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| François Ozon: 'I'll admit I'm a little bit twisted' | François Ozon: 'I'll admit I'm a little bit twisted' |
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| François Ozon has been knocking out roughly a film a year since the late 1990s: some camp and frivolous (Sitcom, Potiche), others intense (5x2, Time to Leave), each one zesty and provocative. Occasionally he will make something truly exceptional: Under the Sand, starring Charlotte Rampling as a woman falling apart after the disappearance of her husband, was rightly considered a masterpiece by the late Ingmar Bergman. | François Ozon has been knocking out roughly a film a year since the late 1990s: some camp and frivolous (Sitcom, Potiche), others intense (5x2, Time to Leave), each one zesty and provocative. Occasionally he will make something truly exceptional: Under the Sand, starring Charlotte Rampling as a woman falling apart after the disappearance of her husband, was rightly considered a masterpiece by the late Ingmar Bergman. |
| But though Ozon has had commercial success in France, he is still chasing the sort of career-changing international breakthrough on a par with, say, Pedro Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown or Michael Haneke's Hidden. If there is any justice, his new film In the House will change that. It's a witty, slippery thriller about a literature teacher (Fabrice Luchini) drawn into the voyeuristic world of a 16-year-old star pupil (Ernst Umhauer) who covets a classmate's plush home and beautiful mother. The picture also stars Kristin Scott Thomas, as all French films must under EU directives. | But though Ozon has had commercial success in France, he is still chasing the sort of career-changing international breakthrough on a par with, say, Pedro Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown or Michael Haneke's Hidden. If there is any justice, his new film In the House will change that. It's a witty, slippery thriller about a literature teacher (Fabrice Luchini) drawn into the voyeuristic world of a 16-year-old star pupil (Ernst Umhauer) who covets a classmate's plush home and beautiful mother. The picture also stars Kristin Scott Thomas, as all French films must under EU directives. |
| As well as being an effective thriller, In the House shows how life and art can become interchangeable for those in the business of creativity. "It's always a danger when you mix too much reality and fiction," Ozon says when we meet on a winter morning in a London hotel. With his tousled hair and bright eyes, he looks a decade shy of his 45 years. "If you make a murder mystery and one of the actors gets too involved and wants to kill another actor – well, that can be dangerous." | As well as being an effective thriller, In the House shows how life and art can become interchangeable for those in the business of creativity. "It's always a danger when you mix too much reality and fiction," Ozon says when we meet on a winter morning in a London hotel. With his tousled hair and bright eyes, he looks a decade shy of his 45 years. "If you make a murder mystery and one of the actors gets too involved and wants to kill another actor – well, that can be dangerous." |
| Come on, I protest: when has that ever happened? | Come on, I protest: when has that ever happened? |
| "It can!" he splutters. "I tell you, it can happen. I can't say when but these things do occur." | "It can!" he splutters. "I tell you, it can happen. I can't say when but these things do occur." |
| On one of your own films? | On one of your own films? |
| "Yes. I saw very early in my career, with Regarde la mer [his chilling 1997 featurette about a single mother intimidated by a female backpacker] that the danger can spill over on to the set. I got the feeling that anything could happen, you know?" | "Yes. I saw very early in my career, with Regarde la mer [his chilling 1997 featurette about a single mother intimidated by a female backpacker] that the danger can spill over on to the set. I got the feeling that anything could happen, you know?" |
| He claims to have been a model of propriety as a director. "People think I'm perverse but I don't believe I ever am on set. Maybe in my private life, yes: I'll admit I'm a little bit twisted. But on set, I need to gain the actors' trust. When we do a sex scene, I tell them everything that will happen so they don't feel manipulated: 'I want to show your breasts' or 'I don't want to show your penis.' I tell them if I am going to make them look beautiful or not. Sometimes the camera will steal emotions which could not have been reproduced consciously, but actors like that." | He claims to have been a model of propriety as a director. "People think I'm perverse but I don't believe I ever am on set. Maybe in my private life, yes: I'll admit I'm a little bit twisted. But on set, I need to gain the actors' trust. When we do a sex scene, I tell them everything that will happen so they don't feel manipulated: 'I want to show your breasts' or 'I don't want to show your penis.' I tell them if I am going to make them look beautiful or not. Sometimes the camera will steal emotions which could not have been reproduced consciously, but actors like that." |
