Few contemporary filmmakers have been so adept at depicting the myriad ways love hurts as François Ozon, who delights in placing his tortured lovers in a variety of dynamics, stepping back, and watching the psychological and sexual sparks fly. Alternately tender and cruel, and always very queer, his prolific run at the end of the millennium offers no shortage of Ant-Valentines fodder, presented here in new restorations by distributor Altered Innocence.
SITCOM
dir. François Ozon, 1998
France, 80 min
In French with English subtitles
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18 – 10 PM
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24 – 7:30 PM
An upper-middle-class family experiences upheaval when they adopt a laboratory mouse as a pet. As each member interacts with the new addition to the household, the animal exerts a strange power that prompts them to explore their repressed psychosexual desires. A satire of bourgeois values—something of a cross between John Waters and Luis Buñuel—Ozon offers surreal delights and a rollercoaster of perversion.
CRIMINAL LOVERS
dir. François Ozon, 1999
France, 97 min
In French with English subtitles
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7 – 10 PM
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26 – 10 PM
After debuting as part of Anthology Film Archives’ Narrow Rooms series last year, the restoration of CRIMINAL LOVERS returns to New York. An audacious queer take on Hansel and Gretel, the film starts with a thrill kill that sends protagonists Alice and Luc down the rabbit hole. Like a wannabe Bonnie and Clyde, the couple flee their safe suburban lives before getting lost in a forest, only to find themselves trapped by a psychotic woodsman. What awaits in his cellar—from sexual enlightenment to karmic retribution—must be seen to be believed.
WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS
dir. François Ozon, 2000
France, 86 mins
In French with English subtitles
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27 – 7:30 PM
WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS adapts an unproduced play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Ozon’s favorite filmmaker. Franz, a naïve 19-year-old, is seduced by smug yet alluring 50-year-old businessman Leopold and quickly moves into his apartment. Domestic bliss is short-lived as a sadomasochistic relationship takes root, and the power dynamics continue to shift upon the arrival of both men’s ex-girlfriends: the spry Anna and mysterious Véra. This ménage à quatre leads to sex, despair, and of course, a musical number.
Special thanks to Altered Innocence.