User reviews

The film version of Fassbinder's play retains the theatrical structure with 4 acts, 4 actors and 4 great performances. The dialogue wins you over at once and keeps you in rapt attention hanging on every word. Leopold a persuasive self-indulgent bi-sexual restructures the lives of 3 people as he introduces them to new sexual adventures. First there's Franz a good-looking 20 year old who is contemplating marriage with his girlfriend Anna. He becomes confused about love when he has a homosexual dream which Leopold is only too happy to recreate once he has enticed the somewhat inexperienced Franz into his bed. Then there's Anna who is agreeably surprised at the change in Franz's sexual attitude. She too is overwhelmed by Leopold's advances towards her. Thirdly there's Vera - now a woman, once a man - Leopold's ex-lover perhaps more confused and disappointed than any of them. It's an entertaining romp as we watch the hand of experience "create" new lives for each of them. Leopold always in search of novelty knows what each victim is yearning for and he is only too ready to meet their desires....at least until the novelty wears off. I felt the first three acts were absolutely flawless. Act 4 with its black humour was less appealing I thought. The telephone call to his mother was quite unforgettable....."I think I'll go to Heaven because I'm young!"....and spoken with such dead pan sincerity. And the follow-up call to mother was a real gem. Yes...it's the dialogue that fascinates and holds the play together... the casting too is exceptional....and as for the old game of Ludo.... it will be so much more meaningful to me in the future!

Francois Ozon's film version of Fassbinder's play is like another more slightly surreal, very blackly comic version of "The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant", played out this time mostly by men. Fifty year old Leo picks up twenty year old Franz and brings him home for the night. Franz stays, becoming his lover, his houseboy but mostly his slave. There are only two other characters in this slight, stage-bound piece; Anna, Franz's vacuous former girlfriend and Vera, Leo's former transsexual lover.

Fundamentally it's about love, of the destructive, unwholesome kind maybe, but love nevertheless. Whatever hold Leo has over Franz, (and Vera), they both love him though it could hardly be said that it is reciprocated. Leo is very much the master and everyone else is his slave. Whether he is capable of love is debatable.

Ozon makes the piece both erotic and humorous but it is never quite as touching as it ought to be. All four players give good performances with Malik Zidi quietly outstanding as the boy.

After watching Water Drops on Burning Rocks, it is hard to tell exactly what flamboyant French filmmaker Francois Ozon wanted to achieve with it. On the one hand, the film is a commentary on relationships and sexuality, but on the other hand, much like Ozon's earlier Sitcom, it's easy to think that the talented young director made the film simply to shock. While I don't doubt that shocking his audience was partly his motivation for making this film, Ozon has still created a film that is more than credible on the substance front as the movie professes that, just like the water drops that land on burning rocks of it's title; relationships and love fizzle out over time. The four parties in the play also represent four different points on the sexuality spectrum; we have an old bi-sexual male, a young confused male, a straight female and a male to female transsexual, so the sexuality commentary is on track as well as the comment on relationships in general. Just like Sitcom, also, Ozon always seems keen to push the taboos of the story into the audience's face; and does a good job, as at times it's easy to feel dirty just watching this movie.

The play that the film works from is from the pen of tortured artist Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Francois Ozon seems keen to respect this fact throughout as he makes various tributes to Fassbinder's distinct style. Ozon is also keen to work in tributes to the French new wave cinema; most notably with a very strange dance scene, that, in spite of being off-cue with the rest of the movie, works very well thanks to the energy that Ozon gives the scene. It also serves as something of a relief to the disturbing and downbeat themes of the rest of the movie, and it's the only time that the underlying layer of black humour, which lies dormant for the majority of the piece (although it's definitely there), truly comes to the surface. In today's day and age, there are few filmmakers that are still capable of making a film that will leave the audience with something at the end of it; but it's safe to say that Ozon has managed it with this film. When the final credits rolled, I was unsure as to exactly what I had seen, but as time elapsed and I reflected on the movie; it's brilliance comes to light. While the movie isn't quite worthy of the term 'masterpiece'; it is certainly very good, and it represents another huge feather in the already feather-filled cap of Francois Ozon.

