User reviews

In 1999, two very different horror films were unleashed onto audiences. Both were postmodern takes on contemporary folklore. Both involved young people getting lost in the woods. Both drew heavily from folktales by the Brothers Grimm. Both were products of their time and thus reflect their respective society's anxieties. Both have notoriously bleak endings. Both were far cries from what the multiplexes were offering. Both were influential in spawning two new modes of storytelling. Yet The Blair Witch Project was heavily marketed as a horror film and remains a landmark in the found footage genre while Criminal Lovers stayed mostly in arthouse theaters due to its frank sexuality as well as its refusal to stay within genre conventions. As a result, Criminal Lovers never got proper attention that it deserves in forming French New Extermity's roots.

Honestly, the film feels what would happen if you spliced in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre halfway through Badlands. This isn't the only cinematic influence that Criminal Lovers borrows from to tell its certified messed-up tale of doomed lovers running from the law. Echoes of The Night Of The Hunter and Salo are present in the film as the couple go down a river in a boat before being captured by a sadistic man in the woods. Every torturous taboo imaginable is broken to the point that you realize that Hansel and Gretel got off easy compared to what Alice and Luc suffer through.

That's where the film's strengths lie in its willingness to play with genre conventions and to break the boundaries of good taste. One minute, it's a high school melodrama with murder thrown in for good measure; the next minute, it's a subliminal torture porn that would make Eli Roth run away in complete terror. I won't spoil the horrors but they gave this hardened viewer pause in disbelief.

This gives Criminal Lovers a much more transgressive artistry than Blair Witch Project ever could- it's a fractured fairy tale as envisioned by a hellish-but-dreamlike collaboration between the Marquis De Sade and Jean-Luc Godard. Even better, you get two fantastic performances from both Natacha Regnier and Jeremie Renier that supply the film with a desperate rawness that's only matched by the young people suffering in Larry Clark's films.

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.

The Acting was incredible, the plot a little unbeleivable, but the message was strong.

In my mind, this movie is about sperate people struggling with seperate issues who are hopelessly intwined with one another.

I think the most important story is Luc's, who is forced by situations out of his control to deal with his sexuality, and his feelings for Alice; which he never would have done otherwise. This story speaks to us about how even horrible things that we do or have happen to us can help us evolve as individuals and confront parts of our selves that we'd rather just make go away.

This movie reminded me of Timothy Findley's "The Wars". The theme is self discovery and innocence in the midst of horror.

Ozon has cooked up an intriguing exercise. Drawing from eclectic sources ranging from Grimm's fairy tales, through Walt Disney to Bonnie and Clyde, (just to name a few), it becomes a curious amalgam.

The problem is, as interesting as it may well be, Ozon lacks the artistry to utilize all the elements towards an overall vision. He seems much more interested in the bits rather than the whole. This over indulgence with the ideas themselves weakens the effect of the film as a whole.

There's much room for interpretation (as with all fairy tales), but owing to the general lack of cohesiveness of this work, one cannot take this all too seriously, since ultimately this is not a movie worthy of serious consideration, despite it's ambitious pretensions.

Jeremie Renier has the most interesting and difficult part to play, being both sexually and morally conflicted. It's a well controlled and powerful performance.

"Criminal Lovers" has the makings of a fascinating movie but Ozon lacks the skill in weaving the elements together. It's the craft that separates the good from the great film makers.

After young lovers, Alice (Natacha Regnier) and Luc (Jeremie Renier) murder classmate Said (Salim Kechiouche) they head into the woods to dispose of the body where they encounter a perverse forest dweller (Miki Manojlovic). Definitely an interesting film from Ozon worth seeing.

I have watched many Ozon movies. I don't love each and every movie he has ever created, however he is a true Artist and there is always something to admire in his movies. "Les amants criminels" is not for everyone. It's a bit twisted, raw and provocative. Definitely not for too conservative people.

