Hideaway (2009) User Reviews

Not Perfect ,but Lovely and Very Worthwhile

[film_ophile · 7/10 · 22 July 2010]

While I don't agree w/ Chris Knipp's view that this boiled down to a vague glossy ad....I am thankful that he used words like lyrical and elegance , which caused me to see the movie tonight as part of the Boston MFA's annual French Film Festival. I am a big fan of Ozon. I don't know what it is about him, but I feel very simpatico with his sense of humor,and his gazings and subtle observations about humanity. There is this allowance for space in his serious films, space for the characters to feel and grow, and space for the audience to partake in this. I do not find that space flat or boring; rather, it has me fully engaged as a viewer. In this film I was surprised and very taken in by the mesmerizing spiritual nature of Louis-Ronan Choisy . I have not seen him before and he was quite wonderful to watch.He was so perfectly cast for this role. I have been quite taken in by Isabelle Carre before, but I think it was a shame that her character in this film was not able to play to the ethereal and quite 'saintly'persona she has exuded in other roles.I was hoping to get at least a glimpse of the (in-reality) pregnant Carre with that beatific presence that she can emanate.

All in all, the relationship between the two of them, and the scene with her being verbally harangued by the guilt ridden woman on the beach, were enough to make me recommend this film. I found it not perfect;too many things unanswered character and plot wise, but still quite lovely, and it left me with a feeling, a mood, that I am still carrying.

Skin deep

[Chris Knipp · 6/10 · 4 March 2010]

I.V. drug use and pregnancy don't mix, but that is a fact smoothed over in this chic meditation by François Ozon, who enlisted the actually pregnant Isabelle Carré as the lead. In the prologue, the innocent-looking Emile Berling is the dealer who brings a fatal dose that kills off boyfriend Louis (Ozon's Time to Leave star Melvil Poupaud) and lands girlfriend Mousse (Carré) in the hospital. There, awakening from a drug coma, she learns she is pregnant by Louis. A post-funeral interlude with Louis' posh family follows in which we learn he has a handsome gay brother, Paul (Louis-Ronan Choisy). The parents seem to differ sharply on which sibling they'd rather have given up; the father is devastated by Louis' early demise, the mother feels somehow vindicated. Eventually we get a glimpse at why, though in this pretty film, relationships are more talked about than acted out on screen.

Mousse moves to a spacious house in the country near the beach lent her by an older former lover, and here she leads a quiet but rather lonely existence, having groceries delivered by a local, Serge (Pierre Louis-Calixte). Along comes Paul on a visit. Uninvited and at first unwelcome, he nonetheless lingers for a while and hugs, talks, and a visit to an ear-splitting disco follow in which the two bond and details of their lives are revealed. Mousse gets an opportunity to process her relationship with Louis and achieve a degree of emotional closure. However, it seems Paul is a more appropriate parent for her child than she is. Even though he gets drunk a lot, spends his time on the beach, and has a fling with Serge, who turns out also to be gay.

Once we've gotten past Louis' and Mousse's empty flat and overused veins in the prologue, Le refuge is beautiful to look at, and its melancholy happens in summer sunlight. It's an upscale, French version of a Hollywood movie, but with the punch-line scrupulously removed. It's just an exploration of themes. But what themes? Certainly drug addiction and pregnancy are not subjects treated in any depth. Using an actually pregnant actress and having various people touch or listen to her belly never keep this from being a strangely clueless tour of expectant motherhood. Mousse periodically quaffs vials of Methadone, but the significance of this for a pregnant woman is barely touched on. One wonders whether, were he not as handsome, suave, and sun-kissed, Paul's presence as a family therapist would be as welcome.

Ozon isn't flip or stylistically playful as he is in films like Swimming Pool or 8 Women, or (most of all) Water Drops on Burning Rocks; this is more the serious vein of Time to Leave, and has a feeling that's more lyrical and sweet than any of these, perhaps a bit like Under the Sand. But there is a troubling sense of serious matters alluded to, but insufficiently addressed. Despite reference to such heavy stuff as drug addiction, single pregnancy, and loneliness, Le refuge (doesn't the title itself focus on escape?) makes them all seem too easy, assuaged by sun and sea and a handsome, conveniently undemanding gay man. Le refuge winds up being a vague, glossy advertisement for gay parenthood. In his mid-forties now, the prolific Ozon is moving toward more serious subject matter, but seriousness doesn't always mean depth. His moments of boldness may work better when they're a bit more flip and sassy. Le refuge winds up being flat and obvious, despite its elegance.

