The Crime is Mine (Ozon, 2023)
Every time a new Ozon film comes out, I start and eventually abandon an introduction where I try to make a comparison between his work and that of some American (or English-speaking) filmmaker with whom the average viewer might be more familiar. The name I keep coming back to is Steven Spielberg, but anticipating the eye-rolls such a comparison would get makes me think comparisons may not be all that helpful. Are they stylistic comparisons? Comparisons of themes? Popularity? Very few exercises bring my reservations about auteur theory to the surface faster than asking for specifics about how a director’s style is noticed and codified.
Certainly, the moral gravitas of By The Grace of God is about as far as one can get from the farcical whimsy of The Crime is Mine. The black-and-white photography in Frantz is a different mode of visual storytelling than the vibrant colors on display in Ozon’s new film. Maybe the reason I keep thinking of Spielberg is that both are productive enough and commercial enough that they tend to be thought of as directors rather than auteurs. Maybe it is because their stylistic flourishes are built into genre conventions thus making them less noticeable.
The Crime is Mine begins with Madeliene (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), a young actress, accused of murdering a movie producer. She is acquitted, but ironically her newfound infamy bolsters her previously floundering career. Enter the deliciously camp Isabelle Huppert as an aging movie star envious of the ingenue’s celebrity. She deserves the infamy because she was the actual murderer. But was she, really, or does she just want the spotlight? Much of the humor is about her inability to confess. Each person along the way, rather than wanting to know the truth, would prefer things stay as they are…even if that means the crime goes unsolved and/or unpunished.
There is nothing particularly innovative about the story. It’s as derivative as they come. But if you aren’t pleased by an A-grade ensemble being filmed by a world-class director, then maybe you’ve forgotten that movies can just be fun and funny on occasion.
In fact, I think the occasional foray into genre films is a smart move by directors who might otherwise get caught up in an impossible cycle of ever-increasing expectations. The Crime is Mine is the kind of film that is getting harder and harder to find in cinemas where the economics favor tentpoles and franchises. Outside of various festivals (thank God for TIFF), did anyone not living in New York or L.A. even have a chance to watch this in the theater? The theater’s loss is the home viewer’s gain, however, as Music Box now has the film available on Region 1 DVD and Blu-ray as well as select streaming platforms. It’s not as sharply written as Ozon’s dark comedy, In The House, but it is funny. Plus, how many more opportunities are we going to get to see Isabelle Huppert with a role this delightful?
