Peter von Kant

François Ozon offers his own insight into the world of the German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Isabelle Adjani, Hanna Schygulla and Aminthe Audiard.

Even before this latest offering by François Ozon appeared it could be claimed that in the field of film directors Rainer Werner Fassbinder's life had spawned a unique legacy in terms of film dramas made about him – and that assessment could be made with regard to both their number and their unusual nature. In 1983, only a year after his death, Radu Gabria made a film about him – A Man Like Eva – in which the role of Fassbinder was played by an actress who had worked for him, Eva Mattes. Mattes would appear again in another film about Fassbinder – 2020’s Enfant Terrible directed by Oskar Roehler – but on that occasion she took the role of Brigitte Mira. But perhaps the best film linked to Fassbinder is the too-little known Casting made in 2017 by Nicolas Wackerbarth which had a belated and rather limited release in the UK in 2020. Casting did not feature Fassbinder but, in addition to being a brilliant dissection of the world of filmmaking, its fictional story concerned a proposed remake of Fassbinder’s 1972 film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. This resulted in Casting including dialogue taken from the original film (itself an adaptation by Fassbinder of his own stage play). Furthermore, it involved the idea that the role of Petra von Kant’s lover, a role taken in 1972 by Hanna Schygulla, could validly be rewritten so that in this projected remake she would become a man.

It has long been evident that the French director François Ozon is an admirer of Fassbinder – indeed in 2000 he chose to film Water Drops on Burning Rocks based on a play written by Fassbinder at the age of 19 but never staged in his lifetime. In the case of Peter von Kant, the credits describe it as freely adapted from Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and, indeed, many people would readily describe it as a remake. The storyline remains essentially the same and so much of the original dialogue is retained that to think of it in those terms is understandable - but it misses the point. There is no similarity whatever between what we have here and the shot-by-shot remake of Hitchcock’s Psycho foolishly undertaken by Gus Van Sant. For all the similarities that Peter von Kant bears to the original, it emerges as something essentially different. That is not just because the central character, the fashion designer Petra von Kant, now becomes a man, but because this key figure is clearly based on Fassbinder himself with the result that Peter von Kant becomes yet another film about this often repellent yet hugely talented man.

Quite possibly Ozon took inspiration from Casting when changing the sex of three of the main characters. He does retain three female characters from the original – Petra’s, friend, Sidonie (Isabelle Adjani), her daughter, Gabriele (Aminthe Audiard) and her mother (Hanna Schygulla returning to this tale in a new age-appropriate role) – but the other key roles have become male: Peter himself (Denis Ménochet), the new arrival whom he promotes and falls for (now called Amir and played by Khalil Ben Gharbia) and the put-upon assistant whose adoration is ruthlessly taken advantage of by Peter – that's Karl played by Stefan Crepon. Some might view this as representing a basic switch in that what was once a lesbian tale has now been converted into one centred on the world of gay men. But the fact is that the original represents a deeply cynical view of all human relationships, one in which power games play a central role. This is shown in a way which surely grew out of the life of Fassbinder himself and expressed his beliefs. Indeed, he was not making a film about lesbians but about life generally and one based on his own experiences, albeit hiding that fact to some extent by telling the tale through female characters.

Two key elements of Peter von Kant stem from changing the sex of its central figures and from setting it in the world of film rather than that of fashion. First, by turning Petra into a film director named Peter, Ozon absolutely invites us to see him as Rainer Werner Fassbinder himself and that aspect becomes in consequence the film's chief focus. Denis Ménochet’s excellent performance, one of many in this film, enables Ozon to express his feelings about Fassbinder fully. Secondly, Peter von Kant’s use of the film world as its setting makes even more persuasive this portrayal of people being manipulative. It is shown through Peter’s exploitation of those around him and later through Amir’s exploitation of Peter in building his career as an actor, but also in the way in which people play up to Peter in order to benefit from his influence.

There are other ways too in which Ozon's film departs from Fassbinder’s. The new take is significantly shorter (85 minutes rather than 124 minutes) and the tone is different. The basic cynicism about relationships may remain inherent in the tale, but Ozon’s voice becomes the crucial one in offering a view of Fassbinder. It is one which, never hiding his worst features, shows us a man who, while often relishing the melodrama of his own emotions, was incapable of true, personal and lasting happiness. He was consequently his own victim and that makes him pitiable as we see here. What the two films do share is a gift for utilising recordings of songs: indeed, ‘In My Room’ by The Walker Brothers is heard in both and Ozon tellingly includes Cora Vaucaire’s ‘Comme au théâtre’ and a setting of words by Oscar Wilde, ‘Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves’ performed by Isabelle Adjani.

Technically, Peter von Kant finds Ozon at his seemingly effortless best, albeit that he doesn't match the exceptional impact of the more stylised imagery that features in the first third of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. But, if the best of the Fassbinder original was early on, his film was nevertheless more surefooted than Peter von Kant in its late scenes. Ozon’s detailed emphasis on the mother makes her a less convincing figure and a certain sentimentality comes in here together with some less persuasive scenes when Peter’s attitude changes. It may not help that we know that Fassbinder was impossible to the end. When it comes to Ozon’s recent work I do consider Everything Went Fine a greater achievement than this, but nevertheless Peter von Kant is very successful as a fresh portrait of Fassbinder and that makes it misguided to support those who dismiss this as a minor work.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Cast: Denis Ménochet, Isabelle Adjani, Khalil Ben Gharbia, Stefan Crepon, Hanna Schygulla, Aminthe Audiard.

Dir François Ozon, Pro François Ozon, Screenplay François Ozon from the film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Ph Manuel Dacosse, Pro Des Katia Wyszkop, Ed Laure Gadette, Music Clément Ducol, Costumes Pascaline Chavanne.

FOZ/France 2 Cinéma/Playtime/Scope Pictures/Canal+/Ciné+/Cofinova-Curzon.
85 mins. France/Belgium. 2022. US Rel: 2 September 2022. UK Rel: 23 December 2022 (Curzon Home Cinema) and in UK cinemas from 30 December 2022. Cert. 15.