A good movie

I’m not sure if François Ozon is really well known abroad (‘Swimming Pool’ did get some really solid international reviews but that was more than 10 years ago) but, in France, he definitely has a respectable reputation. I actually saw his first 2 movies in the movie theater when they were released (‘Sitcom’, ‘Les amants criminels’) but, even though those movies were rather positively received at the time, I didn’t like them much, especially ‘Sitcom’ which was really dreadful in my opinion. Still, even though his work was really rubbing me in the wrong way, it was obvious that the guy had some potential so I kept checking his work which was really prolific (indeed, he has directed 15 movies in 17 years). Eventually, it is with this movie that Ozon finally convinced me that he could be a compelling director. At the time, it was (rightfully) eclipsed by ‘Sous le sable’ which was released the same year and which was his first real success but I still really enjoyed this movie anyway. Indeed, once again, he was dealing with some messed up characters but, at last, it was finally compelling to watch. To conclude, it was still missing something to become really remarkable,(the fact that the pacing was rather sluggish with only one location and only 4 characters might have had something with this) but I thought it was a huge improvement on Ozon’s previous movies and it is definitely worth a look.