If you don't see one film all year

Disturbing and violent, 'Criminal Lovers' not for faint of heart, refined of taste

By Paul Tatara
CNN.com Reviewer

(CNN) -- Francois Ozon's "Criminal Lovers" is the kind of vile little movie that critics attack at their own peril. Naysayers will be viewed as un-hip by pretentious -cineastes the world over.

Ozon, who's building a name for himself in French film circles, has devised a "young killers on the run" picture that's one part "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) to five parts "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991). It's also being promoted as an exceptionally violent, erotic take on "Hansel and Gretel," except that the wicked witch is a backwoods hermit who ties a teen-aged killer to a leash, rapes him and tricks him into eating the leg of his unfortunate victim. But why quibble over minor differences?

Ozon's boldly colorful, no-nonsense style is reminiscent of Jean-Luc Godard's mid-1960s work, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that. His simplicity is a welcome reprieve from summer blockbuster hysteria, and he obviously knows what he's doing. When he downshifts to a more dreamlike rhythm, the transition is so gradual you barely notice the change.

If only "Criminal Lovers" wasn't such a chore to endure.

That cannibalistic hermit (terrifyingly embodied by Miki Manojlovic) isn't the only character with what could politely be called intimacy issues. In Ozon's world, sex isn't sex unless it leads to degradation or murder. You'll find more compassion at a meat-packing plant.

Our heroes, if that's what you want to call them, are Alice (Natacha Regnier) and Luc (Jeremie Renier), two misguided French youths who would be lovers if only Luc weren't impotent (further shades of Warren Beatty in "Bonnie and Clyde.")

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Alice effortlessly manipulates Luc with her tight, pale flesh and easily spreadable legs. Her sexual games are playful at first, but she's about to lead Luc down a violent path that he never could have imagined.

An arrogant, kick-boxing classmate named Said (Salim Kechiouche) also wants to bed Alice. Alice, however, has more sinister plans than a night of uninhibited passion.

A hot-blooded poem by Rimbaud somehow convinces her that she needs to entice poor Luc into killing the guy, which he does with virtually no prodding. The murder scene is absolutely repugnant, as thoroughly disgusting as it can be without taking place in your own living room. (The movie isn't rated, probably because an NC-17 would scuttle its chances of turning a profit.)

Alice seduces Said in a gymnasium locker room, only to have Luc spring on him with a knife just when he thinks he's about to have his way with the object of his desire. Luc stabs his victim repeatedly, spraying blood all over himself, Alice and the locker-room walls. Most people, if they have any self-respect, will turn away from the screen when this is happening. But stay on your toes: You get another chance to gag over it later, when it's replayed in slow motion.

Alice and Luc then bury the body in the woods, only to get lost when they try to make their way back to the car. Fortunately, they stumble upon a cabin full of food. Unfortunately, it belongs to the hermit, who locks them in a crawl space ... along with Said's decaying body, which he dug up shortly after the couple disposed of it.

The rest of the film consists of the hermit systematically starving Alice while turning Luc into a sexual slave. He drags the boy around on a leash, strips and bathes him, and eventually forces him into a round of anal sex. If the rape scene in "Deliverance" (1972) makes you queasy, your skin might crawl right off your body during this stuff. Though Luc is repeatedly humiliated by this unshaven beast, he eventually starts to dig the process.

Yeah, right. Some critics have been referring to this as a "gay" film, but that presupposes that all homosexuals are inclined toward assault and torture.

Actually, the movie that "Criminal Lovers" most closely resembles, as far as its sexual content goes, is Pier Paolo Pasolini's purposefully stomach-churning "Salo" (1975). Ozon generates a unique, consistently disquieting vibe, and he's especially adept at utilizing flashbacks. It's just that he's more interested in titillating or mortifying the viewer than he is in making a salient point.

You can shock people with a lot less effort than he puts into this movie; that's for sure.

"Criminal Lovers" is a veritable bonanza of nastiness. Let's see, there's that God-awful stabbing, sexual humiliation, cannibalism, improper body disposal, unlawful entrapment, and, just for good measure, a rabbit that gets skinned before your very eyes. It almost seems ridiculous to warn you about the bad language and nudity. Bathe after viewing. Not Rated. 115 minutes In French, with English subtitles.

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