I_solved_Rubikscube_in_one_min Yes its indeed a beautiful film. The actors have done a fabulous job. I know how it is to be hopelessly in love with someone that you will go to any extent to come out of that pain of loneliness, once he/she doesn't remain the same person you once fell in love with. When you are lonely in life you tend to develop a special bond with that person who is most closest to you at that point of time. Eventually you end up loving that person so much that everything in front of you seems so immaterial and superficial. That's what this film is about; loneliness, friendships, relationships, lust, craving for love and all. Honestly, I saw this film on DVD and I rented it for only some hot and sensuous scenes but then I was taken aback by its storyline. Its amazing how Francois Ozon made this film with only 4 actors and yet managed to capture the everyday emotions of a regular married/living together couple (homo/heterosexual) with panache. I ended up watching a beautiful film.

gradyharp François Ozon has flair and style ('Swimming Pool', 'Under the Sand', '8 Women', etc) and in scripting Rainer Fassbinder's 1970s play 'Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes' for the screen he has created an edgy, fun, and poignant examination of the lives of four people at their intersection.Act I (for that is the way the film is laid out in homage to Fassbinder's play): 50-year-old Léopold (Bernard Giraudeau) is entertaining 19-year-old Franz (Malik Zidi), who he has picked up in a bar, with sharp repartees about his past loves and is sparred by Franz relating his current affair with the young and beautiful Anna (Ludivine Sagnier). The conversation gradually gets around to seduction and both Léopold and Franz happily reenact each other's physical fantasies. Act II: some months later and Franz has moved in with Léopold becoming the devoted housewife in lederhosen to Léopold's increasingly cranky self. They argue, threaten, but eventually succumb to the safety of the boudoir to settle differences. Act III: Léopold's ex lover Vera (Anna Levine) arrives at the door to find Léopold in a new life and departs brokenhearted. Anna likewise arrives during one of Léopold's absences and for two days Franz and Anna try to recapture their previous affair. Upon Léopold's return, Anna finds Léopold appealing and behaves seductively. Vera arrives, reports that she is a transsexual now in a female form, and Léopold is delighted with the idea of a ménage a quarte. But it is Franz who has found his true life and love and how he deals with the proposed turn of events forms the rather surprising end to this film.Each of the four actors is excellent and Ozon paces them well. There are some really fine moments, as when Franz reclines in his bath quoting Heine's poem 'Lorelei' revealing how far more penetrating the changes in his vision of his life really have become, when Ozon improves on Fassbinder. Not a great movie but a bit of the different that spices movie viewing. Grady Harp

Rogue-32 Another daring tightrope act from Francois Ozon, this time directing an unproduced play written by Fassbinder when he was 19. To say this film is offbeat would be an understatement; it doesn't proceed in any 'normal' way at all and by the conclusion you're left shaking your head with your jaw dropped. This is a good thing.

halliwell I've never been a big Fassbinder fan but with the coming retrospective I thought it was time to check him out again. So I chose this movie, since it was a Fassbinder script directed by a Frenchman (Ozon) that I admire. It was a delight. Somehow the problems I always had enjoying Fassbinder (the intense cruelty between his characters, the disorienting emotional mood swings, the bleak, dreary German atmosphere) were completely offset by the sense of play and love of color and music that Ozon brings to this script. As in 8 Women, his sense of style and beauty rival Almodovar's and even the grim reality of Fassbinder has a beautiful, chic French gloss. He understands that love and sex in Fassbinder are closely matched with jealousy and destruction. It all clicked for me. And the omnisexuality is so fresh - so unspoiled... That said, it's a devastating critique of what lovers can do to each other. But it's,...well...so pretty...I really, really enjoyed it.