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PERVERSE TWISTS

Today's Francois Ozon film was

Regarde la mer / See the Sea (1997)

and, tethered to it on the DVD and in theater showings, the short film, Une robe d'été / The Summer Dress

The two are explicitly related as they were filmed on the same beach but I also suspect other more subtle connections.

For example, the longer film concerns what turns out to be a kind of Hitchcockian tale of twisted sex and, in the end, a horrible event.

The short, on the other hand has a different view. Adventurous sex and a considerably joyful outcome.

I don't want to get into the stories except to say that, in the first, a mother and a baby are alone and encounter a hiker who asks to use their property to pitch a tent. The stranger gets stranger and so does the mother. Mom is not quite the shiny example of the caring parent. Enough. The dread that builds is considerable. Even the leaves on the trees are ominous.

Whereas, the second film is about a young gay man who goes off to the beach in a snit, leaving his boyfriend at home, runs into a young woman who cruises him and shows him a good time.

Good clean fun.

He returns to his boyfriend with a new perspective.

There is a lot of laughing in this short gem.

They should be seen together if only to use the short film as a kind of mood cleaner after the serious thriller.

But I bet that is the way Ozon wanted it.

Together a 4 out of Netflix5. I would be happy to see the short again and the long one? Well, it would be nice to see how he orchestrates the tension so well. But I think it is not obvious. Just very skillful.

A 4 out of Netflix5

Labels: films