The film is the story of a young man who is arrested as it relates to the death of another young man he met in the summer as he tells a case worker and his teacher about what happened in this summer in which he fell in love. It is a film that explore this relationship between two young men and a pact they would make in case one of them dies where something did happen. Francois Ozon’s screenplay has this back-and-forth reflective narrative where its 16-year old protagonist Alexis Robin (Felix Lefebvre) is arrested where he talks to a case worker (Aurore Broutin) about what happened though he is reluctant to divulge into information about his relationship with the 18-year old David Gorman (Benjamin Voisin).
Alexis met David when the former was on a boat that capsized as he was saved by the latter as the two become friends with David’s mother (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) taking a liking to Alexis thinking he would be a good influence on her son. Alexis doesn’t tell his parents (Isabelle Nanty and Laurent Fernandez) about David fearing that his more conservative father would disapprove. The script reveals the pact that they created but also Alexis’ own reluctance to open up as his literature professor Lefevre (Melvil Poupaud) suggests writing about what happened and such. Notably as a young English au pair in Kate (Philippine Velge) was thrown into the mix that created tension between the two young men.
Ozon’s direction definitely bear some style in terms of the looseness of his overall presentation yet a lot of it is straightforward as it is shot on location in Normandy. There are wide and medium shots as it capture the scope of these locations along with some intimate shots at a fishing shop that David’s mother own where Alexis would work at. There are close-ups in Ozon’s direction as it play into the drama where Alexis is being interrogated but also in some emotional moments in the film. There are different tones that Ozon maintain throughout the film with the second act being this lively and romantic film as it relates to these two young men just falling in love but also complications as David is someone that wants to experience different things that include Kate. It would be the source of chaos that would loom throughout the film as well as what happened to David.
Ozon’s approach to the scenes where Alexis is being questioned and interrogated are a bit more claustrophobic in its framing as if the world is closing on Alexis. Notably as he becomes distant with his parents worrying about him including his own father, despite his own conservative views on life, as he tries to reach out to David’s mother. Ozon also play into this pact that Alexis and David make as it is a strange promise the two made but one that needs to be honored. Even as its aftermath ends up being a moment of growth where Ozon ends the film on a cold day signifying not just the end of the summer but the end of a part of Alexis’ life but also the beginning of a new adventure. Overall, Ozon crafts a somber yet intoxicating film about a young man who falls in love with another man during a whirlwind summer in Normandy.
Cinematographer Hichame Alaouie does amazing work with the film’s cinematography with its usage of colorful lighting for some of the scenes at night as well as some natural lighting for some of the daytime interior/exterior scenes. Editor Laure Gardette does excellent work with the editing with some jump-cuts as well as other rhythmic cuts to play into the drama and the light-hearted moments in the film. Production designer Benoit Barouh, with set decorator Frederic Delerue and art director Teddy Barouh, does fantastic work with the look of the fishing shop owned by David’s mother as well as the homes of David and Alexis. Costume designer Pascaline Chavanne does brilliant work with the costumes as it play into the look of the 1980s as well as a dress that Alexis would wear for a key scene in the film’s third act.
Visual effects supervisor Mikael Tanguy does terrific work with some of the film’s minimal visual effects as it is largely bits of set dressing for some of the exteriors to give it a 1980s look and feel. The sound work of Jean-Paul Hurier and Brigitte Taillander do superb work with the film’s sound in playing to the atmosphere of the film’s locations as well as how music would sound at a club and on location. The film’s music by Jean-Benoit Dunckel is wonderful for its low-key orchestral score that play into the drama and romance while the music soundtrack feature music from the Cure, Bananarama, Rod Stewart, and French/Euro pop music of the 1980s.
The casting by Elodie Demey and Anais Duran is incredible as it feature some notable small roles from Antoine Simon as a drunk that Alexis and David meet early in the film, Yoann Zimmer as a friend of Alexis in Luc who doesn’t like gays, Bruno Lochet as a man named Bruno who runs a morgue, Laurent Fernandez as Alexis’ stern yet caring father, Isabelle Nanty as Alexis’ warm and loving mother, and Aurore Broutin as a case worker who is handling Alexis’ case as she tries to find answers knowing the severity of his crime. Melvil Poupaud is superb in his small role as Alexis’ literature teacher who is convinced that something did happen as he knows that the only way to get an answer was for Alexis to write about it. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi is fantastic as David’s mother as a woman who is enthralled by the presence of Alexis believing he would be a good influence of her son while later be ravaged by grief and seeking answers. Philippine Velge is excellent as Kate as a British tourist whom Alexis befriends as she unknowingly attracts the attention of David as she didn’t realize she would be the source of tension between Alexis and David.
