Melvil Poupaud about to tell Christian Sengewald to get lost rance has had any number of ga... Matters of Life and Death...
rance has had any number of gay film directors – from Marcel Carné and Patrice Chéreau to André Téchiné and the team of Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau – but it's safe to say that there has never been anyone, gay or straight, quite like François Ozon. At 39, he has amassed a sizable body of striking work, including Criminal Lovers, Sitcom, 8 Women, Under the Sand, and the 2003 art-house hit Swimming Pool. Now with his latest, and most emotionally adroit, release Time to Leave (reviewed on page 34), Ozon deals with death. But being Ozon, The End doesn't arrive in its expected form. For his gay (anti-)hero doesn't expire from AIDS but cancer. And, as played by the brilliant Melvil Poupaud (a star since age 10 in countless films by Raoul Ruiz), he's not a figure that wins easy sympathy. In town for the Los Angeles Film Festival, Ozon spoke about a career whose intensity recalls that of Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
CityBeat: Are there other connections between you and Fassbinder besides your 2000 film version of the early Fassbinder play Water Drops on Burning Rocks?
Francois Ozon: Well, Fassbinder did more than me. Seven films a year. When he died [of a drug overdose in 1982], he was my age, but by then he had 40 movies.
And a lot of living. A lot of very bad living. But this new film of yours shows a kind of thoughtfulness about dealing with death that I didn't sense in your work before.
You can survive with AIDS now. I wanted no ambiguity about this character when he learns he's going to die. So I asked a doctor which disease should it be. With terminal cancer, you can't discern where it comes from exactly. And in this way I was able to avoid the kind of cliché about being gay and AIDS. You can be gay and die from something else.
I think it's interesting in a movie when you have this sort of work to do as a spectator. You have no connection with the character at first, and at the end maybe you've changed your mind about him.
You can think he's a bastard, but he wants his boyfriend to mourn him in a different way. He says “Forgive me” when he starts his speech to him. But he doesn't want him to see his physical disintegration. He's like an animal going away to die by himself.
You have him telling his grandmother about what's happening to him, and no one else, because she's “closer to death.” You can say that to a grandmother like Jeanne Moreau.
She read the script, and she loved it. It was very interesting because, each time we did a take, she was shocked by what he said to her. It was good for the film.
I'm just telling you what they said. I was surprised. To me he is very attractive and interesting. But to some people he looks ugly; to others he's very charming.
In record time you've established youself as a world-class director of actresses. I think you've worked with just about everyone in the French cinema by now: Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Fanny Ardant, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Beart, Virginie Ledoyen, and your own discovery, Ludivine Sagnier. I think the only ones left are Hélène Surgére, Sandrine Bonnaire, and Jane Birkin.
Not big enough of a spotlight for her, I expect. Among the filmmakers in France right now, are there any you relate to in terms of your own work?
There are many interesting filmmakers in France now – Bruno Dumont, Claire Denis, Olivier Assayas, Gaspard Noé. It's very exciting. I just hope all these people can go on with their work.
It's difficult to say. The last big hits in France were stupid comedies with actors from television. Very depressing. People want to go to see these comedies or big American action movies. But there's still a kind of energy. People want to make movies, even if they don't have a lot of money.
And with you, everything always has to have an edge. Speaking of which, I do want to thank you for reviving Charlotte Rampling's career and giving her such great roles like Swimming Pool and Under the Sand.
You know, she didn't really act in Under the Sand. She was that part. She was more of an actress in Swimming Pool, because the character was completely unlike her. Under the Sand was a true story. When I was eight years old, I went to the beach one day with my family. There was this Scandinavian couple there. The husband walked off into the water – and never came out. His wife waited for a while, and then just picked up her things and went home.
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