This is another absolutely wonderful film from Ozon, who is clearly developing into the Fassbinder/Almodovar of his generation. Several comments here have dismissed his decision to relate the disintegration of a couple from finish to start as a cliché, a kind of throwaway editing game, but is far from that - it is a powerfully moving and affective device. We learn that the 'perfect moment' in this relationship, the moment when the boy and the girl swim together in the golden orange light of the setting sun, is the moment when the fantasy is still possible, before reality intrudes. The film effectively deconstructs some of the myths surrounding popular representations of romance and acknowledges just how bloody hard relationships can be sometimes. The lighting is also amazing - from the harsh blues of the birth scene (a harrowing section) to the golden colours of the beach sequence. Ozon is dabbling in genres here too - from rom-com to melodrama to porn - another subtle highlighting o the way cinematic convention codifies our experience of intimacy. A quite brilliant piece of film-making, and one that recalls the quiet intensity of sous le sable against the flashier excesses of 8 femmes or Swimming Pool.
Review of Five Times Two
