Scènes de lit

This collection of 7 shorts by Francois Ozon shows the talent that he would later display in longer form - humor, sensuality, erotica, empathetic treatment of homosexuality, and unsettling behavior. All of the shorts involve 2 people in a bed, and the camera-work is mostly single medium-shot setups. This means that he relies upon performance and inventiveness of narrative to make his point. Also Ozon adds an Ingmar Bergman bell ring after each short. The Black Hole, about a prostitute and her client, features Francois Delaivre who was in Ozon's earlier Le Petite Morte, with a fanciful horror-style conclusion. Mr Clean is solely reliant upon performance to create an unsettling character in opposition of the title, whereby there is no other evidence to support what he claims. The Lady is the weakest of the group, presenting a somewhat aimless tale of the coupling an older woman and a young boy. Presenting a woman as 52 and still attractive and sexually active, suggests a theme that Ozon will later present with Under the Sand and 8 Women. Heads and Tails is a gimmicky piece with a funny conclusion. The Ideal Man uses humor to undercut the tension of both a woman in love in pain, and lesbianism. Again Ozon has an older woman pursuing a younger person, though what could be interpreted as predatory behavior is diluted by the context of patience and empathy. Love in the Dark is the most successful of the shorts in terms of sustained tone. It shows a woman's sexual frustration over men's predilections, and gets laughs from a reversal of the social expectation that a women prefers to make love in the dark. What elevates the situation is how innocent and dumb and of course gorgeous the man still is. Ozon also can't help being a little heterophobic here. The Virgins covers the same male bisexual territory as his short Summer Dress, for which he was criticized for seeming homophobia, or at least an argument that a gay man cannot be exclusively gay when there is a woman available. However by adding a gay man's curiosity about women to counterbalance a straight man's curiosity about another man, this time is seems less problematic. Here also Ozon shows two beautiful men in erotic and amenable behavior.

Scènes de lit, a collection of shorts, can be seen as part of X2000, which is itself a collection of shorts, including one called X2000.

Confusing enough?

If I've got it right, it goes as follows (with question marks in the years for ones that I think do not exist as separate IMDb titles)

X 2000: The Collected Shorts of François Ozon (2001?)

---- Action vérité (1994) (Truth or Dare)

---- Petite mort, La (1995)

---- Scènes de lit (1998) (Bedtime Stories)

---- ---- Trou noir, Le (1998?) (The Black Hole)

---- ---- Monsieur propre (1998?) (Mr. Clean)

---- ---- Madame (1998?)

---- ---- Tête Bêche (1998?) (Heads or Tails)

---- ---- Homme Idéal, L' (1998?) (The Ideal Man)

---- ---- Love in the Dark (1998?)

---- ---- Puceaux, Les (1998?) (The Virgins)

---- X2000 (1998)

I think Scènes de lit (i.e. this IMDb title I'm commenting on) is the best short in X 2000, taking the simple idea of a variety of couples in bed, each doing something different. I certainly never expected that first one (eek!). My favourite was Tête Bêche, just for the joy of it. These shorts may be almost too short on their own, but together they are a unique and interesting piece, even when included in a yet larger collection.

X2000 ('Scenes de lit') is a pastiche of the short films made by Francois Ozon before and during the year 1998. The excellent collection offers tangible proof that Ozon's gifts were well established in short stories before he tackled the important films he has produced to date: 'Swimming Pool', 'Under the Sand', '8 Women', '5X2', 'Water Drops on Burning Rocks', etc. The man has vision, courage in tackling taboo subjects, and a style that remains his own.

'Truth or Dare' is a brief 4 minutes of play among four youngsters (two boys, two girls) who test the limits of fantasy and sexual exploration and the fun little game ends with a most touching 'dare'. 'Little Death' is the longest of the works (and the most engaging) and introduces Paul (Francois Delaive), a gay photographer whose images are those of men's faces during climax, and his lover Martial (Martial Jacques) whose lives are disrupted by Paul's sister Camille (Camille Japy) demanding that Paul visit his estranged, dying father (Michel Beaujard). Paul does so but takes his camera and photographs the nude, near comatose father in a sort of revenge that results in his ultimate resolution of his years of distance.

The next set of very brief clips is entitled 'Bedtime Stories' and is a wonderful glimpse into moments of truth between couples dealing with nascent sexuality, fetishes, May/September encounters, hygiene dilemmas equally spaced among straight, gay and lesbian themes. And the final brief film 'X2000' is merely a millennium dawn with a nude man awakening to the detritus of a New Year's party which includes an aging corpulent bedmate, some voyeurism watching a couple at sexual play and another couple (twin men) sleeping in a zipped bag. It is simple but resounds with messages about the expectations versus findings of a new millennium.

The 64-minute film stands well on its own, but for those who have become fans of Francois Ozon's brilliant full-length films, this little plate of hors d'oeuvres is irresistible. Highly recommended. Grady Harp