Criminal Lovers (1999)

Very disappointing...

Really Surprised!

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This title appeared on my radar courtesy of an Amazon recommendation, based presumably on my penchant for edgy thrillers or maybe because I'd previously bought a French film! Either way, although I had heard of director Ozon and of the acclaim for him, he had not entered my consciousness and hence my surprise when a leaflet advertising largely gay product fell from the DVD box, which I then noted bore a quote from Gay Times. Nevertheless, nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I popped it in. The film is truly excellent. Nobody is entirely as they at first seem, the film starts with a jolt and barely stops, it is full of surprises and, oh yes, there is rather a lot of homoeroticism. Nothing too worrying for a straight guy but it certainly helps give the movie an alternative angle. Seduction is so much a part of straight cinema we barely notice it but here we are certainly made to sit up and question motives. There is humour but on the whole this is pretty dark and probing stuff and a most involving tale for the more adventurous.

Ozon's masterpiece is of the public power of ideas that feminism and freedom of sex have fabricated. A young man, Luc, is calculatingly used by a girl Alice who really has a will to power. She intentionally makes Luc to kill a guy: she lies that some guys have raped her and taken photos of it. After a runaway Luc and Alice (and the corpse) are captured by a hermit who has an eye to Luc's boyish charm. He frees Luc from institutionalized interest to girls, even to such extreme that finally Luc takes him as a savior. But the story is also full of surprises. Luc and Alice escape the hermit's lodge and for the first time have sex. In a beautiful landscape they enjoy each other and the nature around them behaves like Disney Dream, cute animals of every size come and cuddle; this is a sharp and deadly picture of the expectations a Westener has when in movies! This work is quite certainly an intentional anti-feminist in spirit, and it also gives the argument, why. Aside of that, the fable is well balanced and beautifully filmed, like a chamber piece.

i had just seen the movie on the sundance film channel, mind you its already 1 a.m., and i thought that it was a fantastic movie. the two main characters, luc and alice, are in love for some crazy reason because alice is a tramp which is why i liked the ending so much. luc is a sweet virgin who will do anything for alice even after she lies to him and flirts with said (say-eed). theres also this creepy hermit forest dweller who abducts these two and locks them into his "dungeon" with dead Said. oh yea, the whole movie is in French which is another reason i liked it so much because i have some background in it. mainly if you like to watch twisted movies that no one has ever heard of before than this is it! i give it a 7.5 outta 10, only because i missed like the first half hour of it, but because the whole thing is written in alice's diary it gave me a clue to what was going on, eventho i dont like her. :)

When I was a child ,"Hansel und Gretel" used to scare me to death.Even if they finally succeed at escaping from the clutches of the witch,some fears never fade away.The fear of the unknown forest where any person can be an enemy.The fear of unknown people you meet in the dark corners of the streets .The fear of being kidnapped and taken away far from your family.When I saw "les amants criminels " for the first time ,I had the same sensation as when I read the fairytale ;rarely,I felt so ill-at-ease ,in need of fresh air :Ozon's sinister tale stirred my emotions ,my subconscious,some of my childhood fears that never went away.There are a lot of hints at childhood here:outside the Grimm tale,the heroine's name is Alice (on the other side of the mirror),and the scene near the cascade ,in its quietness, where the two lovers are surrounded by animals ,recalls some Disney movie.And mainly ,mainly ,Ozon ,among only a few contemporary directors, has completely understood Hitchcock's great lesson:expect the unexpected .After their crime,the two lovers start out ,as Janet Leigh did in 1960,and I dare you to guess what will happen then!Ozon is the most gifted contemporary French director.