Finally, there’s the duo of Felix Lefebvre and Benjamin Voisin in incredible performances in their respective roles as Alexis Robin and David Gorman. Voisin provides an energetic performance as the wilder David as a young 18-year old who is trying to find himself but also is someone who wants to evolve and seek new adventures. Lefebvre’s performance as the 16-year old Alexis is a bit more reserved as someone that is just trying to figure himself out but would also be emotional as it relates to loss and heartbreak. Lefebvre and Voisin together are electrifying in the way they react towards one another but also in how much these two men love each other.
Ete 85 is a sensational film from Francois Ozon. Featuring a great ensemble cast, gorgeous visuals, a study of young love and identity during the 1980s, and a wondrous music soundtrack. It is a film that is this fascinating coming-of-age story that play into young love but also the idea of promises and its effect on many. In the end, Ete 85 is a phenomenal film from Francois Ozon.
Francois Ozon Films: See the Sea - Sitcom - Criminal Lovers - Water Drops on Burning Rocks - Under the Sand - 8 Women - Swimming Pool (2003 film) - 5x2 - Time to Leave - Angel (2007 film) - Ricky - Le Refuge - Potiche - In the House - Jeune & Jolie - (The New Girlfriend) – (Frantz (2016 film)) – (Double Lover) – (By the Grace of God) – (Everything Went Fine) – (Peter von Kant) – The Auteurs #33: Francois Ozon
© thevoid99 2022
Originally Written and Posted at Epinions.com on 12/4/06 w/ Additional Edits & Revisions.
Written and directed by Ozon, Le Temps qui reste (Time to Leave)is the story of a young, successful fashion photographer who learns he is about to die from a brain tumor. Alienating everyone in his life including his boyfriend, he turns to his old grandmother and a waitress for help on reflecting his own life. The film is an exploration into the world of death as a young faces what is inevitable. Starring Melvil Poupaud, Daniel Duval, Marie Rivere, Louise-Anne Hippeau, Christian Sengewald, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and Jeanne Moreau. Le Temps qui reste is a harrowing yet poignant film about death from Francois Ozon.
When death is becoming certain, it always reveals a certain reaction into how one deals with it. In this film, a photographer named Romaine (Melvil Poupaud) learns that he has a malignant brain tumor with very little time to live. Despite the suggestion to do chemotherapy, Romaine decides not to as he starts to push everyone around him including his family, his boyfriend Sasha (Christian Sengewald), and those closes to him leaving the family upset and Sasha heartbroken by Romaine's decision to end the relationship. The only person that Romaine decides to tell is his ailing grandmother (Jeanne Moreau) while he also meets a waitress named Jany (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) who is desperate to have a child with her husband Bruno (Walter Pagano). In these final moments, Romaine decides to settle everything in his life including doing some things for Jany and Bruno as an act of generosity.
What Francois Ozon does with his screenplay is studying the world of death from the view of a 31-year old man. Instead of creating a high, melodramatic, woe-is-me kind of drama, Ozon goes for a realistic yet cynical study of a young man dealing and accepting his fate. It also reveals that Romaine still hasn't changed early on in the film once he is already aware that he's going to die. Ozon could've made him into a full-on, tragic character but instead, he goes for someone that is like everyone. A character that is flawed like everyone who goes into an emotional, existential journey dealing with who he is and everything.
It's in Ozon's screenplay that allows the audience to give their own interpretation about Romaine's behavior and his melancholic state as he recalls childhood flashbacks and how he takes pictures of things around him including his sister, grandmother, Sasha, Jany, and everything else that surrounds him. The pacing that Ozon takes is deliberate to convey the fact that once someone faces certain death, time slows down. The elliptical pacing won't be for everyone, even for a film that has a running time of 77-minutes. It's something that Ozon chooses to do just to give that atmosphere in his directing. Ozon's directing is more fluid than every with every scene and composition, notably the film's final moments where Romaine begins to accept his fate fully. It's by far some of the most beautiful and harrowing shots composed in film.
