Water Drops on Burning Rocks

And I thought 8 Women was a masterpiece..

Francois Ozon is a filmmaker who is on the high road to immortality. I saw this film late one night when I couldn't sleep and it was the single most enthralling movie-watching experience I've had in that condition. Pourqois?

Three reasons: 1. The gorgeous cinematography. While it was mostly static edited shots, they were Kubrick-accurate (angled impeccably) & the color was so lush I was literally remarking aloud- "Ozon is a master". 2. The gorgeous actors. Only 4 stars in this film, and they are all excellent. Their faces are endlessly fascinating, and I do not have words to describe their beautiful bodies. (J'adore Sagnier Sagnier Sagnier!) 3. The gorgeous story. This film has it all-emotion, sex and death. Everything a successful film should have. But what I say can't come close to the experience. "Water Dropping" should drop your jaw.

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.

After watching Water Drops on Burning Rocks, it is hard to tell exactly what flamboyant French filmmaker Francois Ozon wanted to achieve with it. On the one hand, the film is a commentary on relationships and sexuality, but on the other hand, much like Ozon's earlier Sitcom, it's easy to think that the talented young director made the film simply to shock. While I don't doubt that shocking his audience was partly his motivation for making this film, Ozon has still created a film that is more than credible on the substance front as the movie professes that, just like the water drops that land on burning rocks of it's title; relationships and love fizzle out over time. The four parties in the play also represent four different points on the sexuality spectrum; we have an old bi-sexual male, a young confused male, a straight female and a male to female transsexual, so the sexuality commentary is on track as well as the comment on relationships in general. Just like Sitcom, also, Ozon always seems keen to push the taboos of the story into the audience's face; and does a good job, as at times it's easy to feel dirty just watching this movie.

The play that the film works from is from the pen of tortured artist Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Francois Ozon seems keen to respect this fact throughout as he makes various tributes to Fassbinder's distinct style. Ozon is also keen to work in tributes to the French new wave cinema; most notably with a very strange dance scene, that, in spite of being off-cue with the rest of the movie, works very well thanks to the energy that Ozon gives the scene. It also serves as something of a relief to the disturbing and downbeat themes of the rest of the movie, and it's the only time that the underlying layer of black humour, which lies dormant for the majority of the piece (although it's definitely there), truly comes to the surface. In today's day and age, there are few filmmakers that are still capable of making a film that will leave the audience with something at the end of it; but it's safe to say that Ozon has managed it with this film. When the final credits rolled, I was unsure as to exactly what I had seen, but as time elapsed and I reflected on the movie; it's brilliance comes to light. While the movie isn't quite worthy of the term 'masterpiece'; it is certainly very good, and it represents another huge feather in the already feather-filled cap of Francois Ozon.

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.

This film truly is a work of art. And like all art, it's formalized; it doesn't even try to hide its formalism. The shots are squared and rigid, the duologue goes in circles, and there's a certain paralellism to the entire picture. It's not meant to be realistic, but like in all great art, it's by codifying and simplifying that deeper truths are revealed.

Despite its minimalism, I was caught up in this film because the duologue is entrancing, the atmosphere is palpable, and the characters act in such mysterious (yet somehow consistent) ways that even though there are certain patterns to the behaviour, you never really know what's coming next. I suppose this film is a comedy, although you won't find yourself laughing much. It's more a case of being too absurd to be considered a serious, straightforward drama.

"Gouttes d'Eau" is not perfect (whit is?), but it has a certain "je ne sais quoi" lending it a uniqueness that places it in my Top 20. Definitely entrancing and thoroughly thought-provoking.