Ozon is considered one of the most important modern French filmmakers.[citation needed] His films are characterized by aesthetic beauty, sharp satirical humor and a free-wheeling view of human sexuality. Recurring themes in his films are friendship, sexual identity, different perceptions of reality, transience and death.[citation needed]
Ozon has achieved international acclaim for his films 8 femmes (2002) and Swimming Pool (2003). He is considered one of the most important directors in the new "New Wave" in French cinema, along with Jean-Paul Civeyrac, Philippe Ramos, and Yves Caumon, as well as a group of French filmmakers associated with a cinema du corps ("cinema of the body").[1]
Life and career
Ozon was born in Paris, France.[2] Having studied directing at the French film school La Femis, Ozon made several short films such as A Summer Dress (Une robe d'été, 1996) and Scènes de lit (1998). His motion picture directing debut was Sitcom (also 1998), which was well received by both critics and audiences.
In 2003, Swimming Pool, starring Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier, was released. Ozon considered it a very personal film that gives insight into the difficult process of writing a novel or screenplay.
In 2004 he directed the film 5x2. His next film, Time to Leave (Le temps qui reste) (which one critic said explored the question "how does a frivolous person deal with his own mortality?")[3] screened at film festivals worldwide in 2005, and in 2006 it was distributed in the U.S.
Ozon's first full English-language production, Angel, starring Romola Garai, was released in 2007. The film, based on a novel by British writer Elizabeth Taylor, follows the story of a poor girl who climbs Edwardian England's social ladder by becoming a romance writer. The film was shot at Tyntesfield House and Estate near Bristol, at other UK locations and in Belgium.
While filming Angel, Ozon developed a strong friendship with Garai and called her his "muse".
Padva, Gilad. "Undressed Masculinities and Disrupted Sexualities in Une Robe d'été" in Grandena, Florian and Johnston, Cristina (Eds.). Cinematic Queerness: Gay and Lesbian Hypervisibility in Contemporary Francophone Feature Films, vol. 2 (Modern French Identities 98) (pp. 215–225). Oxford and New York: Peter Lang (2011).
Palmer, Tim, "Style and Sensation in the Contemporary French Cinema of the Body," Journal of Film and Video 58.3 (2006), 22-32
Rees-Roberts, Nick. French Queer Cinema, Edinburgh University Press (2008) ISBN0-7486-3418-5
Schilt, Thibaut. François Ozon, University of Illinois Press (2011) ISBN0-252-07794-6
Wende, Johannes (Ed.), François Ozon, edition text + kritik (2016) ISBN978-3-86916-511-0
External links
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