French filmmaker François Ozon discusses the newest addition to his twisted cinemascape—the gay flick, Time to Leave.

By Lydia Marcus

Sexuality, gender, relationships, and crime have found a home in the dark, cinematic world of French filmmaker François Ozon. In feature films like Swimming Pool, Water Drops On Burning Rocks, and Criminal Lovers, Ozon explored the grittier aspects of human behavior. Even his sole foray into the Technicoloresque world of musicals—Eight Women—centered around a murder and plenty of figurative backstabbing. His latest film, Time To Leave, shows a 31-year-old gay fashion photographer (Melvil Poupaud) who has been diagnosed with a terminal cancer and has only a few months to live. On a recent trip to Los Angeles, the French filmmaker talked to IN Los Angeles about the films that most influenced him to become a director, what it’s like to work with divas, and why portraying sex onscreen is so important to him—despite his reluctance to label his own sexual orientation.

Why is it important for you to show such a wide range of sexuality in your films?

Because I think when you show the body and the sexual behavior, people don’t lie. I think when there are scenes with dialogue, people just pretend to be what they are not. When you ask two characters to have sex, they do what they are and then show their real feelings and emotions. For me, it’s important to find the truth of a character during the journey of a film.

What films influenced you growing up?

I think I became a cinephile very early because my parents loved cinema and they let me see many films which were [probably] forbidden to children (laughs). I think one of the important films was [one] I saw when I was about 10 or 11 by Roberto Rossellini [called] Germany Year Zero. It’s a neorealistic movie made in Berlin just after the war—World War II—and it’s the story of a young boy who tries to survive and find some money for his family. At the end, the young boy commits suicide. It was very tragic and so different from the kind of movies I was used to seeing as a child. It was the opposite of a Walt Disney movie. I think, when I saw this film, I understood how a movie could be strong and touch me as a young boy. I think it’s at this moment I realized maybe one day I would become a film director.

Your films show a wide range of sexuality. You define yourself as a gay man, right?

No, I don’t define myself. It’s very American to define oneself. I don’t need to define myself because I don’t want to be one thing. I want to be open-minded; you never know what will happen in your life. I think it’s always very sad when you hear some gay people saying, “I just want to have sex with this kind of man.” It’s always surprising to be suddenly touched by a younger man and after by an older one— black after Chinese. I like the idea that many things can happen in your life and if you know already exactly what you desire, it’s very boring. I think the desires change during your life. Maybe I will have a family in 10 years, I don’t know.

Are you single?

I am with someone.

A man or a woman?

I think it’s a man (laughs).

How long have you been together?

Five years.

You’ve worked with Fanny Ardant, Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Charlotte Rampling, and Jeanne Moreau. What’s it like working with these legends?

It’s fun. It’s a real pleasure because I admire them and very often I become friends with them. I think they are very strong women who have a big experience of life. I think they agreed to work with me because they felt I loved them, and I think to make a movie you need to love the people you film.

What’s Fanny Ardant like?

When you meet [some actresses] in life, they are nothing and [then] suddenly onscreen, they are amazing. Fanny Ardant is amazing in life and onscreen. There is no gap between the two.

What about Catherine Deneuve?

She’s an actress I’ve known for such a long time. For Eight Women, the difficulty for me was to be neutral. I couldn’t be too close to the actress. So I wasn’t as close as I would have loved to have been with her.

Charlotte Rampling seems like she’d be really tough.

You know she’s English, so that means it’s very different. She’s more professional I think (laughs). She’s less diva. She’s first an actress, she’s there for the work and she respects the director more than some other actresses who’ve worked with me who are divas. She became a very good friend of mine.

There’s only one sex scene in Time to Leave and what was surprising to me was you could show erect penises. In American films, you could never see that.

It’s in the shadow.

But it’s still visible.

You don’t like that?

I love it, I’m there for that, believe me. Are either of those actors gay?

You have to ask them (laughs).

Well even among gay actors, I’d be surprised that they would show that. I guess people just don’t have the same hang-ups in Europe that we have here.

But it depends what they have between their legs—if you have some good thing like Melvil [Poupaud], it’s okay.

If you’re a grower then it’s okay (laughs).

Yes.

I love that your movies are so twisted. Criminal Lovers was one of the most twisted movies I’ve ever seen. Where do you get that sensibility from?

I don’t know. I should be sick, maybe I should visit a shrink.

Your films are twisted but how would you describe yourself away from the movies?

Ah, I think I’m twisted.