CRIMINAL LOVERS A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
"Isn't it exciting?" the lithe and beautiful Alice (Natacha Régnier from THE DREAMLIFE OF ANGELS) asks her virginal boyfriend, Luc (Jérémie Renier). "Our adventure. You used to complain that nothing happened." Loading the body of a high school classmate, Saïd (Salim Kechiouche), whom they just murdered into the trunk of the car, the numb Luc isn't likely to be griping about the lack of excitement ever again.
Writer/director François Ozon's CRIMINAL LOVERS (LES AMANTS CRIMINELS) is a dark, dark psychosexual fairy tale for adults as written by the Brothers Grimm, as in VERY grim. It is an erotically-charged morality tale with the message that actions have consequences and horrific actions have horrific consequences.
At first, we aren't sure why these two young lovers have killed Saïd. Is it just for sadomasochistic sexual gratification as it certainly seems? Using flashbacks, we learn from Alice the reason why she feels that she deserves to enact revenge on Saïd, but how credible is her version of the truth? And will we ever come to know the exact events that led her to take another's life with such premeditated viciousness?
After asking the shocked Luc if he loves her and getting no response, Alice goes off with Luc to bury Saïd's body in the woods. Along the way they stick up a jewelry store, but Alice wishes they had held up the bakery instead since she's hungry. This is a girl with a very twisted sense of morality. She cries profusely for a rabbit that they run over but has no sense of remorse over slicing up a human being like a piece of meat. What is clear is that she gets her sexual kicks from perverse activities.
Filmed beautifully and scored well musically, the picture alternately invites and repulses us. The most sickening scene turns out to be the skinning of a rabbit, as its flesh is ripped off its body. It is the type of movie that, the more you describe it, the more your readers want no part of it. But this is a fascinating film with chillingly believable acting. And with plenty of surprises along the way.
The second part of the story happens after our young lovers have buried Saïd's body. Lost in the woods, they happen upon the remote cabin of an ogre. They figure that they are quite invincible and can easily rob food from him.
Instead, this man, listed in the credits only as the man in the forest (Miki Manojlovic), proves to be a one-man vigilante squad. He throws them down into a dark basement inhabited by rats and Saïd's decomposing body, which the man has unburied. The man says he has cannibalistic intents on them, liking his girls skinny and his boys fat. This means that Luc gets stuffed like a goose while Alice starves. Homosexual rape is just one of many terrors that he inflicts on his prisoners. Suffice it to say that they would have been much better off if the police had found them first.
If ever there was a movie that isn't for everyone, it's CRIMINAL LOVERS. But if you find really dark sexual thrillers intriguing, CRIMINAL LOVERS may be the picture for you since they don't get much darker or more erotic than this.
CRIMINAL LOVERS runs 1:30. It is in French with English subtitles. The film is not rated but would probably be NC-17 for nudity, language and strong sexuality and violence, including rape. It is for adults only.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com
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