Bob Taylor
The first film I saw which had a transvestite character was The Damned, some 50 years ago. In the intervening years we've had any number of accounts of a man (why almost always a man?) who has to dress as a woman. Ozon's film has a stale air about it which works against our enjoyment.For me Anais Demoustier is the sole strong actor in this; Duris and Personnaz give capable support but she must carry the story, and carry it she does very memorably. The feeling is always that punches are being pulled, that possibly painful moments are being glossed over. I expected more anger from Personnaz's character when he discovered the deception (the weekend in the country with Duris, instead of the mother's house). Everybody is so well behaved, it doesn't ring true. La Cage aux Folles had more sting to it, you knew how bigoted some people were.I haven't really enjoyed an Ozon film since 8 femmes of 2002. He's coasting, giving us tried and true subjects and clichéd situations.
grantss
Claire and Laura have been friends since primary school. Now, in their adult lives, with each happily married, to Gilles and David respectively, they are as close as ever. Then Laura dies after an illness and Claire's world is suddenly very empty. Being the godmother of Laura's child, Lucie, Claire visits David and Lucie, only to discover he has a startling secret...Interesting, and very contemporary, themes, but doesn't quite hit the mark. The "secret" and its consequences were very intriguing and director Francois Ozon developed the theme well. We see how Claire adapts to it, welcomes it and even likes and encourages it. We also see David turn from regarding it as something to be hidden to something to be celebrated.So far, so good. However, from a point Ozon doesn't know where to go with this and how to wrap it all up. We have a few false starts and red herrings.The conclusion is a bit too neat and isn't entirely consistent with what went before. While incredibly novel, and even a bit funny, it massively oversimplifies the issues and ideas that were raised in the movie. It also feels rushed. After slowly and methodically developing the themes in the first 2/3rds of the movie, we skip some necessary plot development and get straight to the ending.Ultimately, so-so, on the margin between okay and meh.
lasttimeisaw
Ozon's latest picture is a queer and lurid modern tale on human's sexuality, a consistent motif of his canon, and this time, he goes even further, transmutes the recently-departed Ruth Rendell's 1985 short story THE NEW GIRLFRIEND into a glossy drama-comedy, exploring the avant-garde conception of two people's realisation of their own sexual individuality, which leaps beyond the usual straight/gay/bisexual boundary. The link between David (Duris) and Claire (Demoustier) is Laura (Le Besco), she is David's wife and Claire's bestie since childhood, after giving birth to a baby girl Lucie, Laura passes away, which leaves both devastating, the film starts with Laura's funeral, she is buried in her wedding dress, then within five minutes, the narrative flips bracingly through Laura and Claire's growth trajectory until the present, when Claire speaks in her best friend's funeral ceremony and declares that she will adhere to her vow, to take care Lucie and David. By an incident, Laura surprisingly discovers that David is a cross-dresser, after the initial shock, Claire seems to find a new way to deal with Laura's death when David's female identity Virginia, sports Laura's dress and perfume, becomes a new replacement and wakes up her latent lesbianism which will damage her marriage with the unwitting Gilles (Personnaz). Ostensibly the film is developing according to a familiar pattern, as we witness David experience a full-blooming of his transvestite identity alongside Claire's assistance, which peaks in the heartfelt rendition of UNE FEMME AVEC TOI by a trans-singer in a night club. Duris delivers a brilliant turn in this gender confusion role, the incompatibility of his bony figure and very masculine face as a woman creates a ludicrous laughing point, it is always an award-worthy platform for actors acting-in-drag, Duris might not look as ravishing as Melvil Poupaud in LAURENCE ALWAYS (2012), but he defty galvanises warmth and fondness in David/Virginia. In fact, the film's mainstay is always on Claire, whose affection towards Laura can be spotted from earlier with yearning gaze, when she realises Laura is attracted to me, she represses her feelings and chooses a conventional marriage following Laura's steps. Only when she and Virginia take a getaway in Laura's childhood house, the long-dormant impulsion is resuscitated, here Ozon cunningly deploys a trickery in Claire's dream sequence to show viewers that Laura is the one she desires, not David, no matter how Virginia is appealing to her, in the end, David's male sex organ is the real deal-breaker. Demoustier plays Claire's gradual awakening inconspicuously, like her character, Claire is not a prima donna, an attention-grabber, she is pretty but more inward-looking. Demoustier's effort cannot be overlooked even though Duris' role is far meatier.Now to the downside, during the latter half, it seems that Ozon becomes slack when the shopworn car-accident is wantonly introduced to literally provide David a second chance to wake up in her new identity when all the lies and fronts are debunked, more cringe-worthy is she can only wake up after Claire dresses her up as Virginia and sings her UNE FEMME AVEC MOI. Also, Ozon's morbid emphasis on dressing dead body is too over under the context, there is no need to go that far. Finally the open ending, it is frustrating to leave the agreeable Gilles out of the picture without any indication since he is the most innocent one among them, he deserves a better treatment after all.
