| 5x2 | |
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5x2 film poster |
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| Directed by | François Ozon |
| Produced by | Olivier Delbosc Marc Missonnier |
| Written by | François Ozon Emmanuèle Bernheim |
| Starring | Valeria Bruni Tedeschi Stéphane Freiss |
| Distributed by | ThinkFilm (USA) |
| Release date(s) | 1 September 2004 |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
5x2 (also Cinq fois deux; English: Five Times Two) is a 2004 French film directed by François Ozon, which uncovers the back story to the gradual disintegration of a middle class marriage by depicting five key moments in the relationship, but in reverse order.[1]
Contents |
A young married couple, Gilles and Marion, sit in an office while they listen to a lawyer read out the formal terms of their separation, after which they book a hotel room together.[2] The plot then travels backwards chronologically, with the following chapter focusing on a tense dinner party the couple hosted for Gilles’ brother and his boyfriend some time previously, at which Gilles appears to admit to infidelity, before moving back again to the point at the birth of their son, which Gilles manages to miss by several hours, leaving Marion’s parents as the only family with her in the hospital. The film then reverts to their wedding day, before ending with scenes at the Italian beach resort where, already acquaintances from work, they ran into each other by chance and first began their relationship.[3]
The individual chapters are all punctuated by romantic Italian love songs, which Ozon has said he chose for their "over the top sentimentality" and in order to offset the darkness of some of the scenes in the film.[4] Ozon has also said that the backward structure of the story was in part inspired by Jane Campion’s 1986 film Two Friends, and that it allowed for “a true, lucid reading of a couple’s story”.[4]
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