Les Amants criminels (1999)
Directed by François Ozon

Film Review

In many ways, Les Amants criminels is an impressive film, belonging to a new breed of French film noir.  The creepy combination of fairy tale, gory crime and sado-masochistic eroticism makes a surprisingly compelling, albeit utterly disturbing, combination.  After a confused and messy start, the film soon has little difficulty holding the viewer's attention, although this arises largely out of a morbid fascination over what is about to happen next.

The film is however badly let down by its director's excesses.  There is an over abundance of male nudity, and the sex scenes are gratuitous and often demeaning to the film.  The biggest fault is probably that Ozon fails to make his lead characters sympathetic - Natacha Régnier comes across as just a mixed up evil bitch, constantly snapping at her supposed lover, whilst Jérémie Rénier appears incapable of standing up to anyone, passively succumbing to his sexual predators' every whim.   Too strong and canny to be innocent victims and too shallow and nasty to be heroes, both characters just fail to arouse our sympathy, and in a perverse way we enjoy what they get.

The film's dramatic ending could have saved the film, but Ozon's all-too-obvious attempt to fashion a moral conclusion just fails to convince and it is too visibly a crude attempt at audience exploitation.  Forget the subtle Bressonesque redemption idea.   What matters is showing how nasty the French police are.  Surprise, surprise.

Many will like the film for its dark thriller content and erotic titillation.  The acting is by and large quite good, in spite of the flawed characterisation, with both Natacha Régnier and Jérémie Rénier showing great promise.  Overall, though, this is not a great film.  Its director's motives are far too apparent and some of his attempts at cleverness look faintly absurd.  If you don't look too deeply and are not put off by the gratuitous doggy-collar sex and violence, you may find the film enjoyable, in a morbid film noir kind of way.

Film Synopsis

A young adolescent Alice persuades her 17 year old boyfriend Luc to kill one of her classmates, Saïd.  The murder accomplished, they take the body to a forest to dispose of it, but they are observed by a poacher.  Luc and Alice then come across the poacher's shack whilst he is out and are helping themselves to food when he returns, with a rifle.  The poacher mercilessly throws the teenagers into a cellar where they discover the remains of the body they have just buried...