My New Girlfriend (2014)
(Une nouvelle amie)
Country: FR
Technical: col 108m
Director: François Ozon
Cast: Romain Duris, Anaïs Demoustier, Raphaël Personnaz, Aurore Clément
Synopsis:
When her childhood friend is struck down in her prime, a young wife takes seriously her commitment to watch over the widowed husband and orphaned daughter. However, her feelings are complicated when the former reveals to her his secret passion for cross-dressing, and together they embark on a dangerous game of single-sex friendship by masquerade.
Review:
Ozon again applies Sirkian aesthetics and fairytale plotting to the mission of airing transgender ideas and standing up for the right of his characters to pursue whatever unorthodox proclivities happen to float their boat. The spirits of Buñuel and Almodóvar naturally hover over the enterprise: Demoustier's character is far too straitlaced from the off, the better to shatter her bourgeois defences when the time comes, and Duris appears to revel in the trans culture so much (not least during a visit to a gay nightclub) that one doubts he can merely be a red-blooded male who just likes to dress up in women's clothing. Moreover, Claire's volte-face from living out her fantasy of love-making with Laura to accepting 'Virginia' as a man with a penis appears contrived via a Talk to Her-style accident and her concomitant guilt. In sum, while this is realized as a surrealist fantasy along the lines of Max, mon amour, one knows all too well that Ozon's intentions run to a polemical 'plaidoirie' on behalf of transvestites. Whether you care or not may affect your patience with the whole enterprise.
(Une nouvelle amie)
Country: FR
Technical: col 108m
Director: François Ozon
Cast: Romain Duris, Anaïs Demoustier, Raphaël Personnaz, Aurore Clément
Synopsis:
When her childhood friend is struck down in her prime, a young wife takes seriously her commitment to watch over the widowed husband and orphaned daughter. However, her feelings are complicated when the former reveals to her his secret passion for cross-dressing, and together they embark on a dangerous game of single-sex friendship by masquerade.
Review:
Ozon again applies Sirkian aesthetics and fairytale plotting to the mission of airing transgender ideas and standing up for the right of his characters to pursue whatever unorthodox proclivities happen to float their boat. The spirits of Buñuel and Almodóvar naturally hover over the enterprise: Demoustier's character is far too straitlaced from the off, the better to shatter her bourgeois defences when the time comes, and Duris appears to revel in the trans culture so much (not least during a visit to a gay nightclub) that one doubts he can merely be a red-blooded male who just likes to dress up in women's clothing. Moreover, Claire's volte-face from living out her fantasy of love-making with Laura to accepting 'Virginia' as a man with a penis appears contrived via a Talk to Her-style accident and her concomitant guilt. In sum, while this is realized as a surrealist fantasy along the lines of Max, mon amour, one knows all too well that Ozon's intentions run to a polemical 'plaidoirie' on behalf of transvestites. Whether you care or not may affect your patience with the whole enterprise.
(Une nouvelle amie)
Country: FR
Technical: col 108m
Director: François Ozon
Cast: Romain Duris, Anaïs Demoustier, Raphaël Personnaz, Aurore Clément
Synopsis:
When her childhood friend is struck down in her prime, a young wife takes seriously her commitment to watch over the widowed husband and orphaned daughter. However, her feelings are complicated when the former reveals to her his secret passion for cross-dressing, and together they embark on a dangerous game of single-sex friendship by masquerade.
Review:
Ozon again applies Sirkian aesthetics and fairytale plotting to the mission of airing transgender ideas and standing up for the right of his characters to pursue whatever unorthodox proclivities happen to float their boat. The spirits of Buñuel and Almodóvar naturally hover over the enterprise: Demoustier's character is far too straitlaced from the off, the better to shatter her bourgeois defences when the time comes, and Duris appears to revel in the trans culture so much (not least during a visit to a gay nightclub) that one doubts he can merely be a red-blooded male who just likes to dress up in women's clothing. Moreover, Claire's volte-face from living out her fantasy of love-making with Laura to accepting 'Virginia' as a man with a penis appears contrived via a Talk to Her-style accident and her concomitant guilt. In sum, while this is realized as a surrealist fantasy along the lines of Max, mon amour, one knows all too well that Ozon's intentions run to a polemical 'plaidoirie' on behalf of transvestites. Whether you care or not may affect your patience with the whole enterprise.