Year: 2004
Director: François Ozon
Screenplay: François Ozon and Emmanuèle Bernheim
Starring: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Stéphane Freiss
Running Time: 90 minutes
Genre: Drama
Over the course of five episodes, the film tells the story of a married couple in reverse. It opens with Marion (Tedeschi) and Gilles (Freiss) in a lawyer's office finalising their divorce, and then moves back to tense dinner with Gilles' brother (Antoine Chappey) and his partner (Marc Ruchmann), the birth of Marion and Gilles' son, their wedding and concluding with their meeting in an idyllic Spanish seaside resort.
This French film, the title of which is Five Times Two in English, is a dark drama which uses a reverse chronology to chart the gradual disintegration of a marriage. Going from the acrimonious divorce, and a shocking scene where Gilles sexually assaults Marion, to their initial holiday romance. With the benefit of hindsight we can see how things go wrong, and where the cracks form in the relationship. The reverse structure had been used in a couple of other films that came out in the early 2000s, most notably the thriller Memento (2000) and the controversial Irréversible (2002), but Ozon's stated inspiration was the 1986 Australian TV movie Two Friends, directed by Jane Campion, that depicted the end of a friendship in reverse. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Stéphane Freiss are perfectly cast as the couple. Ozone directs with style and the script is clever and witty. There is s lot to admire in the film, however I would proceed with caution, it's very bleak. For one thing this is arguably one of the least romantic films ever made. Every couple in the film is miserable and/or doomed. It's not a film for Date Night. If you are single however, this might make you feel a bit better about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment