Francois Ozon has always been a favorite director of mine. I remember being at a screening for a short film of his- See the Sea (1997), and was spellbound by the macabre premise and the meticulous, scalpel-sharp storytelling. His films are all wildly different but terrific: Swimming Pool (2003), Time to Leave (2005), 8 Women (2002), Ricky (2009), In the House (2012), Frantz (2016), Double Lover (2017), Summer of 85 (2020), Everything Went Fine (2021), Peter Von Kant (2022), right up to the delightful, feminist murder comedy- This Crime is Mine (2023). Some are achingly personal and many reflect a playfully perverse queer sensibility. Three of his earliest, most provocative films are arriving at the end of June in a stunning Blu-ray from Altered Innocence and I am beyond thrilled.
Sitcom (1998) A wonderfully transgressive black comedy about a French family irrevocably altered when their father brings home a white lab rat for a pet. The son- Nicolas (Adrian de Van) announces at the dinner table that he is homosexual. The daughter- Sophie (Marina de Van) jumps out the window and becomes a wheelchair-bound dominatrix. Sophie’s boyfriend David (Stephane Rideau) begins to experiment with different forms of sexual expression. The mother and the maid- well you can discover the kinky twists for yourself. Sitcom is reminiscent of later Bunuel in the matter-of-fact way Ozon presents the outlandish, often surreal turns of the plot.
Criminal Lovers (1999) “I’ve got to kill someone- and you’ve got to help,” says teen temptress Alice (Natacha Regnier) to her hopelessly devoted 17-year-old virginal boyfriend Luc (Jeremie Renier) in Francois Ozon’s delirious dark fable about homicidal youth on the run. They murder a classmate, throw his body in the trunk, and set out to bury their victim deep in the woods. But their nefarious deeds catch up with them when they get lost in the forest and come upon the cabin of a hermit (Miki Manojlovic). At gunpoint, he locks them in his cellar and proceeds to fatten up Luc with rabbit meat because he prefers his boys “nice and plump.” A mix of Hansel and Gretel and Rimbaud, Ozon’s grim fairy tale is lushly poetic and brimming with underlying sexual tension. It’s both beautiful and insane.
Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000) Director Francois Ozon’s sardonically funny adaptation of a play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (written when he was 19). Set claustrophobically in a hideously tasteful apartment, the film charts the relationship between 50- year-old insurance salesman Leopold (Bernard Giraudeau) and carrot-topped pretty boy Franz (Malik Zidi), whom he seduces and in no time transforms into a sniveling mess, scurrying around the flat in an apron, daily subjected to Leopold’s petty tyranny and verbal abuse. Ozon really nails Fassbinder’s mix of melodrama and deadpan humor, and there are echoes of Fox and His Friends and In a Year With 13 Moons when Franz’s ex-girlfriend Anna (Ludivine Sagnier), and Leopold’s ex- a transsexual named Vera (Anna Thomson) arrive later in the film.
You and Francois are made for each other.
Keep writing.