Les amants criminels (1999) - François Ozon

Serioulsy can't really relate François Ozon to New French Extremity apart from Les amants criminels. This film is distinctively different from his more recent works. Ozon is the first french directors whom I admire but Les amants criminels is not the Ozon that I have always known. Maybe it's at that period of time it was a trend to make (a bit more) provocative films. Or people changed?

Divines (2016) - Houda Benyamina

I guess films about the suburb (banlieue) population is a legit genre. People who are from the lowest social ladder try really hard everyday to strive or simply just to survive, most of them have one thing in common, anger. People who are just like us but not really. It’s hard to admit and nothing derogate. Some people just struggle to put food on the table. 

What makes Divines different from it’s genre? It’s funny, it’s light but it’s also hard to watch at times and it definitely doesn’t sugarcoat anything. There is this incredible friendship between the two young actresses which is something rare to see in this kind of genre. It’s interesting how they play with gender roles in the film, they put the female lead into dealing and the male into dancing. When he asked: “do you know how much my life would change right now?” There is a sense of irony, viewing that she was making fun of him working in security for a supermarket on the side while he was auditioning for a dancing company. Obviously she thinks she makes a better choice than he does but does she?

A little side note, the male lead… you will know what i mean when you watch it. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t think so.

Jules et Jim (1962) - François Truffaut

I know people say Les quatre cents coups [The 400 blows] (1959) is one of his best works but seriously, personally, I prefer Jules et Jim. Les quatre cents coups is a personal journey of what Truffaut went through as a kid, for which I admire. However, on the other hand Jules et Jim is more of an eternal story which no matter the time and cultural differences somewhat you could find something to relate to.

I am not talking being “friend zoned”, in my case, Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), it’s not a cliché that I relate myself as the female protagonist. I have valid reasons of my own. The fact she is candid, reckless and a little egoistic seem like a perfect description of me. I could totally see myself standing on the thin line, juggling my life as it comes. I guess I like playing with fire. Hope I won’t end up being burnt.

Jules et Jim is considerably really forward for it’s time, even today 3-way relationships are still being looked down on. Just because love is blind and it has stood before time way before our existences, it is still as represented as a taboo. I am pro-love, which means, just let people do whatever they want.

Frantz (2016) - François Ozon

In Ozon film univers female characters are always significantly important and complex. Anna (Paula Beer) is not an exception. One day she stumbled upon a french man known as Adrien (Pierre Niney) visiting his fiancé’s grave, not long a relationship between a german “widow” and a french men develops in the post-WWI circumstances where the two nations don’t see eye to eye with. 

Later we find out that their relation is built on a lie. Quite a visual interpretation from Ozon, whenever the movie is in colour, it is a lie. Reality, black & white. (Ozon stated in interviews that he wanted to make a film about “le mensonge” (a lie), so technically it is not a spoiler.) The fact that he visually manipulates the images amplifies the degree of the impact, it is like he controls the switches of our hearts. With a flick of his finger we are in this faux impression of happiness and seconds later he brings us back to reality. Some people might think he is trying too hard to manoeuvre the audience, sorry but I am struck. I was so drawn to Adrien’s grief maybe it’s Ozon or the magic of him and Niney and later the dilemma of Anna. No matter which it’s a solid performance.

At times, you wished Ozon had had worked on more on the images since, at least I did got distracted by composition of some imageries. However you are way too busy to play attention to a lot of the details, Frantz is 90% in black & White and 90% in German. You have to be fluent in both languages in order the ignore the subtitles. Maybe that’s why? I know what I am suggesting it’s not well justified but still I enjoyed the experience.

Life is cruel and we all live in a lie (in one way or another), that’s the best I could do without giving too much away on what’s the story is about. Ozon never really disappoints so just watch it. 

Steak - Quentin Dupiex

I would say this is my Quentin Dupieux favourite so far.

Dupieux himself said Steak might be his least received work ever. First, steak is a film which should have been released in no more than 40 theatres. Since it is featured 2 well-known french comedians Eric & Ramzy, the PR marketed it as a typical comedy so it was released in more than 300 theatres in France. If you know a little about Dupieux, you would have known his style is no where close to typical french comedies (it is pretty much the same as the American comedies, only it tries to have a message behind, kind of like "what we've learnt from the fairy tales".) In order words his movies are not for everyone.

Steak is trying to tackle the issue of social status. How we try to fit into the norm, be part of something that we are not or literally changing our apperances to be more attractive. ( it exists in some places already. In South Korean plastic surgery is really common.) But how far w1ould we go? To which point we will say stop and just be ourselves. Hat off for the way how Dupieux presents the scenario.

Life is a never ending high school. When they are a group of people there will be troubles. Anti bulling campaigns keep saying "it's getting better".  Because we don't see those people in a regular basis or you could hide yourself from them after you graduated. We could embrace it and live with it or even try to be one of the bullies. Steak is a little more than just becoming one of them. Fitting in is not easy, faking it is even harder. At the end of the day you would ask yourself why? Why am I doing this?

I love how the little details Dupieux put in his movies. Again they are really subtle but yet they are powerful enough to have his points come across.

*As per my understanding Steak has only been released in french speaking countries. Only the Canadian DVD has english subtitles but unfortunately it has been out of stock since. I think you might be able to find the english subtitles online.