sitcom" and "criminal lovers".

Judging by his recent string of works (under the sand, 8 femmes, swimming pool, 5x2, Le Temps qui reste), I feel that Ozon has finally matured as a film maker. Let's see what a 40ish Ozon, generally regarded as the enfant terribles of the French cinema, will bring us in the future.

[David Ehrenstein]

I'll be interested to see how he develops too. He's quite prolific and hasn't really "settled" into a pattern or specific style yet. And he's a tad too glib around the edges for my taste. But unlike Almodovar he's a gay director willing to deal with gay subject matter.

Not that he's up there with Chereau, but then who is?

[kieslowski_67]

I'll be interested to see how he develops too. He's quite prolific and hasn't really "settled" into a pattern or specific style yet. And he's a tad too glib around the edges for my taste. But unlike Almodovar he's a gay director willing to deal with gay subject matter.

Not that he's up there with Chereau, but then who is?

I am not that fond of Chereau at all. From "queen margot", "Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train", to "intimacy" and "Gabrielle", I can hardly sit through his features without being bored.

[David Ehrenstein]

You're bored. I'm enthralled.

http://ehrensteinland.com/htmls/bride/g ... reau.shtml

[Michael]

I am not that fond of Chereau at all.

That's too bad. A few months have passed since I saw Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train and all the gay films that I've seen in my whole life (including my personal faves Come Undone and Wild Side), the thought of TWLMCTTT being the most ultimate, complete, epic gay film ever made comes across my mind many times. In this film, many different types of gay men (coming from just about every walk of life) are richly, gorgeously realized. I can't think of another gay film that has the same scope, density and richness as TWLMCTTT. This film begs to be recognized and treasured forever because it's really a rare, exquisite tapestry of gay men .. the only one of that kind.. that I know of. David, can you please elaborate on the greatness of TWLMCTTT? And also kieslowski, I would like to know what it is about this particular film that you didn't like. Thanks.

I also love Son Frere.

[David Ehrenstein]

I wrote a rather lengthy analysis of Those Who Love Me that was published in Film Quarterly a number of years back. If you Google you can find it on line.

What's great about it as a gay film is that gayness is never problematized
(it's not the "subject" of the film at all), and it offers a panorama of characters both gay and straight who inhabit the same world. In fact it's subject might be said to be the gay family -- in all its diversity.

It's also the grand climax of Jean-Louis Trintignant's great career.

[David Ehrenstein]

http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?i ... sueNum=163

[Grimfarrow]

Chereau's films makes Ozon's output look like the silly and overrated garbage that they are. His best, SOUS LE SABLE was merely tolerable.

[David Ehrenstein]

Ozon is indeed a lightweight compared to Chereau. But I think he's getting better. His latest is his best to date and suggests there's more to come from him.

[Grimfarrow]

I officially gave up on Ozon after 5x2, which stank beyond belief.

[yoshimori]

Ozon is indeed a lightweight compared to Chereau.

Thank goodness!

[... as the author lightly retreats, tiptoeing to fairytaleland with treasured copies of Sitcom, Criminal Lovers, and Water Drops on Burning Rocks under his arm.]

[Dylan]

Ozon's new thirty minute film, from the play by Henry de Montherlant, features Louis Garrel, Vahina Giocante, and Mathieu Amalric.



Summary:

Bruno and his friend Pierre are waiting for Rosette in his Parisian bachelor flat. She is late again. But this time Bruno's mind is made up: if Rosette is more than three quarters of an hour late, it will be over between them for good.

Two excellent clips can be found here.

It will make its premiere January 9th on Canal+ television in France (the first and only screening so far was out of competition at Cannes last May, and I hear that the sound went out half-way through the screening due to poor projection, which I'm guessing enraged Ozon). Not sure how it will be distributed elsewhere, but I really want to see it.

[domino harvey]

Recently caught up with Une nouvelle amie and loved it. Romain Duris copes with the passing of his wife by dressing as a woman, which causes his widow's married but latently lesbian best friend to fall for him. Now here's the throwback, unironic Hollywood melodrama transposition I've been waiting for-- all heightened emotions and tawdry premise made serious by addressing it with good humor but never smug superiority. As you can tell by the plot description, there's about a million different ways this could be awful, but Ozon smartly treats everything with wide-eyed curiosity and romantic verve. Like any good studio system weepie, Ozon mercilessly wrings every last teardrop out of the narrative, and with such shameless bravado that it becomes sincere in its emotional baldness. A great film-- and a gorgeous-looking one at that! Mad props to Cohen for putting this out on Blu in the states

[domino harvey]

L’amant double finds Marine Vacth falling in love with her psychologist, only to discover he has a secret twin brother, also a psychologist, but with different working methods… The film is a throwback to the erotic thrillers of the nineties, only those films didn’t go as far as Ozon pushes things— hard to imagine Tom Berenger getting pegged! The opening match cut has garnered a lot of chatter (and for good reason because it’s ridiculous, audacious, and clever in equal measure), but the whole film is filled with bold visual insanity. This is a film in extraordinary bad taste, one which coupled with Unsane makes for another great revisit to the post-war fears of psychology (though this riff is more obtuse and bizarre). The all-in absurdism of much of the film and its psychosexual focus has some obvious parallels in De Palma, but this strikes me as the kind of film De Palma keeps trying and failing to pull off. Ozon’s done it, though, for better or worse. Movies that push incredulousness this far exist in their own orbit, and while I haven’t read the source text by Joyce Carol Oates, I suspect Ozon has been quite free in his adaptation. This is an unforgettable movie, YMMV for what reason though!