Since I’ll be doing a talk back of Ozon’s Peter von Kant at Burns Court on September 16th (the 7 pm show), I wanted to do my research. And I discovered I had already seen and enjoyed one of Francois Ozon’s (6 time Cannes Film Fest nominee) earlier works entitled Swimming Pool (2003). So, I looked up a few titles and somewhat randomly selected Double Lover from 2017, seeing that Jacqueline Bisset was in the film and was actually here in SRQ just last year for the SFF.
Now, confession, I rarely, RARELY ever finish a movie in one sitting at home (hence why I do 99% of my movies in the cinema). BUT Double Lover had an allure that I couldn’t resist, especially after the overly passionate-skimpy of George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing. I was jonesin for sexy and boy, did Ozon crank up the heat!
As much as I’ve disliked other French director’s cold French people stories, Ozon does pretty well in portraying conflicted emotions. Double Lover stars Marine Vacth who’s able to portray both vulnerable female and femme fatale. Her wobbly head gait reminds me of a weakened bird. I’ll be sure to catch her in another Ozon directed film called Young and Beautiful when I get a chance. Her lover is Jeremie Reiner and has many films under his belt including In Bruges. He is sexy in an understated smoldering way. Bisset’s role was minuscule, but she’s always tremendous.
Double Lover was a taut erotic thriller that satisfies so much, you really don’t care if the plot’s pieces all add up.