Still, i liked it. Above all, this is a love story, but not exactly the one you have in mind when you start watching it. Characters are kinda unlikeable but interesting too, so this movie never becomes boring because the script is also interesting. I couldn't guess where it goes, i was very curious to see the outcome. It's not easy to tell the genre here because this is uncoventional and puzzling, but i could call it a psychological drama/thriller with a VERY dark comedy element (The scene with the squirrel about 10 minutes before the ending, was hilarious).

So, if you want to watch a dark and twisted drama/thriller which gets surprisingly emotional and touching at particular moments, you should watch it. It's not a great movie, it's flawed and too weird, but i liked it.

I found this film to be utterly pointless. There was no overall narrative, as the film simply relates the events occurring around the two main characters. The frequent flashbacks are jarring, and not particularly enlightening. As a viewer, you never gain any understanding of, or empathy for any of the characters. It was a waste of an hour and a half of my time that could have been better and more entertainingly spent doing household chores.

A wonderful modern Hänsel and Gretel version by Francois Ozon, one of today's most interesting French filmmakers. Natacha Regnier (La vie rêvée des anges) is most impressive as the scheming and unscrupulous, yet at the same time strangely innocent and childlike schoolgirl Alice who brings her impotent boyfriend Luc (not-so impressive, though ok Jérémie Renier) to killing their handsome Arab schoolmate Said she is lusting for. As for her motivations, the Rimbaud quote ("Un crime!...") in one of the flashback scenes seems to tell the most about it. Maybe she also hates Said because he is sexually aggressive and at the same time very desirable to her - so he doesn't give her that complete control she has with Luc who is none-menacing to her in any way whatsoever.

As for Luc, whose internal development we follow the closest in the story, I don't know exactly why he is able to perform sexually in the end (in a scene that seemed to me a kind of parody to 70s softcore porn movies) when first he couldn't. It is true, Alice was menacing and even false to him (in the beginning, she tells the blindfolded Luc that she has taken off her bra when in fact she hasn't, then she photographs him half naked and tells him playfully she would send the pictures to his parents) - but then, the Man of the Woods (Serbian actor Miki Manojlovic - it makes sense that this strange character is played by a foreigner) seems also to be dangerous, doesn't he? Or is it that the Man (contrary to Alice) doesn't expect anything of him, only to stay calm and let go - that's why this in neither way attractive person is the first Luc is able to enjoy sex with?

As for Luc and Said, someone here has mentioned that Luc may desire Said for himself. Though this never gets clear, but there is a tell-tale scene when Luc goes to Said's boxing class and watches him for an important period of time, while we hear strange, hymnical music on the background score. This may indicate that Luc is indeed attracted to his sexy schoolmate, though he also 'knows' that Said and his friends did terrible things to Alice (things the girl made up in order to convince Luc to take part in the killing).

I also found the motif of the rabbits very interesting: rabbits here are exchangeable for people, as the same things happen to human beings as to these animals. A rabbit gets killed and so does a human; a rabbit gets caught in a trap and so does a human; a rabbit is eaten...

All in all a very interesting Ozon movie. And as always in his films, there is more behind it than one may notice at first sight...

It all looks simple, but what is going on in CRIMINAL LOVERS is complex. Ozon is adept at conveying the shifts in our emotions and clearly enjoys exploring our conflicted natures.

Sexy Alice (Natacha Regnier), a manipulator of men, coerces the sexually uncertain Luc (Jeremie Renier) into murdering the handsome Said (Salim Kechiouche). Although getting rid of the body proves problematic, the couple's real problems begin when they take refuge in an old cottage in the forest.

The owner of the cottage is Karim (Yasmine Belmadi), an odd fellow who develops a fondness for Luc and a hatred for Alice. Perhaps Alice is his competition? The film explores fascinating sexual territory, and even reminded me, tonally, of Japanese pink films such as WIFE TO BE SACRIFICED and CAPTURED FOR SEX 2.

Ozon embraces the provocative subject matter with supreme confidence and never recoils from its inherent darkness. The erotic tension remains taut throughout and the performances are beautifully balanced.

The photography is subdued but stylish and the forest setting echoes "Hansel and Gretel".

There is great intelligence behind this adult fairytale and a willingness to explore sexuality and desire that is never hampered by the stench of political correctness that handicaps so much "edgy" material these days.

