Alice a young student in France, is a tease. She loves to flirt with one athletic youth who appears to be of Arab descent, Said. This young student likes Alice, but she plays hard to get, and for all purposes, she has a thing in mind for him. Luc, another student, likes Alice as well, but he is too shy to act on his instincts. This girl is bent in getting her revenge on the more confident Said and she enlists Luc to be the one that will carry it for her. After Alice insinuates herself to Said, Luc appears on the scene and stabs his rival to death.
Luc and Alice have to dispose of the body and for that they must take him away. For that, Luc has borrowed his father car and the body is taken to a forest to be buried. Unknown to them, they are being watched. The killers lose the way to the car, but they find a lonely cabin that appear to he empty. Little prepare them when a strange man comes into the hut and overpowers them to a filthy lower part of the house.
The man has plans for the couple. When Alice plead with this person by offering sex for their freedom, he tells them he likes his boys fattened and his girls thin before he eats them. With that, it is clear it is Luc who is the chosen one to fulfill the forest man's own sexual appetite. Luc in fact, is sexually turned on by this crude man in ways one did not expect. When they eventually overpower the ogre, and only then, they engage in sex as the animals of the forest surround them in a sort of Disney reverie.
Francois Ozon, one of France's best new directors, wrote this film of 1999 with the idea of perhaps retelling the fairy tale story of "Hansel and Gretel". The story parallel the children's narrative with a more menacing and cruel reality. Mr. Ozon's version clearly shows that it is Luc who is the one that awakens to the kind of sex that he has lusted for, but never was able to get. The film has a little bit of everything including cannibalism that comes into play in this update of a Grimm's brothers tale.
The excellent Jeremie Renier, who has worked repeatedly with the Dardennes Brothers, clearly demonstrates he is one of the most interesting actors working in Europe today. He is perfect as Luc. Natacha Regnier, a beautiful actress, is seen as Alice, the calculating girl too sure of what she can do to the more impressionable Luc. Miki Mnojilovic does a good job impersonating the strange man of the woods.
"Les amants criminel" is obviously not for the great masses, but it will reward Mr. Ozon's fans in unexpected ways.
Luc and Alice have to dispose of the body and for that they must take him away. For that, Luc has borrowed his father car and the body is taken to a forest to be buried. Unknown to them, they are being watched. The killers lose the way to the car, but they find a lonely cabin that appear to he empty. Little prepare them when a strange man comes into the hut and overpowers them to a filthy lower part of the house.
The man has plans for the couple. When Alice plead with this person by offering sex for their freedom, he tells them he likes his boys fattened and his girls thin before he eats them. With that, it is clear it is Luc who is the chosen one to fulfill the forest man's own sexual appetite. Luc in fact, is sexually turned on by this crude man in ways one did not expect. When they eventually overpower the ogre, and only then, they engage in sex as the animals of the forest surround them in a sort of Disney reverie.
Francois Ozon, one of France's best new directors, wrote this film of 1999 with the idea of perhaps retelling the fairy tale story of "Hansel and Gretel". The story parallel the children's narrative with a more menacing and cruel reality. Mr. Ozon's version clearly shows that it is Luc who is the one that awakens to the kind of sex that he has lusted for, but never was able to get. The film has a little bit of everything including cannibalism that comes into play in this update of a Grimm's brothers tale.
The excellent Jeremie Renier, who has worked repeatedly with the Dardennes Brothers, clearly demonstrates he is one of the most interesting actors working in Europe today. He is perfect as Luc. Natacha Regnier, a beautiful actress, is seen as Alice, the calculating girl too sure of what she can do to the more impressionable Luc. Miki Mnojilovic does a good job impersonating the strange man of the woods.
"Les amants criminel" is obviously not for the great masses, but it will reward Mr. Ozon's fans in unexpected ways.