Peter Von Kant (2022)

A renowned film director (Denis Menochet) is recovering from his latest love affair when his actress friend (Isabelle Adjani, looking fantastic) introduces him to a young Arab boy (Khalil Gharbia) she met on a recent voyage from Australia to Europe. Immediately attracted to the boy, the director seduces him with the promise of being in his next movie and as the months pass, he becomes more and more possessive of the boy, who's been sleeping with others. A loose remake of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT and directed by Francois Ozon (8 FEMMES). Ozon switches the gender of Fassbinder's Petra to Peter but thematically and in structure it's not all that different from Fassbinder's movie. At first, the love sick Peter garners our sympathy as his boy toy manipulates him but eventually his dark side exerts itself. His sadistic treatment of his male secretary (Stefan Crepon) and a brutal outburst to his best friend (Adjani), his mother (Hanna Schygulla, who appeared in Fassbinder's original film) and daughter (Aminthe Audiard) robs him of any sympathy. Sure, love is cruel and it can devastate us to our very core but that's no reason to take it out on those who love you most. The movie is not only a homage to Fassbinder's film but also to Douglas Sirk's lush Technicolor melodramas.