Francois Ozon's intimate and lyrical work features a moving performance by Melvil Poupaud as a 30 year-old man facing up to the reality of his own mortality. With his perfect life thrown into chaos by the shock diagnosis of a serious illness, fashion photographer Romain finds himself unable to share the news withi his boyfriend .. Read more
| Starring | Jeanne Moreau, Melvil Poupaud, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Daniel Duval |
|---|---|
| Director | Francois Ozon |
| Genres | Drama, Gay/Lesbian, World Cinema |
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Francois Ozon's intimate and lyrical work features a moving performance by Melvil Poupaud as a 30 year-old man facing up to the reality of his own mortality. With his perfect life thrown into chaos by the shock diagnosis of a serious illness, fashion photographer Romain finds himself unable to share the news withi his boyfriend or family, confiding instead only in his gandmother (Jeanne Moreau)...
| Starring | Jeanne Moreau, Melvil Poupaud, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Daniel Duval |
|---|---|
| Director | Francois Ozon |
| Studio | ARTIFICIAL EYE FILM COMPANY LTD. |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 25 mins Watch now: 1 hr 18 mins |
| Certificate | DVD: |
| Genres | Drama, Gay/Lesbian, World Cinema |
| Language | DVD: French Watch Online: French, English, German |
| Subtitles | DVD: English Watch Online: English |
| Released | DVD: 25 Sep 2006 Watch now: 20 Oct 2009 Production year: 2005 |
| Watch now | Subscribe and watch this as part of an unlimited package. |
| Format | DVD |
No Anglo-Saxon filmmaker would be able to get away with a work like this without being laughed out of the business; but the French can do it, somehow.
Here you have an obnoxious and contrary, utterly self-centred and unapologetically arrogant protagonist dealing with the sudden and unexpected diagnosis of a terminal cancerous tumour.
Some of the plot developments are too pseudy and downright sillly for words (like agreeing to father a child with a motorway-café waitress whose husband is sterile), and it verges on being an American-indie-style melodrama: plinkety-plonkety pedalled-piano chords, a bit of French baroque sacred music to contrast with a squalid gay dungeon, that sort of thing. But when it works, it works very well indeed and it is, on the whole, a moving and interesting film.
I couldn't recommend this film enough. It's moving, erotic, at times funny and crucially it never comes close to being at all cliched as it shows how an arrogant gay man comes to terms with his terminal illness on his own. This character is conspired against by the film's own direction, for however much he may try to be an all-round unattractive character, Francois Ozon has ensured that you can't help but be attracted to him. One of Ozon's best, its french cinema at its finest as far as i'm concerned. It had me crying at many points, but don't let that put you off - the film is cathartic, not upsetting.