Few contemporary filmmakers have been quite so adept and adroit at depicting the myriad ways in which love can, indeed, hurt as François Ozon. Ozon 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 very, very queer, his prolific run at the end of the millennium offers no shortage of Ant-Valentines fodder, presented here in brand new restorations by distributor Altered Innocence.
SITCOM
dir. François Ozon, 1998
United States. 80 min.
In French with English subtitles
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 8 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 14 – 10PM
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 18TH – 10PM
MONDAY FEBRUARY 24TH – 7:30PM
An upper-middle-class nuclear family experiences upheaval when they adopt a laboratory mouse as their new 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
United States. 97 min.
In French with English subtitles
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 7 – 10PM
MONDAY FEBRUARY 10 – 10PM
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 14 – 7:30PM
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 26 – 10PM
After debuting at 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, Criminal Lovers starts with a thrill kill that sends its 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 the woods, 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
United States. 86 mins.
In French with English subtitles
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 6 – 7:30PM
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 11 – 7:30PM
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 14 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 22 – 10PM
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 27 – 7:30PM
Water Drops on Burning Rocks adapts an unproduced play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder— Ozon’s favorite filmmaker—in which Franz, a naïve 19-year-old, is seduced by a smug-yet-alluring, 50-year-old businessman Leopold, quickly moving 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