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"Young actors nowadays no longer care if they kiss a man or a woman"
François Ozon is one of the most prominent and well-known French directors of his generation in Israel, and his new film, "Summer 85", is also coming up here this weekend.
In the interview, he explains why the film's protagonist is Jewish, why there are no sex scenes and why he has no nostalgia for the 1980s.
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Francois Ozone
Avner Shavit
Thursday, 05 August 2021, 00:21 Updated: 08:52
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Trailer for the movie "Summer 85" (Lev Cinemas)
When François Ozon was 18, he read "Dance on My Grave" - Aiden Chambers' book considered one of the first teen books to deal with same-sex love. The reading affected him so deeply that he sat down to write a screenplay based on the novel - but never executed it. Some other directors also planned to try to adapt the book, but that too did not help.
The years passed, and Ozone grew to be one of the most prolific and prominent French directors today - among other things, he is one of the only filmmakers in Europe whose almost every film is screened in Israel, and usually commercial screenings: for example, "Swimming Pool", "Eight Women" and "Franz ". Then, about thirty-five years after reading the book, the director decided to finally put his youthful dream into practice. The result is "Summer 85," which premieres here today (Thursday).
"Why did I wait so long? This is also a question I asked myself," Ozone says in an interview with Walla!
Culture in honor of the release of "Summer 85" in Israel.
"I never forgot this book. I always loved it and I always told myself that if I was a director, then I would make a movie out of it. I waited, because before I was too close to the age of the characters. Now that I am older and more experienced, I understand them better and grasped them. The necessary distance. "
The original book takes place in a coastal town in England.
Ozone copied the plot to a French seaside town, and also moved the plot from the early 1980s to 1985, so that he could incorporate one of his favorite songs, Cure's In Between Days, which came out only that year.
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More on Walla!
"My mother's death is like a knife stabbed in the back. Filming the movie was like experiencing 18 funerals."
To the full article
The beauty and the pain.
From "Summer 85" (Photo: Lev Cinema)
Beyond that, the plot remains similar: the story of Alexis, a dreamy boy and sailing enthusiast, whose boat capsizes, which also turns his world upside down. The one who saves him is revealed as a young man named David, who will become his first love and change his life. But as the name of the book on which the film is based indicates and as it is revealed to us already in the first minutes, death lurks around the corner and threatens to create another turn in their lives, and this time tragic.
Another element that is faithful to the original: in the film, as in the book, David is a member of the religion of Moses. "I asked the writer why the hero is Jewish," Ozon tells me. "He replied that the book was inspired by a city in England that had a large Jewish community, so it was natural for him. Besides, the burial customs that are unique to Judaism allow for one of the plot developments, which of course will not be revealed. "I kept his sexual identity. For me, it doesn't matter if he is gay or not and if he is Jewish or Catholic. In the end, it's a love story and love is love."
"What I liked about the book in the first place, is that it's a story about disillusionment," Ozone continues.
"Maybe today's boys are less innocent, but we were very innocent. We were told stories and we thought the world was a fairy tale. When Alexis meets David, he is convinced it is a knight on a white horse, but of course he discovers there are no knights and no white horses, and all the beauty and suffering "In the story, they come from this disillusionment. Why do teenagers tend to be violent? Because they release the pain of disillusionment."
The most diligent there is.
François Ozon at the recent Cannes Film Festival (Photo: GettyImages, Pascal La Segarten)
Alexis is played by Felix Lefebvre and David Benjamin Wazan, both actors in their early twenties.
"They belong to an eighth-generation generation that doesn't move," says the director.
"For previous generations of actors in French cinema, it was a big deal if you were kissing a man or a woman, but for them? It was like that, everything is completely natural for them."
Why are there no sex scenes in the movie?
"After 'Blue is the Hottest Color,' for its graphic lesbian sex scenes, everyone in French cinema started filming such scenes, so I did not want to repeat that cliché. We tried to film one scene in which the protagonists imitate the Kama Sutra and lie in all possible sexual positions, but "We did not stop bursting out laughing during the filming, so we cut it in the editing. There are kisses in the film and there are touches, but I prefer to leave everything else to the imagination of the audience."
No nostalgia and no sex.
From "Summer 85" (Photo: Lev Cinema)
What is 1985 for you?
"I have no nostalgia for the 1980s, because I was part of the generation that discovered sexuality along with the AIDS outbreak. We were just starting to find out what love is and what emotions are, and we were already warned not to make love. It was a painful time."
You make wonderful use of songs from the period.
What did you choose the soundtrack from?
"It has a Cure song in it, because I was a big fan of the British New Wave - The Cure, The Smiths, etc. I also incorporated French hits from the period, such as' Jean's' Toute premiere fois'. I can not mention it in the same breath as the Cure "It's more of a Guilty Pleasure for me."
A playlist inspired by the movie
Ozone is so diligent that it has since completed another film called "Everything Went Fine", which was screened as part of the official competition of the last Cannes Film Festival and was also purchased for distribution in Israel.
Unlike "Summer 85," it is not about youth but about old age, but even in it the cloud of inaction is constantly hovering over the heroes.
Apparently this is the kind of cinema that is appropriate for the days of the Corona.
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