prick of the thorn
by
Douglas Messerli
Nicolas
Mercier and François Ozon (screenplay), François Ozon (director) Une rose
entre nous (A Rose Between Us) / 1994 [27 minutes]
In Ozon’s early study of sexual experimentation and confusion, a young British woman, Rose (Sasha Hails) enters a hair salon to have her hair colored from its raven tones to ginger or “squirrel-red,” which the young apprentice stylist Paul (Rodolphe Lesage) readily accomplishes. But the moment he’s “finished, she, now speaking only in English, pretends outrage for what he’s done to her, and rushes from the shop in anger without paying, Paul fast on her heels in order to be properly recompensed for his efforts.
After a street incident, witnessed by his
fellow hairdresser Rémy (Christophe Hémon), wherein she finally offers to pay
after describing him basically as a fag to his boss, he rejects her money and,
winning back her power over him, she invites him to a late night club, The
Palace.
Rémy, who evidently sells drugs at the club, faces off with her alone, describing her as a little “con-girl,” while still attempting to sell her drugs which she promises to purchase the next evening when she will have enough money (although we have already seen her be paid for arranging to Paul to have sex with Yves).
But for these young kids, it doesn’t seem to
matter much. The men finally take both Rose and Paul to an apartment, where
Rose sings a cabaret-like song as together they all dance, putting Paul in the
center a ring they form before he
Rejuvenating the boy, Rose finally
convinces him to go with Yves. We watch Yves go down on Paul, while in the next
room, the far more seasoned Rose refuses to have sex with Robert.
Finally, he suggests that he is going out
for some croissants and will be back soon, she offering him all the money which
is still in her purse. He quietly rejects her offer, saying he has enough, as
she watches him through the window, stroking her cat, realizing that he won’t be
coming back.
The
camera shows him having returned to the hairdressers, working now more
comfortably with Rémy, offering him one
of the croissants he has purchased, as the two laugh together now in
friendship.
What we realize in Ozon’s work which some
may read as representing child abuse, is truly a comedy, in that these three,
Paul, Rémy, and Rose have used the adults, at different times, to explore their
own sexual desires and orientations.
The young unconfident 18-year-old Paul of
the day before has returned to Rémy with a far deeper knowledge of himself.
Like the Balthus poster that Rose has on the wall, these “children” have
allowed themselves to be sexually objectified each for their own purposes of
discovering how to negotiate the adult world and what sex is all about. Despite
prostitution, robbery, drugs, intended rape, and sexual longing none of these
youths has been truly traumatized, but are joyful in the discovery of their own
desires and its expression through their bodies.
In the 1990s French director Ozon was one
of the few brave enough to explore this territory, as had filmmakers as diverse
as Louis Malle, Ingmar Bergman, Jean Delannoy, Mauro Bolognini, Carlos Hugo
Christensen, Lasse Nielsen, and a few others had in the more open-minded 1960s
and 70s.
Los
Angeles, June 11, 2024
Reprinted
from My Queer Cinema blog (June 2024).
No comments:
Post a Comment