Directed By: Francois Ozon
Written By: Francois Ozon, Marcia Romano and Annette Perrichon
Cinematography: Pierre Stoeber
Editor: Claude Bouche and Dominique Petrot
Cast: Natacha Regnier, Jeremie Renier, Mikki Manojlovic, Salim Kechiouche, Yasmine Belmadi, Bernard Maume
Modern retelling of Hansel and Gretel. After committing a murder, a young couple on the run find refuge in a remote cottage in the woods, where they become trapped by the perverse hermit who lives there.
This is a twisted fairy tale with very real human consequences, a lovers-on-the-run crime story poisoned by teenage lust, obsession, manipulation, and the terrible things people convince themselves are acts of love. It’s shocking, disturbing, seductive, strangely beautiful, and somehow all of those things at once.
Consider yourself warned: this isn’t a comfortable watch. François Ozon isn’t interested in easing you into the darkness. He simply opens the door and invites you inside.
At first, the film feels deceptively straightforward. A young couple commits an impulsive murder, and the story appears to follow their desperate escape. Then Ozon pulls the rug out from under you. Flashbacks reshape everything you thought you understood, revelations arrive with unnerving calm, and the narrative splinters apart only to rebuild itself into something richer and far stranger.
The film is almost bursting at the seams with symbolism. It’s a crime thriller. A coming-of-age story. A sexual awakening. A psychological horror. A fairy tale. A social commentary. Somehow, despite juggling enough allegories to overwhelm lesser filmmakers, it never feels messy. It feels hypnotic.
The fairy tale influences are impossible to ignore. LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD, HANSEL AND GRETEL. The mysterious hunter becomes a version of the Big Bad Wolf, the forest transforms into a place where innocence and monstrosity coexist, and civilization itself becomes more dangerous than nature. Ironically, the teenagers are predators in the city, yet once they enter the wilderness they become frightened children simply trying to survive.
Beneath all of this lies an uncomfortable examination of desire. Sex is constantly used as currency, manipulation, temptation, reward, punishment, and power. One character is so blinded by infatuation that morality becomes negotiable. Another seems almost intoxicated by violence itself. Love isn’t portrayed as romantic. it’s presented as something capable of becoming toxic enough to justify murder.
Ozon also quietly exposes uglier truths beneath the crime. Racism, prejudice, jealousy, fetishization, and repression slowly reveal themselves as motivations lurking beneath the surface. The murder isn’t simply an act of passion, it becomes tangled in fear, attraction, insecurity, and the desperate need to prove devotion. It’s one of those films where every revelation makes previous scenes feel even more unsettling.
Even its sexuality refuses easy labels. Desire here is fluid, conflicted, repressed, and often frighteningly honest. Characters struggle against attractions they don’t fully understand, making every interaction feel layered with longing, denial, and self-deception.
The film can certainly be graphic, but it rarely feels exploitative. Its violence is disturbing precisely because it isn’t exaggerated. Even its eroticism feels unnervingly poetic. One unforgettable love scene, surrounded by quietly observing wildlife, plays like a corrupted Disney fantasy, as though nature itself has stopped to witness something simultaneously beautiful and deeply wrong. It’s difficult not to think later films like Antichrist may have wandered through similar woods.
You can also feel echoes of BONNIE AND CLYDE and GUN CRAZY, but Ozon isn’t interested in celebrating outlaw romance. He’s dismantling it. Every fantasy of youthful freedom eventually collides with guilt, consequence, and tragedy.
What makes CRIMINAL LOVERS, so remarkable is its tone. It’s shocking without screaming for attention. Elegant while depicting ugliness. Tender moments suddenly become disturbing, while horrific moments reveal unexpected humanity. Just when you think you’ve settled into one emotion, the film quietly replaces it with another.
There is something undeniably charming about this movie and that’s perhaps the most disturbing thing about it.
This wasn’t my first François Ozon film, but it was the one that truly introduced me to how fearless he could be. 8 FEMMES hinted at his playful experimentation. CRIMINAL LOVERS tears away every safety net. It’s daring, provocative, endlessly symbolic, and completely unconcerned with staying inside conventional boundaries.
It’s the kind of film that feels overstuffed on paper: crime thriller, fairy tale, queer awakening, social critique, psychological horror, satire, romance, tragedy, and fable. Yet somehow Ozon balances every one of those ideas with astonishing confidence.
Few filmmakers can throw this much into a single film and emerge with something so cohesive, so haunting, and so unexpectedly beautiful.
It’s difficult. It’s troubling. It’s unforgettable.
And that’s exactly why it’s worth Watching.
Grade: B+
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