Helping Ozon in his visual presentation is longtime cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie whose photography is as crisp and elegant in many of the film's exterior settings while the interior shots are wonderfully lit to convey the mood of Romaine in his final days. Art director Katia Wyzkop does wonderful work in creating the different places that Romaine goes from the vast, colorful garden house of his grandmother to the posh world that his parents live. Longtime costume designer Pascaline Chavanne does some amazing costume work for Romaine's mother and grandmother as well as the clothes of Romaine that reveal his descent. Editor Monica Coleman does some wonderful jump-cut and freeze-frame cuts to give the idea that Romaine is taking pictures while the slow, elliptical pacing is deliberate for what Ozon wanted. The sound work by Brigitte Tallandier, Aymeric Devoldere, and Jean-Pierre Laforce do wonderful work in giving the moment of silence to convey Romaine's feelings with the sound of the last scene playing through the credits. The music is filled with classical, orchestral cuts to convey the melancholia while it's largely dominated by the piano pieces of Avro Part.
The film's cast is wonderfully assembled with the performances of minor characters like Ugo Soussan Trabelsi as the young Romaine, Alba Gaia Kraghede Bellugi as the young Sophie, Henri de Lorme as Romaine's doctor and Walter Pagano as Bruno. Marie Reverie and Daniel Duval are also excellent as Romaine's caring parents who are unaware of his fate while dealing with his temperamental attitude. Louise-Anne Hippeau is also good as Sophie, Romaine's suffering, fragile sister who is trying to find some care from Romaine. Christian Sengewald is very good as Sasha who is hurt by Romaine's neglect only to be forced to go into his own as he finally finds some acceptance from Romaine.
Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi is wonderful as the sweet Jany who seeks Romaine to give her a child as she sees him as someone who is nice and beautiful where she is unaware of how important she becomes in his final days. The legendary Jeanne Moreau gives a wonderfully understated performance as Romaine's grandmother who understands that her time is now fleeting as she provides the only sense of comfort and wisdom for Romaine. Moreau remains to be an enigmatic beauty and graceful figure that though she's only in the film for about five minutes, her moment is very lasting. Melvil Poupaud is wonderful as the complex, troubled Romaine where he starts out with an arrogant, indifferent attitude only to develop on what he's going to lose and everything only to gain a sense of self in the end. Poupaud, who looks like Eric Bana, definitely takes risks by making himself physically worn out towards the end of the film as he gives a brave performance.
The 2006 Region 1 DVD of Time to Leave presents the film in widescreen with DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound as it's in English subtitles. The special features of the DVD includes the film's original theatrical trailer as well as several trailers including Gregg Araki's brilliant Mysterious Skin from the Strand Releasing company. Two other special features are featured where the first is 18-minutes worth of deleted scenes including a 30-second conversation between Romaine and his father, three extra minutes of Romaine's grandmother talking about his grandfather, a strange meeting with Bruno, a childhood flashback, Romaine discussing depression with his doctor, an alternate scene involving Sophie's letter, a church scene where Romaine talks about faith and how he felt God abandoned him, and an extended take on the film's final sequence.
The second big special feature is a 76-minute making-of featurette. The special features Ozon with his crew including Jeanne Lapoirie, Pascaline Chavanne, and Katia Wyzkop figuring out everything to shoot. Ozon is hands-on a technical director always looking into the camera while directing his actors to try and act natural while in one sequence, he tells Christian Sengewald about a shot where Ozon replied, "Yeah, you suck". One of the most interesting moments in the making-of is with Jeanne Moreau whose experience and wisdom was in awe of the crew and cast while she helped Ozon cut a few lines to make the dialogue flow better. Moreau talked about working with Ozon since she saw his work as a short-film director and was glad how he can direct her without being intimidated. Melvil Poupaud discusses the joy he worked in Ozon in how he wanted to create such a unique character while discussing how hard it was to become very thin for the part. It's a great making-of featurette that reveals Ozon as a director.
