Criminal Lovers/Les Amants Criminels (1999) - Ozon impresses with carnal crime drama

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+ Best French Movie of the Year + Worst Dollar Return of the Year: 0.18 Times Its Cost

 

Sexual intimacy and fresh blood allure from this out-of-focus poster for François Ozon's Criminal Lovers

Alice and Luc are young lovers, but Luc is not so starving for sex as Alice had hoped. Together they murder a guy, who wanted to get in her pants and escapes, - but gets captured in a forest lodge.

 

Criminal Lovers is written by Marcia Romano (Standing Tall/La Tête Haute (2015)), Annabelle Perrichon (Deep in the Woods/Promenons-nous dans les Bois (2000)) and great French co-writer/director François Ozon (See the Sea/Regarde la Mer (1997)).

The plot is sufficiently dramatic, and the structure only gives us the truth behind the planned murder drip by drip. Natacha Régnier (Orly (2010)) and especially Jérémie Renier (The War in Paris/La Guerre à Paris (2002)) are good as the young lovers, who lack a strong moral compass. - But where do they come from? The film doesn't dwell on this or give us any hints.

Instead it cultivates their transgressive adventure, where nudity and sexual scenes fill up a great deal. The scenes between Renier and the owner of the lodge are quite unusual and will for some be kinky and titillating while for others perverse. (SPOILER The man gets comfortable in the role of a submissive slave.)

Criminal Lovers is a dark sexual adventure for the initiated, although it does only get us to a more or less satisfying position as spectators, distanced some to the characters, who copulate near the animals of the forest in one enjoyable scene.

 

Related posts:

 

François Ozon: Swimming Pool (2003) - Rampling and Sagnier stand out in Ozon's suggestive, sensual thriller 

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

 

 

Watch a short clip from the film here

 

Cost: Uncertain, reportedly at least 'under 2 mil. $'

Box office:  Unknown - likely in the neighborhood of 0.3 mil. $

= Uncertain - but likely a box office disaster (projected return of around 0.18 times the cost)

[Criminal Lovers was released 18 August (France) and runs 96 minutes. Shooting took place in France. The film reportedly sold 40,754 tickets in France, coming to 243k $, using the average UK ticket prize of 1999 (approximately 5.97 $). The film was also released in several other markets, including New York and Los Angeles, but gross details are regrettably not to be found online. Ozon returned with Water Drops on Burning Rocks/Gouttes d'Eau sur Pierres Brûlantes (2000). Régnier returned in Everything's Fine, We're Leaving/Tout va Bien, on s'en Va (2000); Renier in The King's Daughters/Saint-Cyr (2000). Criminal Lovers is fresh at 67 % with a 6.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Criminal Lovers?

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas (2013) - Mikkelsen simmers in stern historical drama

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Mads Mikkelsen with silvery hair, a sword and a sheepskin in a dramatic landscape on the poster for Arnaud des Pallières' Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas

 

Kohlhaas is a merchant in France in the 16th century, who is dealt an injustice by the court and then rejected redress by the legal system, which makes him go his own way and hire a smaller army.

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas is written by Christelle Berthevas (Orpheline (2016)) and co-writer/director/co-editor Arnaud de Pallières (Drancy Avenir (1997)), adapting Heinrich von Kleist's (The Broken Jug/Der Zerbrochne Krug (1808)) novella Michael Kohlhaas (1808), based on the real Michael Kohlhase.

How much should one risk to get satisfaction, and are there limits to what can be forgiven? What is the Christian's relationship to justice in general? These are some of the large themes that this very European film raises. - Very European in that it is littered with long silences, has almost no music and only observes bloodshed from a far away distance. It attracts with a peculiar combination of beautiful nature-set photography and a strong cast led forcefully by good and very photogenic Mads Mikkelsen (Doctor Strange (2016)). His scenes with Denis Lavant (Journey to the West/Xi you (2014)) are the film's best: Here Kohlhaas (Mikkelsen) is questioned spiritually; are you only out for revenge?

Even still the mysterious reality in Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas is very distant from ours, and the film is hard to fully warm up to. SPOILER There is also the matter of the ending, in which the now otherwise satisfied Kohlhaas has his head removed, which seems inscrutable, and makes one leave the film with a 'why?' feeling.

Watch a trailer for the film here with English subtitles

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 813k $

= Uncertain - but certainly a box office disaster

[Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas premiered 24 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 122 minutes. No less than 18 companies and support organs were involved with the financing and production of the film. Shooting took place in France. The film opened #90 to a 3k $ (0.3 % of the total gross) first and only week in 4 theaters in North America, where it was pulled directly from distribution. The 3 biggest markets were France with 371k $ (45.6 %), Germany with 303k $ (37.3 %) and Austria with 54k $ (6.6 %). If made on a scant 5 mil. $ budget, the film the film would have returned 0.16 times its cost. The film won 2/6 César award nominations, among other honors. Pallières returned with Orpheline (2016). Mikkelsen returned in The Salvation (2014). Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas is rotten at 47 % with a 5.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas?