5x2 (2004)
Directed by François Ozon

Film Review

Having given us some breathtakingly stylish and original pieces of cinema in recent years, François Ozon has taken most people by surprise with this latest offering: a seemingly anodyne portrayal of a couple falling in and out of love, told in reverse.  Inspired by Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage , the film relates five key events in the turbulent relationship of an obviously ill-matched couple, offering a deeply cynical view of romantic love which is characteristically Ozon-esque.

Once again, the director can hardly be faulted on his technique - the film is beautifully composed, using close-ups to devastating effect to drive home the full psychological impact of a disintegrating love affair.   Ozon's lead actors, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Stéphane Freiss, convey real emotion in their finely tuned performances which elevate a pretty mediocre script to the level, almost, of a classic piece of drama.

However, the film is not without its faults.  Its reversed five-part composition emphasises weaknesses both in the characterisation and the structure of the film.  Near the end of the film, it is hard to imagine how Gilles and Marion could ever have got it together, and so their meeting has a more than a touch of implausibility.  However, the rot sets in way before then.  After a promising first couple of segments, the film throws up a number of unresolved questions about the nature of the relationship.  Why is Gilles so reluctant to attend the birth of his child?  Why does Marion allow an unknown man to seduce her on her wedding night?  It's rather like a series of loud bangs going off in the background, without any real justification - a crude and ineffective way of bringing dramatic tension into the narrative.  A more subtle approach would have been far more effective.

Whilst it may not be Ozon's best work to date, there are some things which do mark 5x2 out as significant.  A fair criticism of Ozon's cinema is that there tends to be plenty of style but a lack of genuine human emotion.  For all its faults, 5x2 does convey a deeper sense of compassion, humanity and emotional torment  than most, if not all, of Ozon's earlier films.  In that sense, it is a more mature and thoughtful work than what has gone before, and gives a good indication that François Ozon's greatest films are yet to come.

Film Synopsis

Marion and Gilles have been together for many years but now they have arrived at the mutual decision to end their marriage.  Once their divorce has been finalised, they meet up for one last time in a hotel bedroom.  It is their last chance to relive the happier times in their relationship before they go their separate ways.  Perhaps they knew their separation was inevitable at the party when Gilles confessed to being unfaithful to his wife.  Or maybe the cracks in the marriage were already starting to show on the day that Gilles failed to turn up at the hospital when Marion was about to give birth to their son.  As they cast their minds back they wonder whether they were ever really in love or whether they have been living a lie all these years...