The Fabric of Desire

This chapter presents a commentary on François Ozon's entire film career to date. It suggests that despite tremendous diversity in terms of cinematic choices (on generic, formal, and thematic levels), Ozon's oeuvre is decidedly consistent in its desire to blur the traditional frontiers between the masculine and the feminine, gay and straight, reality and fantasy, auteur and commercial cinema. The moving fabrics mentioned above are a leitmotif that visually represents the permeability of those frontiers. The chapter begins by exploring the director's own path to filmmaking before considering the colorful cast of characters in the short films that Ozon wrote and directed between 1988 and 1998. It then moves on to an analysis of his feature films: Sitcom (1998), Les amants criminels (1999), 8 femmes (2002), Sous le sable (2000), Swimming Pool (2003), Le temps qui reste (2005), Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes (2000), 5x2 (2004), and Ricky (2009).