By Robert St. Martin
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 12/30/2023 – “The Crime is Mine” marks a return to comedy for the prolific French director Francois Ozon, who spent many of the last few years creating dramas like “Summer of 85” and “Frantz.”
Reuniting with his ”8 Women” star Isabelle Huppert and the dynamic Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Pauline Marder, Ozon creates a fantasy world of gorgeous 1930s gowns, Art Deco luxury, and of course, a corrupt court and gullible public that’s thrown into a frenzy by Madeleine’s supposed crime.
A humorous but classy exploration of significant issues, ”The Crime is Mine” dives headfirst into discussions about suicide, rape, sexuality, power and feminism in a way that never feels overly political or academic. The film manages to explore these racy and significant themes through entertainment, not in spite of it. Currently ”The Crime is Mine” is playing at the Laemmle Royal in West Los Angeles.
When aspiring actress Madeleine Verdier (Tereszkiewicz) visits a famous producer’s house, the meeting goes badly, and she leaves with an awful story of the man’s attempted assault. She tells all to her fellow down-and-out roommate, best friend, and aspiring lawyer Pauline Mauléon (Marder) the moment she returns.
Before long, Madeleine is accused of carrying out the man’s murder, and when it seems she can escape “justice” quicker by confessing to the crime, she does, setting off an even funnier chain of events that bring in the real killer, a faded silent film star named Odette Chaumette (Huppert), back to the spotlight.
Ozon creates dizzying comedy out of a court that supposedly sides with the plight of women, when in reality their support is not always so. As part of Madeleine’s explanation of the crime and Pauline’s defense of it, they plead to the goodness of sisterhood and solidarity, arguing against the ways men have exploited them and kept them at the edge of losing their home and good names.
The tactic works, but only to a point, because when Huppert’s Odette comes to collect her slice of the sisterhood, she threatens to expose Madeleine and Pauline as frauds.
The use of vintage color grading effectively pays homage to the era of the 1930s, breathing life into the scenic designs. Reflecting the theatrical nature of the genre and the story’s origins as a play, backdrops were deliberately eccentric and sometimes comedically flat. A standout scene takes place on a rooftop between Madeleine and her suitor Andre (Éduardo Sulpice), showcasing endless Parisian chimneys with the Eiffel Tower in the distant background.
The film concludes with a play-within-a-play, in which viewers are exposed to the lighting, sound equipment, and artificial set pieces that craft the on-screen universe.
An ingenious editing decision involved the use of 4:3 (or similar) framing with a black and white grainy overlay to emphasize reimagined sequences. Whenever the crime’s events were retold — each rendition more outlandish than the previous — this editing technique amplified the comedy.
The film’s pacing was judiciously balanced, mixing elements of slapstick with comedically slowed sequences. During the court scene, both viewers (and the jury) are treated to an extended display of the defendant thumping across the room. It serves little purpose in the plot, but gives viewers a giggle and a reprieve from the often fast-paced storytelling in the courtroom.
Ozon, who also wrote the film, whips up a frothy story of murder, romance, blackmail, girl power, and a little bit of old French film history. It’s an escapist sort of frivolity that delights in bad behavior, decadent costumes and lavish sets. The trio of women who lead the movie do an impeccable job of keeping the energy silly yet vibrant.
Odette Chaumette (Isabelle Huppert), the faded silent-film star
As the wide-eyed ingenue Madeleine, Tereszkiewicz registers innocence, yet is smart enough to outwit her enemies. Marder’s Pauline is even sharper, arguing her way out of everything from eviction to her client’s jail sentence. The pair share a “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”-like dynamic, with some longing glances that hint that perhaps Pauline is more into Madeleine than Madeleine is of Pauline. Madeleine’s main affection belongs to Andre, the most clueless character in the cast. She adores him despite it.
Huppert, on the other hand, charges in as Odette in every scene like a villainous diva, a cross between Sarah Bernhardt and Norma Desmond. She bats every line like a spike into the ground, leaving the scene of each conflict like a lioness licking her lips after a satisfying kill. She gives the film new life just when it seems like everything could fall into place a tad too neatly.
As silly as Ozon’s ”The Crime is Mine” may be, the French farce is still wildly entertaining. Somehow, murder improves Madeleine’s life in comical ways. Ozon has a ball poking fun at a corrupt justice system that shuffles one criminal to the next crime-out-of-convenience and imagines how public opinion would fashion Madeleine into a feminist symbol.
But it is Huppert who relishes her character’s crime as a way to stage her dramatic comeback to the theatre.