Review of Criminal Lovers

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.