In the last two weeks I have watched two of Francois Ozon's newer movies. 5 x 2 and Time to Leave, the latter is in indie theaters in real cities worldwide. Most of his movies are really good, though overpowering in their "French attitude." And by that I mean you will want to smoke a cigarette half way through the movie in between crying, smiling, and craving a wine from Burgandy. Ozon has an incredible talent for beautifully illustrating the trials of life and both of these movies are fine examples of his style yet his whole idea turns out to be better than the actual movie. If you haven't seen any of his movies, check them out because they are a real idea of film, especially French film.
Time to Leave is incredibly depressing, though like in all of Ozon's movies the characters are really well crafted, deep, and heart wrenching. While watching the movie, I was in love (mainly with the main actor) but ater leaving the film and talking to a film student friend, I actually thought the entire thing was stupid. Romain is a 30yo homo fashion photographer who learns he has three months to live thanks to cancer and well he goes into some serious isolation and cuts everyone out of his life, oddly enough. He also has the most miserable three months of his life (fighting, being alone, doing stupid shit, having sex with ugly random people instead of his boyfriend he dumped or the models from his photographs), instead of having one big party like I think I would be if I got that god awful news.
5 x 2 attacks the hetero family model and does it badly. This movie was highly recommended to me highly recommended but I found it pretty much ridiculous, irritating, and boring. To say the least, I started writing this half way through. It is plain and simple. He makes the hetero world look as twisted, awful, and vicious as the homo slutting around adultery model we all have come to know and love. haha!
A french film you might like is "Wild Reeds" by André Téchiné. You need to pick it up at the DVD rental location, netflix doesn't stock it.
Posted by: Mike | September 02, 2006 at 02:31 PM
So you recommend him, and yet you hated both of the films???? OK!? But you didn't really say why you hated 'le temp qui...'. Was it because it wasn't what you would do if you were going to die in 3 months? How do you know what you'd do? I think I would go through depression for a while and hopefully kick out of it and come to peace with myself before the 3 months are up!! Ozon doesn't always paint the 'right' picture, or the idealized picture, or the romanticized picture, he paints the picture that he wants to paint...and that usually means the one you're not expecting, the more challenging one. So did you hate the film because it didn't resemble your idealized romanticized notion of life and death? Or was it because your 'film student' friend suggested it wasn't real enough? As in, 'who would cut every one out of their lives 3 months before they die? That's not real!!'
Well, maybe it is!!!
Posted by: filmbuff | August 03, 2006 at 10:16 PM