Le refuge was co-scripted by Ozon with Matthieu Hippeau. After going the rounds of some festivals (it won a special prize at San Sebastian), the film opened in Paris January 27, 2010 to generally lukewarm but not unkind reviews. It has gotten good international distribution and will be released in the US by Strand. It was part of the uni-France/Film Society of Lincoln Center series the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in March 2010 with screenings at the Walter Reade Theater and IFC Center.

A different but real pregnancy on the screen

[kristine-giluce · 7/10 · 18 January 2010]

A film of a modest budget, a film made in the sunny Pays Basque and a film which captures a real pregnancy. As a matter of fact, The Refuge is "born" of this idea to film a pregnancy, and this movie benefits this particular occasion. But let's say it is not a typical idyllic portrayal of a pregnancy or of a pregnant woman. The only thing that may be idyllic, is the sun of the south of Europe. Otherwise, this is a capture of troubled lives and troubled personalities.

The start of The Refuge is marked by a death by a drug overdose. Useful to say that the bunch of takes in beginning does not transmit even little of the richness of the future images of film. But who knows, maybe the cliché full drug taking scenes are there to underline the contrast. Anyways, the decease of the character of Louis, puts an ending to a love story - a very brief moment. Nevertheless, there is another story on the way and the principal figure of this film, Mousse, miraculously alive, carries it in her belly. And here begins the refuge where two characters, Paul and Mousse, try to figure out their lives. Paradoxically, these two lives are not so related as much as one can probably think, as they are put so close. Passing to the refuge in Basque Country, Ozon makes sure that the spectator draws a clear line in his mind by the change of tonalities – grim and gray for Paris and pastel and sunny for the south.

Despite the posh ambiances of Paris surroundings and idyllic summer of southern Europe, the images speak generally of troubled lives. They portray a woman, struggling with the sudden solitude and a man, trying to find where exactly he belongs. The director puts on the screen a pregnancy that troubles the spectator more than the mother. Quite an ironic manipulation with those in front of screen – they experience the turbulence knowing that the heroine is still taking methadone and does not refuse alcohol or a night in club with music roaring loudly. But truly, it's all not about this. She is well aware of her pregnancy, but this is a different kind of pregnancy. It is not for the sake of it, it is for the sake of keeping the life. The big belly evokes the presence of Louis, who is gone and the presence of the baby, who hasn't yet arrived. It's nice to see, that director has found out, that pregnancy can be be showed as an instrument of portrayal or a link among other elements of the film. For example, it allows to grasp the personality of Mousse. It is like some sort of mourning which passes very silently, without hysterical and loud scenes. Like the way she is – very introvert and calm, keeping all the troubles inside; nevertheless the situation permits to see her desire for independence and stubborn nature.

In addition, who would have thought, that giving different sexual orientations to the principal characters, permits so precisely to limit any kind of romance, even placing both in one, relatively isolated space and time. And even if Ozon lets happen something, it still is for the sake of the story, not for the comfort of spectators' expectations.

Also, it has to be admitted, that Isabelle Carré looks beautiful and plays admirably the role of Mousse, in a way, living through two stories of one pregnancy.

Rupture

[dbdumonteil · 27 March 2011]

The junkie atmosphere versus the bourgeois milieu the first sequences conjure up could lead the director into numbing Chabrol territory,but finally Ozon's innate narration sense keeps the film simple and direct.

Chabrol's fans will probably notice the similarities between the beginnings of "Le Refuge " and "La Rupture" (1970):in both movies ,the young man of means runs away with a girl who comes from a much modest family ,then there's a bad trip;and the way the "mother-in-law" treats the girl recalls that of Michel Bouquet in the 1970 effort.When lil' brother comes to visit Mousse,we may fear a rehash of Irish's "I married a dead man" (filmed as "no man of her own" "J'ai Epouse Une Ombre" and "Mrs Winterbourne" ) but fortunately it is not : lil' brother is gay (the gay -or the lesbian- we find in every movie Ozon has made)and moreover ,he 's some kind of black sheep of the family (one sentence the mom said at the beginning is revealing "it's not him who should have died!" ;we only understand it halfway through the movie).

That said ,and although the ending makes sense ,there's a tendency in the director's recent work to rest on his laurels .One sees little in "Le Refuge" of the taste for danger he displayed in earlier works such as "Sitcom" "Gouttes D'Eau Sur Pierres Brûlantes" or "Les Amants Criminels"

Refuge

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 23 November 2011]

Louis and Mousse are junkies. At the start of this tale, they are visited by a supplier, who brings them six grams of heroine that proves fatal.The heroin is lethal and Louis overdoses. Mousse, oblivious of his death, is found in bed by his mother, a rich lady who is renting the apartment, not suspecting her son is dead. Mousse is taken to a hospital to be detoxed, and in addition to that problem, it is found she is pregnant.