Le Temps qui reste is an entrancing yet enchanting film from Francois Ozon that features a chilling yet brilliant performance from Melvil Poupaud. It's a film that explores the world of death with a very low-key style while channeling all of its complexities in the way one reacts. It's also one of Ozon's most mature features that showcases a once-known cinematic bad boy growing up and taking a heavy subject matter by presenting with such delicacy and care. In the end, Le Temps qui Reste is a remarkable film from Francois Ozon.
Francois Ozon Films: See the Sea - Sitcom - Criminal Lovers - Water Drops on Burning Rocks - Under the Sand - 8 Women - Swimming Pool - 5x2 - Angel (2007 film) - Ricky - The Refuge - Potiche - In the House - Jeune & Jolie - (The New Girlfriend) - (Frantz (2016 film)) - (Double Lover) - (By the Grace of God) - Summer of 85 - (Everything Went Fine) - (Peter von Kant) - The Auteurs #33: Francois Ozon
© thevoid99 2013
Directed by Francois Ozon and written by Ozon and Emmanuele Bernheim, 5x2 is the story about the life of a couple from how they met and how they dissolved told backwards in five different parts of their lives. The film is an exploration into the world of love and marriage on how it fell apart and how did they get together in the first place. Starring Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and Stephane Freiss. 5x2 is an entrancing yet captivating drama from Francois Ozon.
There is always a scheme whenever love comes into play. Boy meets girl. Boy marries girl. Then comes a baby and later a family. Then they either grow old together and die or they get divorced and find someone else. In this film, it’s about the end of a relationship told backwards in five different settings as it involves Marion (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) and Gilles (Stephane Freiss) as it begins with the two finalizing their divorce and spend one final day together as it’s clear that it’s over. The subsequent episodes of Marion and Gilles’ life reveal not just some of the aspects of their dissolution but also the question of where they right for each other to begin with?
What Francois Ozon and co-writer Emmanuele Bernheim do is take five moments of the life of Marion and Gilles told backwards to discover not just where the root of their dissolution but also how they met in the final episode of the film. The three episodes in between the film’s beginning and ending not only reveal moments where their marriage starts to fall apart but also the reasons into why they never should’ve been together in the first place. The screenplay plays into many themes of marriage including infidelity and family where is it all worth it to get married. Yet, Marion and Gilles would face many challenges in their marriage including on their wedding day where Marion’s encounter with an American tourist (Jason Tavassoli) would continue to add these questions that the film raises.
Ozon’s direction is very entrancing for the way he explores these five different moments as a lot of it is very bleak and unsettling from his approach to framing the actors in a scene to the way he presents these intimate moments with such subtlety and restraint. Even in the drama as it is very low-key and minimalist while it does have some moments of brutality that makes things very uncomfortable. Each segment Ozon brings is told in 20 minutes where he allows enough coverage to unveil the events that caused this relationship to be doomed as some of its told unconventionally while its final segment is definitely the most conventional which is quite different from the rest of the film as it unveils some happy moments. Overall, Ozon crafts a very provocative and intriguing look into the world of marriage and its drawbacks.
Cinematographer Yorick Le Saux does brilliant work with the film‘s cinematography that includes some very stark colored schemes for most of the film‘s first half to more gorgeous lighting schemes in the wedding scene. Editor Monica Coleman does great work with the editing to help create this unique structure for the film as well as using rhythmic cuts to play out some of the film‘s drama. Production designer Katia Wyszkop does excellent work with some of the set pieces from the look of the wedding reception to the home of Gilles and Marion that reveal some of the bleakness of the film. Costume designer Pascaline Chavanne does fantastic work with the costumes to showcase the sense of de-evolution into the characters as their clothes start from being cold to more light-hearted as the film progresses.
The sound work of Jean-Pierre Duret, Benoit Hillebrant, and Jean-Pierre Laforce is terrific to play out some of the dark intimacy of the film as well as some of the more raucous moments in the wedding reception and the first meeting between Gilles and Marion. The film’s music by Philippe Rombi is wonderful for the melancholia that is created in its low-key piano score to convey that sense of doom while its soundtrack consists of music ranging from Italian pop ballads, techno, and contemporary music including the Platters’ Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.
