Criminal Lovers [Les amants criminel] ***½ (1999, Natacha Régnier, Jérémie Renier, Salim Kechiouche, Miki Manojlovic) – Classic Movie Review 12,789

Natacha Régnier stars in Criminal Lovers (1999) as French high school student Alice, who has convinced her malleable boyfriend Luc (Jérémie Renier) to kill their sexually provocative classmate Saïd (Salim Kechiouche).

Belgian actress Natacha Régnier stars as French provincial town high school student Alice, who has convinced her easily influenced boyfriend Luc (Jérémie Renier) to kill their sexually provocative classmate Saïd (Salim Kechiouche), whom she claims stood by excitedly while his group of his friends raped her.

After committing the murder, the duo clean up the blood, take Luc’s parents’ car, put the body in the trunk, rob a jewellery store, go on the run, then drag the body into the woods and bury it. Now lost, they find refuge in a remote dilapidated cottage, where they become trapped by the mysterious forest hermit (Miki Manojlovic) who lives there.

The hulking hermit takes them prisoner in his rat-infested cellar with the dead body of Saïd, reveals that he plans to eat them, but then lets Luc out on a leash and proceeds to feed Luc with a stew of Saïd’s leg, and then proceeds to feed his and Luc’s sexual appetites.

All this and more in just 96 minutes! There really is never a dull moment.

Jérémie Renier (born 6 January 1981).

Director François Ozon’s scarily disturbing 1999 film Criminal Lovers [Les amants criminel] is a chilling, pervy, nightmarish psycho-sexual horror thriller, really pushing the boundaries, both sexual and horror. 25 tears on, it keeps is awful mesmerising power. It plays realistically, but it is pure, or rather impure, fantasy. Ozon knows what he is doing all right, though what he’s doing isn’t really very nice. It is impressive how very disturbing it is though. Ozon just goes for it, and goes in for the kill. It is really nasty, a grim fairy tale indeed, with its echoes of Hansel and Gretel.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s 1812 German fairy tale Hansel and Gretel.

You may remember Hansel and Gretel are abandoned in a forest and fall into the hands of a witch, who has cannibalistic intentions and plans to fatten Hansel before eventually eating him. The hermit in the film wants to fatten Luc with rabbit and human leg stew before enjoying sex with him.

Ozon begins his film with an explicit murder scene, and keeps it fairly explicit thereafter, though, mostly sexually. Most of it is suggested rather than shown, but that’s plenty explicit enough. Ozon handles his flashback sequences showing the events that lead up to the murder and his character’s dream and fantasy sequences in confident style. He stirs the hot potato stew of cannibalism, homoeroticism and sadism like a master chef. He’s gone about as far as he could go.

Of course, being a French film, there are movie references. It turns out that Gretel and Hansel are also Bonnie and Clyde, which doesn’t bode well for a happy ending. And is there a Breathless [A Bout de Souffle] vibe?

Handle with care, this film is dynamite that can easily blow up in your face. It is highly subversive and manages to be quite arty too. It is all very clever and enticing.

The cast are Natacha Régnier as Alice, Jérémie Renier as Luc, Salim Kechiouche as Saïd, Miki Manojlović as mysterious man, Yasmine Belmadi as Karim, Bernard Maume as professor, Jean-Louis Debard as night guard, Catherine Vierne as jewellery saleswoman, Marielle Coubaillon as hostess at the supermarket, Olivier Papot as police officer, and Gil de Murger as GIGN officer.

Natacha Régnier is the first Belgian actress to win a César Award – for the 1998 film The Dreamlife of Angels.

Belgian actor Jérémie Renier is known for Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001), L’Enfant (2005), the 2012 film My Way, and the 2014 biopic Saint Laurent.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,789

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François Ozon.