Mon Crime
A very funny romp through the interwar period, my personal minette. Seems a bit conventional for Ozon, but it’s so hilarious, it gets a pass. This was apparently adapted to Hollywood comedies twice in the 30’s.
It starts with the classic meta-story: our hero protagonist is a unknown actress, running away from a mansion in tears after sounds of struggle. Casting Couch is what comes to mind immediately, which she confirms. She gets home to their rickety apartment and the landlord is demanding his back rent, but being expertly swindled by her roommate, a down-on-his-luck lawyer.
Our hero is visited then by his boyfriend, who comes to her with big news: he is marrying another woman for the money, since his father’s business is failing and they need the dowry. She is not to worry, as he wants her as concubine still.
Despair takes over our hero, until she is saved by the doorbell: the Sûreté is questioning her over the murder of the producer she visited before. She is innocent of such charge, but they see a path to glory: confess and lead the case to a public and much-publicised trial, where she woos the public and the jury to acquit her, while getting enormous free publicity (how American).
She is successful and gets everything she wanted and more: acquittal with massive publicity, leading to many job offers and gifts, plus the boyfriend is really into marrying her now, against the wishes of his father.
There is only a problem: the real murderer steps up and extorts her for a bunch of money she doesn’t have. Turns out the guy was murdered by a down-on-his-luck actress, but she is an old star who did make the jump to talkies.
With much ability and screwball hijinks, she manages to hit an home run: career success, convincing the boyfriend’s father to blessing their marriage, and the other actress gets away with a massive check (which might even bounce). All is well, as the hero takes the gold medal, while her lawyer friend remains lonesome.
As the only other Ozon film I saw was Grâce à Dieu, this “fauxminism” rings hollow, particularly towards the end, but it’s a comedy, all is forgiven.
This is my place for ramblings about sequences of images that exploit the human visual limitation know as persistence of vision.