Having seen both ‘La vie revée des anges' and ‘La promesse' I was really looking forward to seeing Natacha Régnier and Jérémie Renier in this movie. They are good actors and in the case of ‘Les amants criminels' they are the only ones who stopped this movie from falling flat on its face. I knew the movie was about a girl convincing a boy to help her kill one of her friends, but I didn't know that after the murder there would still follow some 85 minutes, filled with what can only be described as ‘French (homo-)erotic forest horror'. If it would have been original, that would have been great. But that's not the case: you find yourself watching Hansel and Gretel Meet Délicatessen in Hell (or in the Forest, to be precise). The second part of ‘Les amants criminels' is a bad fairy tale (maybe that's why Natacha's character is called Alice?), filmed in a style reminiscent of ‘Délicatessen'. But it's not only the style François Ozon copied from Jeunet and Caro, there's also part of the plot (e.g. cannibalism). Now that we're on the subject of style, it would be fair to say that Ozon managed to film some scenes that are quite impressive. Cut and paste them and you get one of the best music videos ever, but in a movie of one hour and a half they unfortunately fade away. But the way Ozon used Lamb's song ‘Gorecki' in the supermarket scene is an example of how directors should integrate the soundtrack into their movie. But while Ozon was thinking of the style of his movie, he should have had some thoughts about the contents as well. There are many things in the film that don't really make sense. (e.g. why don't they hear somebody approaching them in a forest where everything makes a sound?) And, without wanting to spoil the end of the movie, look at what happens to Alice in her last scene in the movie: isn't that a little bit too far-fetched? The movie isn't great, that's true, but if you are a fan of Natacha Régnier and Jérémie Renier, you should certainly go and see it because they, together with those stylish scenes, save ‘Les amants criminels' from being a total disaster.

Francois Ozon has made a name for himself in modern foreign cinema for being more daring and more inventive than most directors would dare to be, and Criminal Lovers is a film that belongs towards the top of his already impressive list of director's credits. Criminal Lovers is a modernisation of the classic Hansel and Gretal tale, which is fused with the 'criminals on the run' theme of which such earlier films such as Badlands and Natural Born Killers utilised so well. Typically for Ozon, there is more to the film than just what it's plot presents and with this common theme the modern day genius has put together a multi-layered work of art, that will be seen differently by whoever sees it. On one hand, it's an exciting crime thriller, but on the other hand it's a tale of redemption, forgiveness and/or retribution. The way that you take the movie will definitely depend on your views on the movie's themes, such as the central one that depicts murder. The film is almost too skillful for it's own good, as it masks it's underlying themes behind it's visage of a shock movie; but if you're smart, they're more than evident.

The man who dared to insert a musical number into a Rainer Werner Fassbinder screenplay hasn't exactly been reserved with the shocks in this movie, and the easily offended should still make sure that they steer clear of it. The film has homosexual undertones galore and the way that the murder happens, along with the amount of sex in the movie, isn't exactly restrained either. The acting is largely good, with the two leads, Natacha Régnier and Jérémie Renier, standing out the most. They both bring exactly the right mood to their characters, which are fascinating specimens in themselves. The way that Ozon has handled the screenplay is superb, as the dialogue is believable and so are all of the character's motivations. Making your audience believe you is one of the hardest things to achieve when penning a screenplay, and Ozon has proved time and time again that he is capable of doing just that. The idea of updating the classic children's story of Hansel and Gretal is definitely a good one, and this film draws much of it's appeal from that central backbone. All in all; kudos, Ozon!

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.

What's going on? How does this film only have an average of 6.3? The pacing is excellent, each nuance and revelation is revealed subtly, but it doesn't let up with it's consistent harshness.

I love these movies that demonstrate human characteristics through a harsh exaggerated situation.

The rather graphic sex scene at the end, juxtaposed with the swat team was great, as was the very last shot of the boy.

Go Ozon!

The actors did a good job, but I really disliked the story and especially the main characters. By the middle of the film, I had no insight into what drove the characters to put themselves into such a predicament, but I also didn't care.