The casting by Antoinette Boulat is terrific for the ensemble that is created as it features some small roles from Jean-Pol Brissart as the divorce judge, Yannis Belkacem as Gilles and Marion’s son Nicholas, Jason Tassavoli as the American tourist Marion meets on her wedding night, Geraldine Pailhas as Gilles’ girlfriend in the final segment of the film, Antoine Chappey as Gilles’ gay brother Christophe, Marc Ruchmann as Christopher’s boyfriend Mathieu, Francoise Fabian as Marion’s domineering mother, and Michael Lonsdale in superb performance as Marion’s more quiet and insightful father.
Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and Stephane Freiss are remarkable in their respective roles as Marion and Gilles. Freiss brings a chilling performance to a man who seems lost in his marriage as he becomes far more despicable as he later shown to be a much kinder and more enjoyable man before he meets Marion. Bruni-Tedeschi showcases a more complex performance as a woman filled with bitterness over how things went wrong while she seems to be someone who tries to hold on to everything but does things that will play into their dissolution.
***DVD Content comes from the Original Review at Epinions.com that was Written and Posted on 6/2/06***
The 2005 Region 1 DVD from Thinkfilm and Lions Gate shows the film in a wonderful widescreen format with an excellent 5.1 Dolby Digital sound in French with English subtitles. While the DVD is more superior to what Focus Feature had done for his previous feature, Swimming Pool, they both leave fans wanting for more. The special features of 5x2 includes preview trailers for other films like Kontrol, an auditions feature, a making-of special, lighting tests, and deleted scenes. The auditions feature done in late 2002 features Stephane Freiss and a dark-haired Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi acting out a scene from a movie not by Ozon but from another film. The audition revealed the strong chemistry Freiss and Bruni-Tedeschi had while the two looked relaxed and having fun at the same time. The lighting test is a one-minute clip of Ozon photographing his actors to get the right light as the two were looking very comfortable.
The 16-minute making-of featurette is really the making of the wedding scene which reveals more of Ozon's working style. While Ozon, like most directors, uses monitors, he also goes behind the camera looking for the right shots as he directing his stand-ins to dance the waltz with music in the background. This special shows how talented Ozon is as director as he can direct two to many more while trying to get the timing right and the actors to feel comfortable as the scene shows how much fun they were having. It's a true delight for fans of the director.
The 18-minute deleted scenes section reveals five clips that got cut from the film where it was obviously for pacing issues or plot reasons. The first is a prologue sequence of Marion waking up in her apartment with Gilles sleeping as he wakes up which leads to the two to make love and then cuts to the first scene of the film. The second scene involves an extended party sequence with Christophe where Gilles reveals his depression and his unemployed status. The third deleted scene is an extended sequence that involves Marion's encounter with the American which opens up more interpretation to the audience. The fourth deleted scene is the first meeting of Marion and Gilles in an office which shows more of Marion's youthful energy as opposed to the relaxed behavior of Gilles. The final scene is merely an outtake of Marion doing synchronized swimming which is really one of the funniest outtakes of the film.
While the Region 1 DVD is great, the Region 2 special French 2-disc DVD edition that contains more features. One is a Venice Film Festival feature, where Bruni-Tedeschi won a Best Actress prize, and audio commentary from Francois Ozon himself, in French obviously. On that DVD includes a different version of the film called 2x5 which Ozon shows the film in its exact, chronological order with some re-editing and new perspective that's only available in France. While American fans might want the Region 1 DVD, they'll have to pay a lot more the Region 2 French version.
***End of DVD Content***
5x2 is a marvelous film from Francois Ozon that features brilliant performances from Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and Stephane Freiss. The film isn’t just one of Ozon’s great triumphs but also one of the most compelling films about the world of marriage told in an unconventional fashion. It’s also an intriguing film for the fact that it uses its backwards-storytelling gimmick to be effective to raise questions about how things went wrong. In the end, 5x2 is a fantastic film from Francois Ozon.
Francois Ozon Films: See the Sea - Sitcom - Criminal Lovers - Water Drops on Burning Rocks - Under the Sand - 8 Women - Swimming Pool - Time to Leave - Angel (2007 film) - Ricky - The Refuge - Potiche - In the House - Jeune & Jolie - (The New Girlfriend) - (Frantz (2016 film)) - (Double Lover) - (By the Grace of God) - Summer of 85 - (Everything Went Fine) - (Peter von Kant) - The Auteurs #33: Francois Ozon
© thevoid99 2013
