In 5x2 Ozon focuses on 5 episodes on the making of a failed relationship. Scene opens on the divorce and follows up in a bitter (former) spousal rape, following some sexual agreement which is bound to remain unexplained. And that is good: the one thing I loved about the movie is the way Ozon refrains from over-explaining, leaving the filling of the gaps between the episodes to the imagination of the spectator.
But what is left? It's not like nuance or subtlety is completely missing in the multi-faceted portrait à deux, but quite unexpectedly the director almost exclusively focuses on the mundane, the "quotidien". The viewer is left with the doubt: why showing just the banality and hiding the possibly interesting exchanges, the quirky characters which are just shown superficially or hinted at throughout the movie? All we are left with is a big "so what?" Yes, the montage in reverse was "très cool" just a couple of years ago, when Gaspar Noé did it, in Irréversible, where it was used to a much more interesting effect. In 5x2 it allows the director to show the younger characters walk away towards the sunset at their first meeting, in a scene as kitsch as any old Gainsbourg's record cover. Again, so what? But that might not be random: the fun soundtrack is almost exclusively tailored from 60s Italian pop "beach songs" which define and comment each episode, similarly to what Almòdovar does in a particularly campy scene of "La Mala Educacion". Again in this case I think we were the only people in the US theater understanding that level of narrative, the memorable banality of the lyrics describing the ideal banality of all love stories. But once more, so what?
But what is left? It's not like nuance or subtlety is completely missing in the multi-faceted portrait à deux, but quite unexpectedly the director almost exclusively focuses on the mundane, the "quotidien". The viewer is left with the doubt: why showing just the banality and hiding the possibly interesting exchanges, the quirky characters which are just shown superficially or hinted at throughout the movie? All we are left with is a big "so what?" Yes, the montage in reverse was "très cool" just a couple of years ago, when Gaspar Noé did it, in Irréversible, where it was used to a much more interesting effect. In 5x2 it allows the director to show the younger characters walk away towards the sunset at their first meeting, in a scene as kitsch as any old Gainsbourg's record cover. Again, so what? But that might not be random: the fun soundtrack is almost exclusively tailored from 60s Italian pop "beach songs" which define and comment each episode, similarly to what Almòdovar does in a particularly campy scene of "La Mala Educacion". Again in this case I think we were the only people in the US theater understanding that level of narrative, the memorable banality of the lyrics describing the ideal banality of all love stories. But once more, so what?