This is absolutely vintage Francois Ozon fare. He really does take French farce to a whole new level of humiliation and pain for its victims. I can't help feeling though, that the audience is being asked to laugh at rather than sympathise with their dilemmas. (Just see the scene where the young boy dresses for his hot date in some kind of lederhosen. Don't tell me you weren't giggling). Underneath the kitsch seventies style and the black humour, however, this film has a serious topic: the very nature of desire. These are characters who will do anything in order to fulfill their desires, regardless of the destruction they cause to themselves, or in the case of Leopold, others. But what else is their for them in the suburbs of a non descript German town? capitalism may let you have sex without whoever you want, but it doesn't seem to give you the tools to know whether you really want to be having sex with that person in the first place. An intelligent, witty and thought provoking film.

When Ozon meets Fassbinder, WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS is based on Fassbinder's four- act play he wrote when he was only 19, with a minimal cast of four exclusively boxed inside an apartment, which immediately evokes Fassbinder's own chamber rhapsody THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT (1972), but under Ozon's fabrication, there is enough French glibness and levity to temper an inchoate observer's jejune but palatable fantasy about the abjection of love.

Léopold (Giraudeau), a 50-something business man, brings home a 20-year-old boy Franz (a ginger Zidi), aka. Fassbinder's alter ago, they engage in conversations and consensual sex, and in the next act, six-months later, Franz has already moved in as Léopold's living-in boyfriend. The pair often squabbles about trivial matters due to their different personalities, but a grace not is that their sex can still expunge the discomfort, but inexorably the situation evolves into a humiliation test for Franz, as much as he loves Léopold, how long can he endure his domineering volatility?

During Léopold's away for a business trip, Franz's ex-girlfriend Anna (Sagnier) visits him in the apartment and they rekindle their romance and it seems Franz has finally made up his mind, to end his masochistic affection to Léopold and seek a new lease on life with Anna. But their plan is scuppered when Leopold unexpectedly returns home earlier than planned, he effortlessly dismisses their child's play meanwhile at the drop of a hat, Anna falls under Léopold's suave charm and is more than ready to put out, and the situation compounds when Léopold's jilted old-flame Vera (Levine) pays an unbidden visit, the quartet is assembled, and a new round of master-and- slave game starts. A disconsolate Frantz, piqued by Léopold's promiscuity and haughtiness, and the fact that he has never been taken seriously by him in their lopsided relationship, yet admits his incapability to overcome the inherent subservience which a creature holds towards his creator, conducts a final manifestation of his severance from him once and for all.

Demarcated its running time within a 90-minute spell, the film doesn't feel over-claustrophobic in spite of its one-location-only monotony thanks to Ozon's jaunty tenor and clinical interior design, a telling discrepancy from Fassbinder's own temperament, yet both share an artistic astuteness of exquisite camera compositions to amply and examine the emotional turmoil of their actors.

Although the whole narrative might partake of a youngster's perverse Freudian intuition about love, carnality and preordained conflict between rebellion and submission, the core cast leavens the material with layers of personal touch, ranging from bravado (Sagnier's spritely volupté and Zidi's painstakingly bland greenness) to bravura (Giraudeau's quasi-insufferable cockiness and Levine's uncanny vulnerability under the slap). As a matter of fact, Vera's jeremiad told through her ultimate tête-à-tête with Frantz is more unsettling than Frantz's struggle and the last shot framing at her attempt to fight back the stifled morbidness is Ozon's coup de maitre, who never flinch from exacting gallows humor when someone is shuffled off this mortal coil.

By and large this Ozon-and-Fassbinder hybridization doesn't yield a 1+1>2 ground-breaker, nevertheless it still tackles its intricate dilemma with a measured stride, if not entirely coherent, at least we have that "man in overcoat" fetish to relish with a knowing grin.

