“French premieres” recalled the funny story of “Bad Blood”: the contempt of Leos Carax

François Ozon takes another look at Me Too

The festival “French Premieres” has opened in Moscow, where not only new films are presented, but also the already rare “Bad Blood” by Leos Carax, which was first shown at the Berlinale in 1987. In addition to feature films, there is also a documentary – “In Search of the Snow Leopard” by Marie Amiguet and Vincent Munier from the collection of the Cannes Film Festival 2021, about a journey full of danger and poetry to Tibet.

The festival “My Crime” by Francois Ozon has opened. As a rule, one of the most famous French directors is invited to the competition of the main world festivals, which he is able to decorate with his own name. His films are temperamentally discussed and almost never awarded, and this is a paradox. “My crime” escaped a similar fate. Perhaps the picture was considered not quite in line with the current gender agenda, since the Me Too movement pretty much got it, albeit elegantly.

During the pandemic, when there was plenty of free time, Ozon re-read a French play by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil in 1934, and she was interested in her associations with what is happening today. It is about how people slander themselves, attributing crimes that they did not commit.

In Ozon’s version, aspiring actress Madeleine Verdier claims the murder of a producer who invited her to a business meeting that nearly turned into a rape. This was followed by events that changed the life of the “victim”. The resourceful Madeleine confessed to the alleged crime and thus made a career, becoming a celebrity from an unknown unemployed young lady. A friend and aspiring lawyer Pauline Moleon, with whom Madeleine shared shelter, helped her turn this case around. The girls were so poor that they slept in the same bed. Their fame grew by leaps and bounds and haunted other ambitious ladies. The silent film star Chaumette flew into the light, seemingly stuck in that distant time. Her role was deliberately comically and theatrically played by Isabelle Huppert – twenty years after working with Ozon in 8 Women.

The lady stated that she was the killer of the producer, and began to blackmail the girls. As a result, Chaumette also got a piece of their glory pie. She also became in demand, began to act in films, healed to the fullest after many years of oblivion. Once upon a time, 25-year-old Huppert played the murderer of her rapist father in Claude Chabrol’s Violette Nozières. Her heroine was also raised to the banner as a symbol of the struggle against the foundations of society.

François Ozon has not formally modernized anything. The events take place in the early 1930s. In search of the truth of life, the film crew went to shoot Paris in Bordeaux, since the French capital, like any big city, has lost its identity. A long history resonates as if everything is happening in our days, when the Me Too movement flourished. In fact, it turned out to be a mockery of him, devoid of sarcasm and very elegant. Young heroines in court will defend the rights of all abused women who are forced to commit crimes in order to protect their honor.

The role of Madeleine was played by the French actress with Polish roots Nadia Tereshkovich, who has already starred in several films, and her friend Pauline is the rising star Rebecca Marder. Regular Ozone actor Fabrice Luchini played the role of a dim-witted police inspector who does not look for difficult ways in order to understand the intricacies of what happened. Madeleine’s father was played by the veteran Andre Dussolier, who starred with Truffaut, Rohmer, Rene. His hero will appreciate the unexpected appearance of Madame Chaumette, whom he remembers from his youth. It is a great honor for him. Situations arise vaudeville, embroidered with white thread, but no one doubts. The conditionality of existence here is like a device, and the virtuosity of the game element makes “My Crime” one of the most mature in the diverse work of Francois Ozon.

The “bad blood” of Leos Carax has also acquired a new context these days, as it is associated with the abduction of a dangerous disease virus from the laboratory. The film stars Denis Lavant, Juliette Binoche and Michel Piccoli, who has already left this world. In 2007, Leos Karaks came to the festival in Khanty-Mansiysk with his wife and Russian-European actress Katya Golubeva. He then headed the jury of the festival “Spirit of Fire”, presented “Bad Blood” and received an award for his contribution to world cinema. Before the show, Karaks went on stage, tried to light a cigarette, and with his performance outraged our filmmakers, headed by Govorukhin and Abdulov, who regarded this as a manifestation of rudeness. And it was a nod to non-conformity and a quote from “Bad Blood”, which the audience was to see. But the Russian colleagues of Carax defiantly left the hall, never knowing what the person they had just awarded had prepared for them.