François Ozon is a wickedly humorous, sensible and intelligent French filmmaker in a position to mix the road between seriousness and humour expertly. Right here he crafts a novel state of affairs that Agatha Christie herself could be happy with; are you able to revenue off against the law you didn’t commit? And what occurs when the true perpetrator of the crime reveals up and is jealous of the celebrity earnt from her crime? It consistently spirals with a contact of humour and deft execution by no means shying away from the seriousness when it must – Ozon; ever the prolific director – is ready to stability the wants between craft and circumstance expertly.
All the things Went High-quality, Summer season of 85 show the Ozon can do seriousness in addition to comedy – and his queer remake of Petra van Kant, Peter von Kant, reveals he has his finger on the heart beat of what makes Ozon work as a filmmaker. Tailored from a 1934 French Stage comedy by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil, Ozon has the tall order of casting performances that observe Carole Lombard and Betty Hutton. Right here we observe Nadia Tereskiewicz, as an aspiring star actor, unable to make it large, residing in a flat the place she’s behind on her hire with equally aspiring lawyer Pauline (Rebecca Marder); and equally as queer because the characters in Peter von Kant. Pauline hatches a plan to make Nadia’s title when she comes house from an encounter with a wealthy film producer; claiming that he’s lifeless, however it was a self-defence killing of a disgusting rapist. The jury is all male as are the prosecutors – and the chances are stacked towards them. It’s France, 1935 in spite of everything.
The arrogance that Ozon can show in The Crime His Mine feels prefer it has some extent to show in regards to the present state of Hollywood and the #MeToo Motion as a lot as is it does Thirties France. It’s let down by its should be French – and it is extremely French, See How They Run tackled comparable themes with a pretend Agatha Christie setting a couple of years in the past and was ostentatiously very English, a twee of Midsummer Murders about it. This feels just like the French counterpart; what individuals would naturally assume a French movie to be about. It revels in its allure, the character of its chemistry between its leads, Tereskiewicz and Marder, and the meta narrative of casting Isabelle Hubbert as a veteran French actor. The interval romp feels appropriately lavish and appropriately chameleonic, in a position to swap tones between seriousness and comedic affairs expertly – such is the character of Ozon’s whimsical strategy.
It is probably not risk-taking however The Crime is Mine looks like an adoration of the pre-war jazz age; Ozon enjoying in his sandbox with the consolation zone of a remarkably expert director; the French Steven Soderbergh. Its feminist strategy doesn’t fairly really feel as revolutionary because it ought to; I’d like to see what say, Coralie Fargeat might have achieved with this script, having proven a bolder, extra provocative and daring absorb The Substance that covers comparable themes. It nearly feels a contact screwball, Ozon demonstrating his love of previous Hollywood and permitting Manuel Dacosse to carry a wealthy diploma of color to a byegone period.