This is based on a play that Rainer Werner Fassbinder wrote when he was just 19 and his bleak outlook is very evident. This four character story starts out with a 50 year old German named Leopold (Bernard Giraudeau) who has brought home a 20 year old boy named Franz (Malik Zidi) and he seduces him and it doesn't take long for Franz to move in and cook his meals, draw his bath, clean house and do whatever else he wants. They bicker and argue but Franz doesn't leave. One day Franz has his ex-girlfriend Anna (Ludivine Sagnier) over to talk and they have sex for two days and they decide that he'll leave and they'll get married but he still admits he loves Leopold. Leopold arrives home early and they talk and it doesn't take long for Leopold to seduce Anna and then the door knocks and its Vera (Anna Thomson) who is Leopolds ex-lover and use to be a man! This film is directed by Francois Ozon and his films seem to deal with characters trying to maintain a relationship no matter what the circumstances. The character of Leopold can be described as Svengali, or a spider or a pimp. And the apartment that Leopold lives in is a very important element to this story. All the characters that have entered don't leave, or at least they don't leave for good. I think Franz realized this and thats why he committed the ultimate act. The last shot in the film tells the viewer that the characters are trapped in Leopolds web as Vera is unable to open the window. Ozon has developed into a very interesting filmmaker and this is a pretty thought provoking story. Its definitely not just a gay film. This is a provocative drama that is far more complicated than that!

Fasbinder always creates an uneasy sensation in the watcher of his movie- the subject matter he picks up, the way he handles the character and plot, all leave a lasting typical Fasbinder prick somewhere deep in the psyche. For me this movie is a play of unsuccessful efforts by the innocent but weak willed people when confronted by self centered, haughty and mean character who knows that he has this quality to dominate weak willed people in to his submission, he derives meaning and fulfillment of his life.All the three character starting from the boy Franz to his once mistress, all of them are found to have given up themselves to that man. Even the girl who enters the plot seeking Franz succumb to this man's lust as meekly as Franz. Boy searches for happiness but end up serving to his master's happiness.Girl comes to seek happiness in the prospective marriage and bearing of child of Franz but even she too end up serving that Man. Mistress, played by Thompsson went even as far to change her sex just to keep that scoundrel Leopold in a state of happiness.All of the three sought their happiness in keeping Leopold happy which was nothing but total surrender of their chaste, pious and pure Will.Pious and pure soul by their nature is weak prone to be abused by the dominating will to its advantage. Once caged, howsoever hard one may try like in the last scene, it is impossible for one to wriggle out himself out free.Submission of general masses so tamely to the domination of Natzi ideology in forties as represented by Hitler is what this movie tells about at a more individual level. Boy and his girl friend both are brilliantly portrayed as pure and simple souls, capable of drowning themselves in serene music-only destined to be stopped and halted abruptly and later on to be mauled emotionally and herded in to the bed room by the dominating will. Pure souls are His creatures- only destined to suffer.

François Ozon has flair and style ('Swimming Pool', 'Under the Sand', '8 Women', etc) and in scripting Rainer Fassbinder's 1970s play 'Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes' for the screen he has created an edgy, fun, and poignant examination of the lives of four people at their intersection.

Act I (for that is the way the film is laid out in homage to Fassbinder's play): 50-year-old Léopold (Bernard Giraudeau) is entertaining 19-year-old Franz (Malik Zidi), who he has picked up in a bar, with sharp repartees about his past loves and is sparred by Franz relating his current affair with the young and beautiful Anna (Ludivine Sagnier). The conversation gradually gets around to seduction and both Léopold and Franz happily reenact each other's physical fantasies. Act II: some months later and Franz has moved in with Léopold becoming the devoted housewife in lederhosen to Léopold's increasingly cranky self. They argue, threaten, but eventually succumb to the safety of the boudoir to settle differences. Act III: Léopold's ex lover Vera (Anna Levine) arrives at the door to find Léopold in a new life and departs brokenhearted. Anna likewise arrives during one of Léopold's absences and for two days Franz and Anna try to recapture their previous affair. Upon Léopold's return, Anna finds Léopold appealing and behaves seductively. Vera arrives, reports that she is a transsexual now in a female form, and Léopold is delighted with the idea of a ménage a quarte. But it is Franz who has found his true life and love and how he deals with the proposed turn of events forms the rather surprising end to this film.

