Film Review
After a bizarre detour which took in the kitsch historical drama
Angel
(2007) and the whimsical fantasy
Ricky (2009), director
François Ozon returns to the kind of intimate realist drama to
which he is perhaps better suited.
Le Refuge, his eleventh feature,
brims with the warped mystique and poetry of Ozon's previous
Sous le sable (2000) and
5x2
(2001), offering an even more subtle exploration of the perversity of
human nature. Eschewing the exaggerated stylisation of his
earlier films, Ozon now embraces a more vigorously naturalistic
approach to filmmaking, a sign maybe that French cinema's most
celebrated
enfant terrible
has come of age and now has the confidence to tackle more serious
themes in a more direct way.
Le Refuge came about when Ozon
was given the heaven-sent opportunity of making use of the real life
pregnancy of the actress Isabelle Carré, with whom he had not
previously worked but whom he greatly admired. Films featuring pregnant
women are few and far between, and those in which a visibly pregnant
actress takes the lead role are pretty well non existent. So,
ever eager to break taboos and start a new trend, Ozon follows
Carré on her pregnancy, using every opportunity he can to show
both the inward and outward effects of pregnancy - the transformation
of both the body and the mind. With a less charismatic and
beautiful actress, the experiment could easily have been a disaster,
but with Carré's generous complicity Ozon crafts a film that is
perhaps his most fascinating and alluring to date, one that certainly
treads new ground in its exploration of the mysteries of maternity, as
seen from both a male and female perspective.
The male side of the equation is sensitively supplied by Louis-Ronan
Choisy, an established popular singer (better known as 'Louis') in his
first film role. Choisy not only proves to be a very capable
actor, convincing and instantly likeable as Carré's platonic
soul mate, he also composed the film's score and sings its theme song
in one exquisitely moving sequence. The two lead actors
complement each other perfectly. Both appear naturally suited to
playing marginal characters who are incapable of expressing their
feelings outwardly, and yet manage to convey so much more of what lies
beneath the surface, fragile creatures groping for something tangible
in a world in which they appear constantly ill at ease.
That the film was made in something of a hurry is evident from the
screenplay, which lacks the rigour of Ozon's previous screen
compositions. However, even this seems to work in the film's
favour, giving it a spontaneity and acuity that is found only in the
director's early, short films.
Le
Refuge isn't so much a polished piece of cinema as a kind of
improvised visual poem which allows the spectator to make of it what he
or she will. The two main characters, whilst skilfully portrayed
by two immensely talented actors, remain stubbornly hard to fathom, as
ambiguous and surprising as any that Ozon has so far created.
Like a Chopin nocturne, the film is quietly enchanting as it plays on
our senses, but it has a lingering aftertaste that is both solemn and
haunting. Far from unravelling the great mystery of child birth,
Ozon lends it even further mystique, in what is surely his most daring
film to date.
© James Travers 2013
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Next François Ozon film:
Potiche (2010)
Film Synopsis
Mousse and Louis are a young couple who are deliriously in love with
one another. But love is not enough to sustain their happy idyll
and so they resort to taking drugs. The outcome is tragically
predictable. Louis dies from an overdose of heroine, and Mousse
only just escapes the same fate. As she recovers in hospital
Mousse discovers that she is pregnant with Louis's child. Unsure
what to do next, the young woman flees to a country house by the sea,
far from the hubbub of Paris. A few months later, Louis's brother
Paul shows up and asks if he can stay with her. Mousse is
inevitably drawn to the young man who resembles her dead partner in so
many ways. Even when she learns that he is gay she still finds
she is attached to him, as if he somehow holds the key to all her
problems...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.