François Ozon’s cinema has had more than a whiff of post-modern Hitchcock since his beginnings with Under the Sand and his more recently In the House.
His latest film is a skilfully triangulated psychological thriller about a woman who learns that the husband of her deceased BFF is harbouring an unusual secret.
This delectable piece of cinema is as surprising for its continually evolving (and involving) dynamics of desire as for its slow-building emotional power, making for a more connecting, open-ended experience than the creepy Ruth Rendell detective tale from which it has been loosely adapted.
Anaïs Demoustier and Romain Duris both shine in this duel helmer delivering a richly suggestive essay on the complexity of sexual identity and the mutability of desire, a fertile area indeed for Ozon who once again digs deep into the human psyche with wit, humour and a nod to the uncanny.