Just got back after watching the French movie 5x2 directed by Francois Ozon. It is being shown here in Trondheim at the Nova Kino as part of Kosmorama - Trondheim International Film festival.
The film shows 5 vignettes of a couple (2) in various stages of the life together - from the time they get together to their divorce and a last fling. Only, the story is told backwards - with Italian love songs interspersed between. There are huge gaps in the story that the diretor leaves unresolved and lets the viewer's imagination make it up. Watching the movie makes you feel like a voyeur prying into another's life - you want to see and know more about them, but there is something in the back of you head telling you that you already know too much. I will not go into the 5 scenes in the couple's live - the movie is all about it. Watch out for the expressions and nuances of the couple. They tell a story in themselves. The movie, I feel, is a commentary on teh fleeting nature of human relationships.
Overall the movie was good - propably a 3.5 stars out of 5. The performances of the leads Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and Stephane Freiss is great.
Telling a story backwards is not new - Momento and Irreversible have done it before. Flashback is something our Indian directors have used all along to tell their story and Mani Ratnam has used it wonderfully well in Alai Payuthe and Ayutha Ezhuthu. I assume it will not be long before he experiments with this narrative style as well.
For all the innovativeness in this new narrative technique of telling a story backward - you have to let go of the rewind button and let the movie play forwards. What would be interesting is if we jumble up the sequence i.e. bring in he fast forward button in play in addition to the rewind. Would such a movie make any sense at all? Has it been done before?
Any takers??????
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