O Crime é Meu

A character piece from well-known and much loved French cast, with witty scripting and well crafted twists.

Charmingly shot and well edited, the costumes and make-up reflect the period. The individual players are well matched and clearly defined, very much within the scope of French culture. One aspect that this film scores highly on is that it is not too long - unlike many Hollywood films which are overpadded with repetitious effects.

Cinema is a medium that targets particular audiences and this film hits the bull's eye. If you instantly forget 90% of a particular genre, then don't watch it. If you don't watch it, don't comment...

I have to say that this is really fast and funny, right from the very beginning. The pretty and splendid girls, Nadia Tereskiewicz and Rebecca Marder are wonderful and his judge Fabrice Luchini just as funny. We know there is a killing but we are not absolutely sure what is going on, but it is amusing and very fast, back and forward all the time. We have the court, just as much fun as that and then we have a breather and we realise that it is half way through. Then it starts again probably even more fast but for me it becomes like a farce and a bit silly BUT at this point we get Isabelle Huppert. She is always excellent and with this one she plays it farcically and she is really good. For me the second half is not really so amazing as the first but certainly just as fast and Huppert is remarkable even awe-inspiring.

Directed by Francois Ozon, it makes you look forward to seeing the film. Does it work? Yes, mostly. The cast is fantastic, down to the smallest part.

A young actress is being promised a part in a play, but she has to indulge the producer's wishes to be his lover. He tries to make advances, but she runs and escapes the mess.

The next day the police arrives at the apartment of the actress, where she is living with her friend, who's a lawyer, and have practiced for one year. The producer havr been killed.

To advance her career the two girls makes a plan, where she confess to his murder, counting on being acquitted, and then she'll have a name and be successful.

But then something unexpected happens, the real murder contacts the girls. She's an actor, out of luck getting parts in films, it's the era of films with sound, it's 1935. She was big in the silent film years, not now. She's demanding 300.000 Francs to keep quiet.

Now, the rest you must see for your self. It's a quite entertaining and fun film. It's not amongst the best, and it wouldn't even have been as good as it is, if Isabelle Huppert, one of the very finest actors in the world, wasn't playing thr real murderess. In fact all the actors do a fine job. Plus, it's always a pleasure to see Andre Dusollier.

With the BERLINALE 2002 classic 8 WOMEN, Francois OZON has already proven that excellent films can be made from tabloid pieces.

In Paris in the 1930s, two friends live in unsuccessfulness and abject poverty. One is an untalented actress (Nadia TERESZKIEWICZ), the other an unemployed lawyer (Rebecca MARDER). One day the actress is mistakenly suspected of having murdered an influential producer. Although she is innocent, she admits to the murder and is brought to justice. Represented by her friend, she achieved an acquittal. A triumph for both women! From now on there will be a hail of offers and mandates for both. But then the sophisticated Odette Chaumette (great as always: GOLDEN GLOBE winner and ACADEMY AWARD nominee Isabelle HUPPERT) appears: a faded silent film star who has not mastered the transition to sound films...

This charming morality play is based on a play by Georges BERR and Louis VERNEUIL. In 1937, Hollywood had already become aware of the clever material: TRUE CONFESSION (1937) with Carole LOMBARD and Fred MacMURRAY!

Established vedettes (film stars in French) like Fabrice LUCHINI, Dany BOON and Andre DUSSOLIER, but also young stars like Edouard SULPICE and Felix LEFEBVRE shine in the OZON version. In France, the film has already attracted more than a million visitors to the cinemas.

Once again a convincing piece of cinematic fun from France!

I've always preferred Francois Ozon when he's in a playful mood and he's certainly in a playful mood here revamping a creaky old play by George Berr and Louis Verneuil that's already been filmed twice before and giving it a bright new glow, dispensing with realism from the start. "Mon Crime" is definitely an old-fashioned comedy-thriller with nary a thrill to be found, silly enough to keep a soppy grin on our faces for most of its running time.

The daft plot has young actress Nadia Tereszkiewicz accused of murdering an over-sexed producer only to be defended in court, in something of a parody of "Roxie Hart", by her roommate and best friend Rebecca Marder and that's just the half of it. It's totally daft and thoroughly delightful with a superb performance from Fabrice Luchini as the investigating judge and if that's not enough there's always Isabelle Huppert as a wildly over-the-top actress insisting on her day in court. Minor Ozon but even minor Ozon can be a real treat.