French film director and screenwriter Francois Ozon: biography, filmography and personal life

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

The well-known film director, actor and producer Ozon Francois has earned fame as a man who puts before the audience sharp, with a considerable amount of humor and moralism, topics for discussion. His paintings have become a symbol of free thought. Thanks to this, François gained international recognition at the age of 30.

General information

Francois Ozon was born on November 15, 1967. The sign of the Zodiac is Scorpio. The future director was born in one of the most beautiful cities in Europe - in Paris. Nature endowed him with dark hair and brown eyes. The skin has a swarthy tint. Ozone growth - 175 cm.

He is not only a professional film director and actor, but also a producer, cameraman, editor, screenwriter. Francois' main genres are:

• comedy;
• short film;
• drama.

The well-known screenwriter Francois Ozon, whose films are often perceived ambiguously, does not hide his non-standard sexual orientation.

Biography

Searly childhood François loved films. He wanted to understand how cinema is made. The future director was born in the family of a professor of biology (father - Rene Ozon) and a French teacher (mother - Anna-Marie). Interest in cinematography was awakened in him by the shooting of advertising, in which he participated as a model. The first cinematic school for the future director was the well-known educational institution "La Femi" in the Sorbonne. Here he met great teachers and also began to create his own style.

After graduation, in 1990, François Ozon, whose films were already acquiring a distinctive style, entered the famous directorial film school La FEMIS. After 5 years, he shoots a short film "A Little Death". His next works were Summer Dress and Look at the Sea. In Russia, they were published in a collection called Narcissus at the Edge of Summer. Francois's teachers were Louis Buñuel, Alain Resnais, Rainer Werner Fassbinder. François made films starting with 8-, 16- and 35mm film. He then moved on to video.

Not so long ago, in 2014, Francois visited Russia. He visited with the rental of his films in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Francois Ozon: filmography

François's first serious works were short films. He started filming them in 1995, at the age of 28. During this period, the individual style of the director is clearly manifested. In the same year, François made a documentary about Lionel Jospin (Prime Minister of France since 1997). By 1996, the work of Francois Ozon Une robe is publishedd'ete. For her, the director received the Leopard of the Future award.

The series of full-length works begins with the film Rat House, released in 1998. It reveals the vicious nature of a person who follows the natural instincts suppressed by society. Francois Ozon is the screenwriter and director of this film. The film was critically acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival.

Another of his famous films - "Raindrops on Hot Stones" - was presented to the audience in 2000. It was the result of work on the script by Fassbinder. He was warmly received by European film critics. The film won the Special Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival.

In the same year, the director finishes work on the film "Under the Sand". For her, he receives the Cesar Award. The film tells about an elderly couple living their last days together.

Outside of France, Ozone became famous thanks to the detective thriller "8 Women". In the picture, he collected the best actresses of French cinema:

• Catherine Deneuve.
• Fanny Ardan.
• Isabelle Huppert.
• Emmanuelle Beart.

Hollywood set design, combined with a detective story and well-chosen musical numbers, brought the picture a commercial success. She won the Silver Bear for Best Acting at the Berlin Film Festival.

From 2003 to 2007 Ozon François produced 4 internationally successful films:

1. "Pool" starring Charlotte Remping and Ludivine Sagnier. Hebecame the first film to be filmed in English.
2. "5 X 2" - describes the 5 stages of the destruction of a marriage.
3. "Goodbye Time" is a story about the life of a photographer who finds out he has cancer.
4. "Angel" - Francois Ozon tried to portray in this film an ambitious writer who has experienced many tragic events in her life.

In 2010, the premiere of the eccentric comedy "Desperate Housewife" with Catherine Deneuve in the title role took place. In 2014, work was completed on the painting, which says that "everything in life is complicated" - as Francois Ozon himself claims. "Girlfriend" is the name of a melodrama that has become a reference to a large number of works by directors of the past.

Criticism

François' work is met with more positive than skeptical reviews. After all, he is considered a living classic of French cinema. Criticism of Francois' films can be reduced to identifying outdated ideas and bourgeois everyday life. However, she will never be reproached for vulgarity and immorality. It is not difficult for a sophisticated viewer to understand what Francois Ozon put into his films: the director's filmography is such that the viewer gets the feeling of spying on the main characters.

Private life

Francois does not answer all the questions of journalists about his personal life, he keeps silent. He is more interested in the people he shoots, the characters in his films. According to the director, love is different, and it is not always associated with sexual desire. In any case, if Francois Ozon has a personal life, he prefers his career to it.

Interesting facts

François' very first short film starred his parents and brother. According to the scenario, the boy kills his father and mother. As the director himself says, in the process of filming his films, he tries to understand what love is. According to him, marriage is just a convention that makes people even more lonely. For the sake of being able to make films, François neglected his personal life.

Practically in every film director's work there is a hero with non-traditional sexual orientation. It is believed that this is due to the homosexuality of the director himself. However, in an interview, Ozon François said: “I hope the viewer will be smart enough not to perceive my films as moral or immoral.”

François Ozone's films are not only successful experiments, but also passionate attempts to understand people: their feelings, desires, nature. Each picture can evoke vivid emotions, make you think about the secrets of the human soul and start looking for the features of the main characters.