Graham Greene
Before seeing Sitcom, the only Francois Ozon films that I had any experienced of were the musical farce 8 Women and his Fassbinder adaptation Water Drops on Burning Rocks. Both of these films were interesting, but completely different, both in terms of style and content. It is through this particular film - his debut of sorts - that we can find a link between these two rather disparate projects and can also, better understand the various themes and motifs that have reappeared in subsequent Ozon works, like Criminal Lovers, Under the Sand, 5x2 and Swimming Pool.This film effortlessly establishes Ozon's strengths as an "ensemble" director, as he introduces the idea of bourgeois characters bound together in a claustrophobic location (a familiar idea that will be repeated in 8 Women and Water Drops...) whilst all manner of catastrophe, farce and inter-family relationships are explored and exposed with a cynical (...and, to some extent, satirical) glee. I suppose in some respects, this film is similar to Luis Buñuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (though there are also allusions made to other Buñuel projects, like Belle de Jour and The Obscure Object of Desire), with added nods to filmmakers like John Waters and Michael Haneke (albeit, a less po-faced rendition of Haneke's key-themes) thrown in for good measure.The film is darkly comic, deranged and completely absurd in the best possible way... the plot focusing on a polite, conservative French family, who each succumb to their own sexual perversions after dad brings home a pet rat (yes, you read that correctly!!). Moments after the little fella has been transported into his new home, the son announces he's a homosexual (and then, seconds later, retires to the bedroom with the maid's athletic husband), the daughter throws herself out of the window and ends up a paraplegic (...she later takes to putting out cigarettes on her bare arms and whipping her boyfriend during kinky S&M), while later in the film, mum turns to incest in an attempt to "turn" her wayward son whilst dad tries to disregard the whole thing as "just a phase". The whole film is completely outrageous and very funny, with Ozon keeping the viewer's attention through the use of brisk editing, colourful composition and some completely extreme sight gags (the sun's metamorphosis from bespectacled nerd into an outré gay-icon, the disabled daughter dragging herself up the stairs with a knife between her teeth, like one of Tod Browning's Freaks and, my personal favourite, mum walking in on one of her son's gay-orgies, only to find a group of leather-clad muscle men playing a polite game of cards).Ultimately, the film is very frivolous and doesn't really carry much weight as a successful social satire, but it's wholly enjoyable (if you're in the mood for it) and most certainly will leave an impression on anyone who watches it. The performances are strong throughout, and it would be wrong to pick favourites from such a tight ensemble, whilst Ozon's unpretentious direction has a confidence and self-absurdness about it (though it obviously lacks the polish of later efforts like 8 Women and Swimming Pool). I personally felt that the film fell apart a bit towards the end (much like a lot of Buñuel's work too), with Ozon seemingly attempting to riff on Kafka's The Metamorphosis, whilst still trying to retain that sniping sense of social satire (the scenes between the mother and her physiatrist gave a good back-bone to the narrative, and also brought to mind similar scenes in that other darkly-comic classic, Harold and Maude)... it doesn't really work, and is a bit of disappointment, especially after that amazing and literally jaw-dropping opening, and the subsequent madness that occurs in-between.Like the aforementioned Discreet Charm..., Sitcom is a film obsessed with false endings and double pay-offs (there are at least four possible endings for the film, including the one that opens the film, and, the more disappointing one that actually does end the film), though despite the disappointment connected to the eventual dénouement, I would still recommend this film as one of the standouts of the last decade. Sitcom is a blistering and enjoyable dark-comedy farce, acting as a lighter, more comedic take on the new European extreme of filmmakers like Lars von Trier (Breaking the Waves, The Idiots) and Gaspar Noe (I Stand Alone, Irreversible).
The_Void
François Ozon's pitch black mickey take is a biting satire on family life and a brash distraction from the shows of it's title. While many sitcom's are monotonous affairs, Ozon's take on the medium is anything but. Despite taking in many of the clichés of the sitcom - stuffy mother, raunchy maid, bored father etc - Sitcom manages to be continually inventive and the way that it exposes the clichés of the genre is both ludicrously ridiculous and harshly disturbing. The French director proves with this movie that he's not afraid to overstep several boundaries and make a film that dares to be different, and for that reason this film will never be universally liked. However, if you can connect with Ozon's vision, you're in for a treat and that was the situation I found myself in! The story follows a father who, after bringing his family a lab-rat for a present, finds his family collapsing around him - his son discovers he's gay, his daughter jumps out of the window and his wife...well, I'll leave you to find that out on your own.Sitcom is a singularly unpleasant experience. Watching family life deteriorate is a much more gruelling affair than you might imagine, and even though the family and the situation that Ozon has presented are utterly ridiculous; he still manages to inject life into it, which ensures that it hammers home the point that the auteur intended. Whenever I see a film that dares to be different and deliver something that I haven't seen before, I tend to find myself heaping the praise on it and that is certainly the case with this film. You will not find a comedy with a more rotten core than this one and similarly you will not find one that dares to present the utterly ridiculous happenings that this movie thrives on. I don't know how Ozon thought he could get away with some of the things in this film - not just the taboo's he's portrayed, but other things too, some of which are just too stupid to comprehend – but Ozon makes them work! Sitcom is a movie that needs to be experienced, and it's a film that will divide opinions as much as any other movie ever made. And if only for that reason - see this film as soon as possible.
