Directed by Francois Ozon
Mousse (Isabelle Carre) and her boyfriend Louis (Melvil Poupaud) are young, beautiful and wealthy, and their Paris apartment is their refuge. United by love and addiction, they have barricaded out the rest of the world and spend their days in a heroin haze. All this changes when Mousse wakes up in hospital to find that Louis has overdosed and she is pregnant. At the funeral, Louis’ gay brother Paul (Louis-Ronan Choisy) gives the eulogy and alludes to the baby being his brother’s legacy. Paul offers his support to Mousse but his mother wants thinks that an abortion is the sensible thing. So Mousse runs away to a seaside villa in the south of France.
At this place close to nature, Mousse tries to come to terms with a sea of emotions. Although she sees her pregnancy as a means of mourning her lover’s death, she does not feel any other connection to the baby. In a society where maternal instinct is idealised, Ozon shows that maternal instinct in not a given and things are often far more complex. Paul does join her at the villa and help her to become more at peace with herself as her body grows with new life. During this time, Mousse and Paul become closer and confide in each other. We find out that, despite the ready availability of money, that both these characters are marginalised people, struggling to find their places in the world.
Francois Ozon constructs a world similar to the post-card perfect one he made in his memorable film Swimming Pool (2003). He explores the cycle of life and death and many convolutions in between as the filming follows Isabelle Carre’s actual pregnancy and the camera falls in love with her expanding body. The Refuge screens at UWA’s Somerville 17-23 Jan and at ECU’s Joondalup Pines 24-30 Jan.
Lezly Herbert
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