Le refuge (2009)

Directed by: François Ozon | 90 minutes | drama | Actors: Isabelle Carré, Louis-Ronan Choisy, Pierre Louis-Calixte, Melvil Poupaud, Claire Vernet, Jean-Pierre Andréani, Marie Rivière, Jérôme Kircher, Nicolas Moreau, Emile Berling, Dominique Jacquet, Tania Dessources, Maurice Antoni, Sylvie Haurie- Aussel, Arnaud Goudal, Kevin Sorieul, Meie Castanho

François Ozon seems to be fascinated by death. The French filmmaker once made his debut with a film called ‘Le petite mort’ (1995) and completes his trilogy about death with ‘Le refuge’ (2009). The first film in that series is the acclaimed ‘Sous le sable’ (2000), in which Charlotte Rampling loses her husband during a carefree holiday. The film marked the definitive international breakthrough for Ozon. The second film in his trilogy about death is ‘Le temps qui reste’ (2005), about a terminally ill photographer who sees his end approaching and only confides in his grandmother (played by none other than Jeanne Moreau). The protagonist from that film, Melvil Poupaud, also reappears in ‘Le refuge’, albeit very briefly, as Louis, a young man addicted to hard drugs who dies from an overdose of the wrong heroin. However, Louis is also the life partner of Mousse (Isabelle Carré) and the brother of Paul (Louis-Ronan Choisy, who also wrote the beautiful piano music), who will miss him very much after his death. However, their mutual grief brings them closer together.

It would have been close if Mousse had been gone too. After all, she used the same drugs as her boyfriend. She only realizes that much later. When she wakes up from the hospital from her coma, another surprise awaits her: she turns out to be pregnant. After Louis’s funeral, she learns that her mother-in-law would rather she have the baby removed. It is no use for such a child to be born addicted, she seems to want to say. Mousse, however, wants to keep the child: it is all she has left of Louis. To avoid her in-laws, she flees to an acquaintance’s summer home. There, in an idyllic setting close to the beach, she hopes to be able to come to herself. Then suddenly Paul is at the door. Like Mousse, he is very much in trouble with himself. He’s not even Louis’s real brother (Paul was adopted) and never got the brotherly love he so longed for. Yet he misses his brother dearly. In addition, he is also homosexual. Although Mousse is initially aloof with Paul, the two grow closer and closer.

The scenes at the beginning and at the end of ‘Le refuge’ do not miss their target. In between is a dreamy middle section – which makes up by far the largest part of the film – in which the two central characters try to give their grief a place in a remote country house, far away from everyday reality. Mousse is actually not such a sympathetic character at all. She scares people away by being silent and inaccessible. Paul is equally complex but is a bit more outward looking, making him appear more sympathetic than Mousse. Actress Isabelle Carré, who was also pregnant in real life during the recordings, is doing her best. It is therefore not her fault that Mousse never really comes to life. Of course, homosexuality also plays a more prominent role in this Ozon film. It’s just a shame that the director – who also wrote the screenplay together with Mathieu Hippeau – plays the growing closer of the two protagonists in an unbelievable way. Fortunately, he pulls that right at the end of the film – when Mousse and Paul are back on familiar ground – again.

Unfortunately, ‘Le refuge’ cannot match Ozon’s best work, the film is too unbalanced for that. Nevertheless, this typically French drama is of a very decent level. Thanks to the beautiful dreamy images, the excellent acting and the matching music, you will certainly get through the hour and a half. It’s just a shame that the script isn’t of the level you would expect from François Ozon. ‘Le refuge’ is a reasonable conclusion to the trilogy, but by far the least film of the three. Although Ozon had set the bar very high for himself with ‘Sous le sable’ and ‘Le temps qui reste’!