Gilles (Stéphane Freiss) & Marion (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) are getting
divorced. However they do have the (not so) good idea of celebrating their
divorce by having sex. Halfway through though she starts having doubts &
tells him to lay off - which he does, until sexual hunger gets the better of
him & he takes her by force ...
Earlier: Having dinner with Gilles' homosexual brother & his boyfriend,
the subject of faithfulness in a relationship is brought up ... & Gilles
admits he has been unfaithful to Marion only once, at an orgy, before her very
eyes, with her consent, & with both men & women. Which nobody seems to
believe until Marion confirms his story.
Earlier: When Marion is giving birth to her & Gilles' son, complications
arise & a cesarian has to be performed. But even though being called on
time, Gilles has failed to arrive at the hospital ...
Earlier: Gilles & Marion are getting married. at the wedding night
however, Gilles falls asleep prematurely. Frustrated, Marion goes for a walk
& sits by a nearby lake when an American tourist chats her up & they
soon make love. It is only the next morning when Marion realises how much she
loves Gilles & she rushes back to their conjugal bedroom. Fortunately,
Gilles has lept through it all ...
Earlier: On a holiday in Italy with his girlfriend Valerie (Géraldine
Pailhas), Gilles meets Marion, a colleague from his office he hardly knows but
who stays at the same hotel, all n her own. & while his 4-year-relationship
to Valerie has definitely seen better times, between him & Marion soon love
blossoms & the last image of the film has them swimming off together.
A very nicely done film that features great performances, but all that
cannot hide the fact that its story is rather weak, nor can the fact that it is
told backwards help too much: Actually the further the movie goes back in time
- through quite some lows but also highs of the main characters' relationship -, the less it
tells about the reason for the couple's split, until it ends with a very
romantic picture of the couple first falling in love ... which makes one wonder
why director Francois Ozon decided to tell the story in reverse in the first
place.
|