Each of the four actors is excellent and Ozon paces them well. There are some really fine moments, as when Franz reclines in his bath quoting Heine's poem 'Lorelei' revealing how far more penetrating the changes in his vision of his life really have become, when Ozon improves on Fassbinder. Not a great movie but a bit of the different that spices movie viewing. Grady Harp

I wasn't prepared for this one. I expected to view a "normal" movie ... but this wasn't one of them.

It is an adaptation of a teather piece, and all the action takes place in a apartment.

During the first three acts I was a bit stirred by the open showed homosex situation between the lad and the man, and I thought i was to give to this movie a 2/10 vote.

But I have to admit that the dialogues between the two characters, (deliberately stirring and oscillating between drama, satire and paradox), are well done.

When the girl and the woman enter the scene, the movie turns into total paradox till the paradoxal ending.

It starts almost like a reality movie, but it is all except a reality movie.

It's a black drama with satire and paradoxes, that revolves around the profound (and, to me, degradating and disgusting) effects that sex can have on people.

Not for all tastes.

Vote 5/10

This story that begins with a young man being seduced by an older man turns into a sexual free-for-all when the men are joined by previous female lovers (well, one of the women was male but had a sex change that turned him into the beautiful Anna Thomson). A better title might have been, "The Varieties of Sexual Experience."

Even with the nudity on display (both male and female) and the sex scenes, I found myself at a total emotional remove. For starters I could not believe for a second the relationship between the older Leo and the younger Franz. I never felt that there was any true chemistry between them and the plot depends heavily on your believing that.

The use of color and interesting camera work does add value--in fact I might have enjoyed this movie better with the sound off.

The many sights of Ludivine Sagnier's naked body will have certain appeal to a large segment of the viewers.

The final act soars into the surreal; some may find it humorous, but I found it simply absurd. Fortunately for me this film was only eighty minutes long.

This film truly is a work of art. And like all art, it's formalized; it doesn't even try to hide its formalism. The shots are squared and rigid, the duologue goes in circles, and there's a certain paralellism to the entire picture. It's not meant to be realistic, but like in all great art, it's by codifying and simplifying that deeper truths are revealed.

Despite its minimalism, I was caught up in this film because the duologue is entrancing, the atmosphere is palpable, and the characters act in such mysterious (yet somehow consistent) ways that even though there are certain patterns to the behaviour, you never really know what's coming next. I suppose this film is a comedy, although you won't find yourself laughing much. It's more a case of being too absurd to be considered a serious, straightforward drama.

"Gouttes d'Eau" is not perfect (whit is?), but it has a certain "je ne sais quoi" lending it a uniqueness that places it in my Top 20. Definitely entrancing and thoroughly thought-provoking.

Water Drops on Burning Rocks, which I saw in French, subtitled in English, was not an excellent film. The premise, namely that of a curious young adult boy being taken home by an older businessman, eventually leading to them living together as lovers, and fighting heartbreak is an excellent concept for a film. Exploring situations contrary to gender stereotypes, and seeing significant emotions portrayed by characters one would normally expect not to play them makes not only for good cinema but definitely keeps your interest.

There are several old and overused clichés in this picture which are given a new light when set in the nonstandard context this film is. The great pity is that the exceptional context is all that is used to make the clichés remain entertaining.

When a stereotype is broken in reality, no bounds need be imposed on how exactly the breaking of the stereotype occurs. In a fictional work, however, one must take care to make the breaking of the stereotype believable. The fourth scene (of four) in this movie leaves the realm of possibility, and becomes strictly surreal.

Surreality in movies can be portrayed to great effect as reality, but this movie takes the opposite road, and attempts to portray actual reality as surreal. It sadly fails, and the fourth act, instead of being thoughtful and provocative, manages to leave the viewer wondering "what the hell was that for?" In the final scene, of Vera (one of only four characters in the movie) attempting and failing to open a window in Leopold's apartment (where the entire movie is set), makes it blatantly obvious to the viewer that the scene was created to symbolize the whole movie. Don't get me wrong - the scene does symbolize the whole movie, but only because you know the director was attempting to do so with the scene. Just before the credits roll, at what should be the apex of emotion or closure, the viewer is left disappointed, and with the full belief that yes, this was only a movie.

I've never been a big Fassbinder fan but with the coming retrospective I thought it was time to check him out again. So I chose this movie, since it was a Fassbinder script directed by a Frenchman (Ozon) that I admire. It was a delight. Somehow the problems I always had enjoying Fassbinder (the intense cruelty between his characters, the disorienting emotional mood swings, the bleak, dreary German atmosphere) were completely offset by the sense of play and love of color and music that Ozon brings to this script. As in 8 Women, his sense of style and beauty rival Almodovar's and even the grim reality of Fassbinder has a beautiful, chic French gloss. He understands that love and sex in Fassbinder are closely matched with jealousy and destruction. It all clicked for me. And the omnisexuality is so fresh - so unspoiled... That said, it's a devastating critique of what lovers can do to each other. But it's,...well...so pretty...

I really, really enjoyed it.

From the very first act, when this creepy 50 year old is doing circles around this boy he's picked, leisurely seducing him, I was hooked to the movie. The next act, when the boy's turned into his slave, groaned in recognition of a situation that's all so real and all too horrible. I just preyed the director wouldn't show the boy being physically beaten. The entry of the girlfriend, after which the two of them make a plan to escape brought a release in tension for a fraction of a second, but I knew it was too good to be true and doubted whether our boy would really manage to escape. The orgy is scene is all too real too, with the young girl thrilled at the bizarre situation she's in and dying for some adventure. I think it was all quite real and I identified with every situation, though I wish I didn't because it just goes to show how evil I am myself!

This film got off to a good start but fizzled towards a disappointing and unrealistic ending. The acting was generally good but the plot was thoroughly not believable. The actions of Leopold, Anna, and Franz's mother during the last scenes were unexpected, so as to make the character development up to that point moot. Worst movie I've seen in a long time.

If this film was supposed to be surrealistic, it failed. I think surrealism in movies can be used effectively in two ways: either to make sense and have a point to make (like in Bunuel's La fantome de liberte) or to make no sense at all and leave the result open to all kinds of interpretations (like in Bunuel's Un chien andalou). What we have here is a director desperately trying to impress us using surrealism over a really weak script. Moreover, the man's mistress' character seems rather misplaced or not fully portrayed, while the rest of the characters' motives are not always explained. Ok, that's what surrealism is about: it doesn't have to make sense. Yet I believe surrealism does not suit this kind of plot. I believe it would have been better if more time had been taken to analyze each character's personality more thoroughly.

The actors were quite convincing which cannot be equally said about the actresses in this movie. Overall watching this film left me very unsatisfied.

3

Based on the Fassbinder play, Water Drops on Burning Rocks is an acutely observed exploration of relationships, successfully mixing burlesque absurdity with grim truths to create an enjoyable and insightful film.

