Director – François Ozon – 2023 – France – Cert. 12a – 102m
*****
Two young women, an actress and a lawyer, take advantage of casting couch sex abuse of the former to boost both of their fledgeling careers – sharp period comedy with more to it underneath the surface is out in UK and Ireland cinemas on Friday, October 25th
A swimming pool. A lavish, art deco mansion. Out of a door staggers a clearly distressed, young blonde woman. Leaving the estate, she walks down the street, bumping into people. The setting and her clothes indicate the 1930s.
Meanwhile, a middle-aged M. Pistole (Franck de Lapersonne) calls on young brunette tenant Pauline (Rebecca Marder) to demand 3 000 Fr for five months’ back rent. A qualified lawyer, she manages to negotiate 48 hours’ respite on the grounds that a hotshot producer wants to put her flatmate Madeleine in his new play, and money will follow once the contract is signed. However, once Madeleine (Nadia Tereszkiewicz from Only The Animals, Dominik Moll, 2019) comes in to spill her tale of woe – in a manner closer to screwball comedy than rape or crime drama – it rapidly becomes obvious that the situation has changed.
The latter’s boyfriend André Bonnard (Édouard Sulpice) is the heir to a huge tyre business, but that’s unlikely to be the girls’ salvation since his father would likely cut him off financially if he knew about them and, anyway, is setting his son up to marry heiress Berthe Courteil (who we never see) as his own business is in dire need of investment that her family’s wealth would furnish. André suggests Madeleine could be his mistress while they live off his proposed wife, but the young actress is understandably none too thrilled by the idea and decides to dump him. And then a cop M.Brun (Régis Laspalès) calls round to ask some questions. The hotshot producer has been shot dead that afternoon.
Later, Madeleine confides in Pauline: “I’m a bad actress, you’re a bad lawyer, let’s kill ourselves.”
“It’s a beautiful day,” retorts Pauline, “and I have sandwiches.”
And off they go to spend the afternoon watching Bad Seed / Mauvais Sang (Billy Wilder, 1934). While they’re out, M. Brun questions the building’s concierge Mme. Jus (Myriam Boyer from Mesrine Pts 1 & 2, Jean-François Richet, 2008; A Heart in Winter, Claude Sautet, 1992; Too Beautiful For You, Bertrand Blier, 1989; Série Noire, Alain Corneau, 1979). Who doesn’t have a good word to say about the two young women on the fifth floor.
All of which indicates the overall tone of the piece pretty well, The whole thing is light and frothy, but beneath the comedy lie serious issues.
Fabrice Luchini (from In the House, 2012 and Potiche, 2010 – both Ozon) does a nice turn as a Judge Rabusset, who makes up his mind about cases, often on the flimsiest of evidence. His clerk Trapu (Olivier Broche from Perfumes, Grégory Magne, 2019; Darkest Hour, Joe Wright, 2017) hilariously sees right through him. Palmarède (Dany Boon from MicMacs, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2007, Joyeux Noël, Christian Carion, 2005) is a mate of the judge, and part of what one might describe as the old boys’ network.
Madeleine confesses after Pauline, representing her as her defence lawyer, paints an alternate scenario. Once they reach the courtroom, the former is not so much giving a testimony as exercising the actor’s craft and performing a script, reacting to the ‘audience’ in the courtroom as if it were a theatre audience. At times, she seems unable to tell the difference. Although Madeleine’s lawyer, Pauline could be acting as her PR person (the film is set at a time when public relations was a nascent industry) and the case seems to divide the public, such as those in the gallery, along gender lines, as typified by a verdict at which men boss and hiss while women cheer.
Not that this is a courtroom drama exactly, this particular element taking up maybe 20 minutes of the running time. Writer-director Ozon is noteworthy for his ability to tackle wildly different genres and filmmaking styles: it’s hard to think of another director blessed with this ability to anything like the same degree – Ang Lee, perhaps? This one, freely adapted from a 1934 play by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil, may appear to be a comedy, yet it uses an historical setting to explore contemporary mores – a post-#metoo film set almost a century ago.
André Dussolier turns up as Madeleine’s boyfriend André’s rich industrialist father, a completely different role and performance from the one he gave the director in euthanasia drama Everything Went Fine (2021). And in the piece’s final third, it ups the ante with the introduction of another major character, ageing silent movie starlet Odette Chaumette (Isabelle Huppert) who claims to be the person who pulled the trigger and, clearly jealous of all the media attention the young starlet is getting, wants some of the attention for herself. Huppert vamps it up to deliver a brilliant, comedic performance quite unlike any performance this writer has seen her give before.
Ozon has another trick up his sleeve, which he brings up without warning toward the end: a sudden, brief, down to earth flashback of what really happened on the casting couch and who pulled the trigger. It’s a brutal moment, showing the battle of the sexes at its most ruthless, with everything to play for. Ozon’s genius is that it fits in so seamlessly with everything else here, even as it completely disrupts the film.
Everything here suggests a writer-director at the top of his game, with a cast and crew to match. Ozon is a director whose career constantly surprises, always in a good way. This latest effort is a ravishingly art-directed and costumed comic gem of a period piece which, at its heart, adroitly tackles essential contemporary issues. An absolute must-see.
The Crime is Mine is out in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on Friday, October 25th.
Trailer: