The Crime is Mine
For light relief, François Ozon returns to farce, adapting a previously filmed 1934 stage play which now seems even more topical.
Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Rebecca Marder
Image courtesy of Parkland Pictures.
From time to time the French filmmaker François Ozon likes to let his hair down by offering a lightweight but engaging movie based on a stage original. It happened with 8 Women in 2002 and again with Potiche (2010) and now we have The Crime Is Mine adapted from the stage play by George Berr and Louis Verneuil first seen in 1934. Having as recently as 2021 given us one of his best and most serious works in Everything Went Fine (a film which centred on the issue of voluntary euthanasia), Ozon has certainly won the right to contrast it with a piece as frivolous as this 2023 offering now reaching the UK rather belatedly. It's as well acted and as astutely made as one would expect, but it is rather a pity that the material is on balance a less effective divertissement than the two examples of that kind mentioned above.
In keeping with what the title might seem to promise, a death occurs early on in the film when a stage producer is found shot dead. That very same day he had auditioned a young actress, Madeleine (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) and, as was his wont, had attempted to seduce her. Rejecting his advances she had walked out but now finds herself a suspect since almost immediately afterwards he had been killed. At first, she proclaims her innocence but then she realises that the publicity of a trial for murder with a plea of acting in self-defence could make her headline news and thus aid her career. She shares an apartment with her best friend, Pauline (Rebecca Mander), who, being a young lawyer, is ready to defend her and will also profit from the publicity that the court hearing will bring. Ready to see the potential of the situation, Madeleine declares her guilt: "the crime is mine".
This may be a tale featuring a murder but it is not a detective story (when we do learn the identity of the killer it is not held back for a climactic reveal) and, indeed, this work is best thought of as a satirical farce. It is in keeping with it being a François Ozon film that as the story develops it incorporates elements that bring other movies to mind and not by chance. Indeed, linking crime and celebrity echoes Chicago (2002) while a subplot concerning Madeleine's romantic feelings for a young man (Édouard Sulpice) who has a rich father (André Dussollier) evokes memories of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). In the film’s later stages, a character belatedly introduced becomes key, this being an elderly silent screen star named Odette Chaumette (Isabelle Huppert) who dreams of making a comeback. Consequently, this reminds us of 1950’s Sunset Boulevard and the unforgettable figure of Norma Desmond. The fact that in the original play Odette was a man is indicative of the extent to which this adaptation has a character that belongs more to Ozon than to the original stage piece. Being set in the Paris of 1935, it is entirely apt that the fictional killing should prompt press comparisons with other trials of that era. It is therefore by no means impossible that the stage original did make mention of Violette Noziére, guilty of parricide in 1933. Nevertheless, Ozon would surely have wanted to include it here in any case as a passing reminder that Isabelle Huppert played that very role for Claude Chabrol in 1978. Perhaps the most pleasing nostalgic tribute of all comes in the form of referencing Billy Wilder’s 1934 movie Mauvaise graine which starred Danielle Darrieux and then featuring recordings of two songs made by her on this film’s soundtrack.
Ozon’s adept treatment is apparent in other ways too when it comes to handling this period tale in a manner suited to today. Thus, although this comic piece grows out of the activities of a sexual predator who takes advantage of young actresses, Ozon adroitly ensures that the humour in the narrative never clashes with the need to fit in with the outlook of today’s #MeToo movement. He also brings out the agency with which Madeleine and Pauline promote themselves to advantage and, being a gay director noted for appealing to LGBTQ+ audiences, he also incorporates sympathetic hints that Pauline has warm sexual feelings for Madeleine even if unluckily Madeleine's fondness for her is entirely platonic.
Watching The Crime Is Mine has its pleasures and especially in its later stages when Isabelle Huppert sweeps in and rightly makes the film her own. But the actual storyline can at times feel a bit silly (it falls short of being beguiling). Thus it is that when one watches the wonderfully precise performances of Dusssollier and of Fabrice Luchini (the latter playing a judge), one admires them greatly yet senses that such fine players ought to be doing something more in keeping with their talent. It applies also to lesser-known names involved: Régis Laspalès and Olivier Broche as a detective and his assistant create a very effective duo. For that matter Tereszkiewicz and Marder are well cast as the young women who make their own destiny. It’s something of a paradox in that the quality of the work on display and Ozon’s ability to maintain a consistent tone are virtues which also serve to underline the fact that what is on offer here isn't really quite distinguished enough to warrant all the talent put into it. But perhaps I'm asking for rather too much and should be grateful for the pleasures provided including the use in this widescreen period film of black and white footage in the ratio of the day to illustrate what various characters quite inconsistently claim to have happened when the producer was shot.
Original title: Mon crime.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Rebecca Marder, Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon, André Dussollier, Édouard Sulpice, Régis Laspalès, Olivier Broche, Félix Lefebvre, Evelyn Buyle, Daniel Prévost, Myriam Boyer.
Dir François Ozon, Pro Eric Altmayer and Nicolas Altmayer, Screenplay François Ozon adapted with Philippe Piazzo from the play Mon crime by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil, Ph Manu Dacosse, Art Dir Jean Rabasse, Ed Laure Gardette, Music Philippe Rombi, Costumes Pascaline Chavanne.
Mandarin Films/FOZ/Gaumont/France 2 Cinéma/Playtime/Scope Pictures/Canal+/ Ciné+-Parkland Pictures.
103 mins. France/Belgium. 2022. US Rel: 25 December 2023. UK Rel: 18 October 2024. Cert. 15.
