Watched Criminal Lovers (1999)

François Ozon’s films fall into two categories – either they captivate you, or… you are not satisfied with the number of same-sex and strange relationships, and you turn away from watching his films.

But, at the same time, in my opinion, this is one of the interesting, “free” directors, in terms of views, whose films are light and interesting. Often the plots are unusual and have certain notes of deviation. For example, in the film “New Girlfriend” the story was about a man who lost his wife and… started to dress in women’s clothes, trying to “return” the mother to the child. In another film “In the House” , on the one hand, we observed the strange relationship between a young guy and his friend’s mother, and on the other, a certain love between these guys. So… how did the film Criminal Lovers differ in this respect?

The story tells about a strange couple, Luke and Alice. According to Alice, she was raped by a group of guys. In addition to them, there was a guy named Said, who took pictures of what was happening and promised to make them public if Alice did not sleep with him. So, she decides to offer Luke to solve this issue by killing Said. Luke agrees to this scam and this is how this criminal love story begins.

According to the plot, the heroes plan to drive away and bury the body of a guy who was killed, but they encounter certain difficulties when, after burying the body, they get lost in the forest and come across a house whose owner has gone about his business.

At this point, the film, in a sense, turns into a fairy tale about Hansel and Gretel, when the owner of the house returns to the house with a gun on his shoulder. This is where the most interesting part begins, because wait… watch in the film 🙂

I would like to write a whole analysis of this film, but I will limit myself to the fact that it interestingly shows the sequence of actions and the consequences that we get after. That is, no one forbids you to kill someone – but be prepared that at some point they will be exposed and you will have to deal with the consequences of what you did, which can be more terrible than what you did. In this film, as in some other films, the director depicted male love in an unusual way, when the main character becomes the lover of the one whose hostage he became. And the question arises – who is more important to him. The girl with whom they went through various events, or the man with whom he was able to be who he is.

I unanimously cannot recommend the film to people who are against same-sex relationships between men (although the film is not about it, but..). At the same time, for those who are normal about it, I would recommend it as an interesting film for the evening. Francois Ozon once again pleased with a beautiful and interesting picture. I give it 9 out of 10.