5x2 (2004)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

François Ozon

Writers:

François Ozon (scenario)
Emmanuèle Bernheim (scenario collaborator)

Release Date:

1 September 2004 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Five stages in the romance between a woman and a man.

Plot Keywords:

Divorce | Son | Wedding Night | Dinner Party | Adultery

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi	...	Marion (as Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi)
Stéphane Freiss	...	Gilles
Françoise Fabian	...	Monique
Michael Lonsdale	...	Bernard
Géraldine Pailhas	...	Valérie
Antoine Chappey	...	Christophe
Marc Ruchmann	...	Mathieu
Jason Tavassoli	...	L'Américain
Jean-Pol Brissart	...	Le Juge
Eliane Kherris	...	L'avocate
Yannis Belkacem	...	Nicolas
Sylvie Debrun	...	L'échographiste
Jean Neisser	...	Le Maire
Ninon Brétécher	...	Sophie (as Ninon Bretecher)
Marie-Madeleine Fouquet	...	La mère de Gilles

Also Known As:

5 x 2: Five Times Two (Canada: English title) (festival title)
Cinq fois deux (France) (alternative spelling)
Five Times Two (International: English title) (long title)
Nous deux (France) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong graphic sexuality, language and some drug content.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English | Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Taiwan:R-18 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Zurich) | Chile:14 | Hungary:16 | Brazil:14 | Canada:18A (Ontario) | South Korea:18 | Japan:R-15 | Germany:16 | Portugal:M/12 | New Zealand:R18 | Czech Republic:18 | Netherlands:12 | Singapore:R21 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | Hong Kong:III | Italy:VM14 | USA:R | Ireland:18 | Sweden:11 | Finland:K-15 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Fidélité Productions

Trivia:

Sophie Marceau and Vincent Cassel were approached to play the parts of Marion and Gilles.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the hotel room scene early in the film, Marion's wedding band changes from the left hand to the right hand, then back to the left again.

Soundtrack:

La Danse Des Maries

Scenes from a marriage, backwards

Anyone who knows director Francois Ozon only for his daft musical comedy 'Eight Women' might be rather shocked by the first scene of this movie, a nasty moment of post-marital rape. The film consists of five episodes in a couple's life (hence the title), the obvious point for comparison is Bergman's 'Scenes from a Marriage', and the novelty is that we see the episodes in reverse order. After watching the first one, I was filled with dread at the horrors I would witness thereafter, seeing the poison creep into the relationship, with a growing theme of retrospectively false hope - I thought this would be a very harrowing movie. Instead, none of this happens. Ozon samples the marriage more than tells its full story, many of the scenes hint at the subtle complexity of the relationship between man and wife, but this is not a narrative of destruction, just a collection of snapshots from two lives. There are moments of perception, others seem less adept (I didn't believe the American businessman, for example); but whereas Bergman seemed to show character as destiny, here there's an incidental quality to the plot, and though I enjoyed the movie, ultimately I wasn't quite sure of its point.