| Ozon can speak with some authority about what actors like. Even if he had not revived Charlotte Rampling's career with Under the Sand, or given early roles to Jérémie Renier (Criminal Lovers) and Michael Fassbender (Angel), he would have earned his stripes simply from directing the candy-coloured musical 8 Women, where he had the daunting task of marshalling legends such as Catherine Deneuve and Fanny Ardant. | Ozon can speak with some authority about what actors like. Even if he had not revived Charlotte Rampling's career with Under the Sand, or given early roles to Jérémie Renier (Criminal Lovers) and Michael Fassbender (Angel), he would have earned his stripes simply from directing the candy-coloured musical 8 Women, where he had the daunting task of marshalling legends such as Catherine Deneuve and Fanny Ardant. |
| "The egos cancelled one another out," he recalls. "The difficulty was directing eight actresses, none of whom want to be directed the same way. Oh, I was so tired! Catherine Deneuve just wants to know what to do with her hands. Isabelle Huppert wants to know nothing except her place. Emmanuelle Béart wants to know the psychology of her character. Sometimes you have Catherine and Isabelle in the shot, which meant that Fanny Ardant was just an extra in the background. But I still have to find something for her to do." 8 Women remains his biggest success in France, and a movie that goes down a treat with children. "Though if you show it to a young boy and he loves it, this can mean many things," he points out. | "The egos cancelled one another out," he recalls. "The difficulty was directing eight actresses, none of whom want to be directed the same way. Oh, I was so tired! Catherine Deneuve just wants to know what to do with her hands. Isabelle Huppert wants to know nothing except her place. Emmanuelle Béart wants to know the psychology of her character. Sometimes you have Catherine and Isabelle in the shot, which meant that Fanny Ardant was just an extra in the background. But I still have to find something for her to do." 8 Women remains his biggest success in France, and a movie that goes down a treat with children. "Though if you show it to a young boy and he loves it, this can mean many things," he points out. |
| There was a contretemps in the press after 8 Women – Deneuve spoke of tensions with Ozon, while the director claimed to have rebuffed her attempts to "mother" him – but the pair collaborated again on the barbed comedy Potiche, where he reinvented her as a frumpy 1970s housewife in tracksuit and curlers. "When you work with stars, you have to play with their image because they are not virgins in the eyes of the audience." In the House goes easy on its cast, though native audiences have been surprised by one scene showing Fabrice Luchini, respected at home for promoting great literature, munching junk food in the cinema. "Some people were outraged," laughs Ozon. "You must understand it is shocking for the French to see Fabrice Luchini eating popcorn." | There was a contretemps in the press after 8 Women – Deneuve spoke of tensions with Ozon, while the director claimed to have rebuffed her attempts to "mother" him – but the pair collaborated again on the barbed comedy Potiche, where he reinvented her as a frumpy 1970s housewife in tracksuit and curlers. "When you work with stars, you have to play with their image because they are not virgins in the eyes of the audience." In the House goes easy on its cast, though native audiences have been surprised by one scene showing Fabrice Luchini, respected at home for promoting great literature, munching junk food in the cinema. "Some people were outraged," laughs Ozon. "You must understand it is shocking for the French to see Fabrice Luchini eating popcorn." |
| One aspect that distinguishes In the House from Ozon's early work is its warmth toward the sort of bourgeois family satirised in his debut, Sitcom. To borrow a question put in the new movie by the teacher to his pupil: has the young iconoclast fallen for the middle class? "My view has changed with time. In Sitcom, I tried to rebuild the family by killing the patriarch. Now with In the House, the family is stronger than the young boy. I see the need for family in society. At the same time, it's a neurotic place." | One aspect that distinguishes In the House from Ozon's early work is its warmth toward the sort of bourgeois family satirised in his debut, Sitcom. To borrow a question put in the new movie by the teacher to his pupil: has the young iconoclast fallen for the middle class? "My view has changed with time. In Sitcom, I tried to rebuild the family by killing the patriarch. Now with In the House, the family is stronger than the young boy. I see the need for family in society. At the same time, it's a neurotic place." |
