Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000)

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Francois Ozon's film version of Fassbinder's play is like another more slightly surreal, very blackly comic version of "The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant", played out this time mostly by men. Fifty year old Leo picks up twenty year old Franz and brings him home for the night. Franz stays, becoming his lover, his houseboy but mostly his slave. There are only two other characters in this slight, stage-bound piece; Anna, Franz's vacuous former girlfriend and Vera, Leo's former transsexual lover.Fundamentally it's about love, of the destructive, unwholesome kind maybe, but love nevertheless. Whatever hold Leo has over Franz, (and Vera), they both love him though it could hardly be said that it is reciprocated. Leo is very much the master and everyone else is his slave. Whether he is capable of love is debatable.Ozon makes the piece both erotic and humorous but it is never quite as touching as it ought to be. All four players give good performances with Malik Zidi quietly outstanding as the boy.

From the very first act, when this creepy 50 year old is doing circles around this boy he's picked, leisurely seducing him, I was hooked to the movie. The next act, when the boy's turned into his slave, groaned in recognition of a situation that's all so real and all too horrible. I just preyed the director wouldn't show the boy being physically beaten. The entry of the girlfriend, after which the two of them make a plan to escape brought a release in tension for a fraction of a second, but I knew it was too good to be true and doubted whether our boy would really manage to escape. The orgy is scene is all too real too, with the young girl thrilled at the bizarre situation she's in and dying for some adventure. I think it was all quite real and I identified with every situation, though I wish I didn't because it just goes to show how evil I am myself!

This is based on a play that Rainer Werner Fassbinder wrote when he was just 19 and his bleak outlook is very evident. This four character story starts out with a 50 year old German named Leopold (Bernard Giraudeau) who has brought home a 20 year old boy named Franz (Malik Zidi) and he seduces him and it doesn't take long for Franz to move in and cook his meals, draw his bath, clean house and do whatever else he wants. They bicker and argue but Franz doesn't leave. One day Franz has his ex-girlfriend Anna (Ludivine Sagnier) over to talk and they have sex for two days and they decide that he'll leave and they'll get married but he still admits he loves Leopold. Leopold arrives home early and they talk and it doesn't take long for Leopold to seduce Anna and then the door knocks and its Vera (Anna Thomson) who is Leopolds ex-lover and use to be a man! This film is directed by Francois Ozon and his films seem to deal with characters trying to maintain a relationship no matter what the circumstances. The character of Leopold can be described as Svengali, or a spider or a pimp. And the apartment that Leopold lives in is a very important element to this story. All the characters that have entered don't leave, or at least they don't leave for good. I think Franz realized this and thats why he committed the ultimate act. The last shot in the film tells the viewer that the characters are trapped in Leopolds web as Vera is unable to open the window. Ozon has developed into a very interesting filmmaker and this is a pretty thought provoking story. Its definitely not just a gay film. This is a provocative drama that is far more complicated than that!

I've never been a big Fassbinder fan but with the coming retrospective I thought it was time to check him out again. So I chose this movie, since it was a Fassbinder script directed by a Frenchman (Ozon) that I admire. It was a delight. Somehow the problems I always had enjoying Fassbinder (the intense cruelty between his characters, the disorienting emotional mood swings, the bleak, dreary German atmosphere) were completely offset by the sense of play and love of color and music that Ozon brings to this script. As in 8 Women, his sense of style and beauty rival Almodovar's and even the grim reality of Fassbinder has a beautiful, chic French gloss. He understands that love and sex in Fassbinder are closely matched with jealousy and destruction. It all clicked for me. And the omnisexuality is so fresh - so unspoiled... That said, it's a devastating critique of what lovers can do to each other. But it's,...well...so pretty...I really, really enjoyed it.