The film's characters revolve around the life and whims of Leopald (Bernard Giraudeau), an ageing swinger whose laissez-faire suavity seduces the callow Franz (Malik Zidi). By the beginning of Act II, the latter's boyish confidence has been replaced with the willingness to selflessly submit himself to the whims of his irritable older lover. With the arrival of Anna (Ludivine Sagnier), Franz's subservient fiance, and Vera (Anna Levine), Leopald's former partner, the latter's apartment becomes the home to both farce and tragedy, as desires, attachments and caprices play themselves out in a confinement from which there is no escape. Ozon's consummate direction and the 1970's setting give the film and ostensible gloss which makes its underlying darkness even more striking. This is no less aided by the effortless confidence exuded by Giraudeau and the desperate neediness that is excellently portrayed by his three lovers. What makes Water Drops on Burning Rocks a memorable work is the power of its insights and the originality of their portrayal; it is a film whose exterior is humorous and playful but whose interior contains a bleak vision, in which relationships mean little more than a repetitive vacuum of need, where libidos and routine hold more weight than deep affection or care.

A finely crafted examination of the traits that can be most destructive and tawdry in relationships, Water Drops on Burning Rocks is saved from being dogmatic or overwhelming by the subtlety and wit employed by Ozon and his cast. It is an example of understated film-making that conveys real insight on a subject that has been much maligned in other films, such as the appalling Romance. Highly recommended to those who wish to a covertly intelligent, beguiling work.

Yes its indeed a beautiful film. The actors have done a fabulous job. I know how it is to be hopelessly in love with someone that you will go to any extent to come out of that pain of loneliness, once he/she doesn't remain the same person you once fell in love with. When you are lonely in life you tend to develop a special bond with that person who is most closest to you at that point of time. Eventually you end up loving that person so much that everything in front of you seems so immaterial and superficial. That's what this film is about; loneliness, friendships, relationships, lust, craving for love and all. Honestly, I saw this film on DVD and I rented it for only some hot and sensuous scenes but then I was taken aback by its storyline. Its amazing how Francois Ozon made this film with only 4 actors and yet managed to capture the everyday emotions of a regular married/living together couple (homo/heterosexual) with panache. I ended up watching a beautiful film.

In this highly unusual film, Bernard Giraudeau perfectly embodies the ophidian lure of the subtle dominator...which engenders a good deal of sympathy for the young man experiencing the ongoing regimen of psychological manipulation, brainwashing, and downright torture imposed on him. M. Giraudeau is a wonderful actor, probably one of the very few who could portray this character. I could not help thinking that his Leopold is exactly like M. Delamont, the sinister and tyrannizing character who drove his young "employee" to murder in "A Matter of Taste", released the same year as this film. This film almost seems a prequel: as if Leopold changed his name to M. Delamont, refined his techniques enough to cause the events leading to his own well-merited demise in "a Matter of Taste." Bravo, M. Giraudeau. I can't imagine anyone else being able to play either of these difficult, fascinating and repellant roles.

WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS is a scathing satire on the serendipity of Desire. Ozon filters his observations through the prism of Time and Sexual Genre. Act I begins with two inappropriately aged men who grapple with an almost laughable seduction. Later, there are references to their earlier lives, and projections to their future. By the end of the play, Women are introduced. Sexual identity takes a backseat to the object of their collective longings and passions. Not a single frame of the film leaves the confines of this trendy 70s bachelor pad, and the costumes are a real trip. And, the short dance number near the middle of the film is worth the price of admission. If you like a dialog driven film which examines the unpredictable nature of Eros, this might be the film for you.

And I thought 8 Women was a masterpiece..

Francois Ozon is a filmmaker who is on the high road to immortality. I saw this film late one night when I couldn't sleep and it was the single most enthralling movie-watching experience I've had in that condition. Pourqois?

Three reasons: 1. The gorgeous cinematography. While it was mostly static edited shots, they were Kubrick-accurate (angled impeccably) & the color was so lush I was literally remarking aloud- "Ozon is a master". 2. The gorgeous actors. Only 4 stars in this film, and they are all excellent. Their faces are endlessly fascinating, and I do not have words to describe their beautiful bodies. (J'adore Sagnier Sagnier Sagnier!) 3. The gorgeous story. This film has it all-emotion, sex and death. Everything a successful film should have. But what I say can't come close to the experience. "Water Dropping" should drop your jaw.