| Does being openly gay, as Ozon is, complicate his attitude toward family? "Perhaps it makes it difficult to find your place. But also I am the oldest of four children so I'm sure I would always have found that hard. For In the House, I wanted to show the fascination children have for the perfect middle-class family. As a child I would have dreamed of living in that house in the suburbs with a beautiful mother and a father who is a hero. Children want normality. They are very conservative. They don't want to be strange or special; they only want to fit in. We need family, and at certain times we need to kill it too." | Does being openly gay, as Ozon is, complicate his attitude toward family? "Perhaps it makes it difficult to find your place. But also I am the oldest of four children so I'm sure I would always have found that hard. For In the House, I wanted to show the fascination children have for the perfect middle-class family. As a child I would have dreamed of living in that house in the suburbs with a beautiful mother and a father who is a hero. Children want normality. They are very conservative. They don't want to be strange or special; they only want to fit in. We need family, and at certain times we need to kill it too." |
| Perhaps this applies to another kind of family of which he is a member: French cinema. When Ozon began making films, he was an impish troublemaker. These days, he is surely more sage than imp. "It's hard for me to see where my place is in French cinema. When I began I was called an enfant terrible. Now I am no more a child so I don't know what my place is." I wonder how it felt to be the new boy, the young buck, back in the 1990s. "It was exciting. I realised people responded to my films but it wasn't only that – it was passion or aggression, love or hate, never indifference, and that pleased me. Some of my critics from then have changed their mind and say nice things about me now, but then I have changed also. I was more aggressive when I was younger." | Perhaps this applies to another kind of family of which he is a member: French cinema. When Ozon began making films, he was an impish troublemaker. These days, he is surely more sage than imp. "It's hard for me to see where my place is in French cinema. When I began I was called an enfant terrible. Now I am no more a child so I don't know what my place is." I wonder how it felt to be the new boy, the young buck, back in the 1990s. "It was exciting. I realised people responded to my films but it wasn't only that – it was passion or aggression, love or hate, never indifference, and that pleased me. Some of my critics from then have changed their mind and say nice things about me now, but then I have changed also. I was more aggressive when I was younger." |
| He says younger film-makers don't come to him for advice, though he will sometimes reach out if he sees something impressive. "It's funny – maybe I should not be saying this – but often when I call young directors whose work I have admired, they are very pretentious and cold. They will say, 'Oh. Thank you.' Very coolly, you know? I was not like this at all. I was so proud when Claire Denis called me and said she loved Regarde la mer, or when Eric Rohmer said nice things about some of my first films. I was very touched." | He says younger film-makers don't come to him for advice, though he will sometimes reach out if he sees something impressive. "It's funny – maybe I should not be saying this – but often when I call young directors whose work I have admired, they are very pretentious and cold. They will say, 'Oh. Thank you.' Very coolly, you know? I was not like this at all. I was so proud when Claire Denis called me and said she loved Regarde la mer, or when Eric Rohmer said nice things about some of my first films. I was very touched." |
| The compliments show no sign of drying up. In the House features Emmanuelle Seigner, AKA Mrs Roman Polanski, in a supporting part, and Polanski, to whom Ozon has been compared, likes the film. "He said to me: 'Beautiful last shot!' I don't really know what that means." Didn't he have any other comments? "Yes. He said, 'Bravo.' I was happy. He's a great film-maker and a great voyeur." | The compliments show no sign of drying up. In the House features Emmanuelle Seigner, AKA Mrs Roman Polanski, in a supporting part, and Polanski, to whom Ozon has been compared, likes the film. "He said to me: 'Beautiful last shot!' I don't really know what that means." Didn't he have any other comments? "Yes. He said, 'Bravo.' I was happy. He's a great film-maker and a great voyeur." |
| Ozon's biggest influence is still the director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who wrote the play from which he adapted his third feature, Water Drops on Burning Rocks. Fassbinder famously likened his own films to different rooms that comprise a house, and Ozon agrees enthusiastically with that assessment, even if he does not yet know exactly what kind of home he is building. "In 20 years we will see," he says. "Maybe I've made a castle. Or it might be just a middle-class house in the suburbs." | Ozon's biggest influence is still the director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who wrote the play from which he adapted his third feature, Water Drops on Burning Rocks. Fassbinder famously likened his own films to different rooms that comprise a house, and Ozon agrees enthusiastically with that assessment, even if he does not yet know exactly what kind of home he is building. "In 20 years we will see," he says. "Maybe I've made a castle. Or it might be just a middle-class house in the suburbs." |
| • In the House is released on Friday. | • In the House is released on Friday. |
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