At the funeral, Mousee, who has been released by then, goes back to the house, where her presence is not wanted. Paul, a brother of the dead young man, is the only one that shows any compassion toward Mousse. The mother of Louis has a serious talk with the girl. She confronts her on the pregnancy, something that Mousse assures her it belongs to Louis. The mother feels it is better if she aborts because of the dangers of passing the addiction to the baby, something that Mousse disregards, having a different idea of how to handle her imminent future.

Mousse goes into a hideaway in a secluded part near a beach. Paul, on his way to Spain, stops at the house to spend a few days with Mousse. Paul, who is gay, finds a nice young man, Serge, who works in the area. The house where Mousse is staying belongs to a man who was her lover when she was sixteen years old. Now she takes her time to meditate on her future while living with limited funds and dependent on the methadone she must take in order to stay off heroine.

Paul sees in Mousse a kindred spirit. He tries to get her to go out, something she has not done, preferring to stay home, away from people. Paul finally convinces her to go to the beach with him. There she is not shy in showing her pregnancy to anyone who looks. Even though Mousse knows what Paul is like, she regards him as an extension of her dead lover. One day, at an outdoor cafe, Mousse meets a man who has an interesting proposal for her. How about letting him take her to his room overlooking the water and make love to her. The incident goes badly when Mousse decides to sit with the man while he caresses her, but no actual intercourse.

Like some of his previous films, director Francois Ozon sets most of "Hideway" on a beach. This film is not quite as intense as "Under the Sand", "See the Sea", or even "Swimming Pool", but it has lovely reflective moments in which Mousse must deal with her present reality. Having decided to have the child, she feels that little baby will be part of what she had with Louis, whom she sadly misses. The hideaway of the title refers probably to the reflection Mousse is experiencing, away from her chaotic life with Louis in Paris. The serenity of the location, plus her rapport with Paul, contribute to her mental well being. The only thing that does not ring true is the fact that Mousse is released from the hospital in no time, when in reality she needed to stay if she was to be cured of her drug addiction.

Isabelle Carre makes a wonderful Mousse. She was pregnant at the time the film was made. Ms. Carre is the best thing in the film. Louis-Ronan Choisy is quite effective as Paul. The actor was making his film debut in this film and he is also credited with the incidental music heard in the picture. Melville Poupaud is seen briefly as Louis. Marie Riviere shows up briefly.

Strawberry Mousse

[writers_reign · 7/10 · 11 January 2011]

For me there was only one reason to watch this film: Isabelle Carre. The esteem in which Francois Ozon is held has, alas, always been something of a mystery to me and I tend to see his films because he has a penchant for working with luminous actresses such as Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi (5x2, Time To Leave), six of the 8 Women, and now Isabelle Carre. Possibly because of her slight build, porcelain skin, blonde hair, etc Carre is often cast in 'fragile' roles but she did turn 40 last year and IS a bona fide actress so perhaps it is understandable that she wants to extend herself (Anna M, for example) which may explain why she spends the opening reel here as a haggard, wretched, drug abuser. Within weeks - easy to calculate because she learns she is pregnant early on) she is more or less clean and able to look radiant. A fine film but only because of Carre.

Molten moments

[oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx · 9/10 · 21 August 2010]

It's quite difficult to summarise what Le Refuge is about, there is a plot, it's linear, and quite simple, but there's nothing really generic in content, and it's not particularly dramatic either. Couldn't really call it anything other than an "emotion painting", beautifully shot, and well performed. The characters in the film are rather unlikeable, Mousse (Isabelle Carré) is a charismatic kidult heroin addict with a sharp tongue and propensity to sexual jealousy, unflappable Paul who somehow gets entangled with Mousse, has no sympathy with his brother's pained life and subsequent death. The background of high affluence that these two come from seems to be a seething psychological vipers nest from a wet dream of Freud.

The story regards Mousse who manages to survive her lover when they both tuck into a bad batch of heroin. She is pregnant and now on methadone, taking refuge at the coast in an acquaintance's deserted property. The extremely handsome and gay Paul (the brother of her lover) turns up, but is full of sangfroid to the gills and becomes an object of unattainable lust for Mousse.

One might say that the film is an unhaloed look at pregnancy. Mousse is fine with drinking alcohol and methadone for two, the film also looks at the erotic potential of the pregnant woman, as Mousse is propositioned by various men, and throughout she is quite unsentimental, as if she were a paid surrogate. I think that the camera-eye is not altogether disapproving, there is perhaps a feeling that in modern times preparations for a baby are preparations as if for the visit of a little emperor, with all the concomitant Freudian backlash.

It feels a little dirty sometimes that there are questions that only the viewer of the film knows the answer to, as opposed to the characters. The characters are left to wonder why, for example, did Louis die and Mousse survive? I think as well that there are things left to the viewer's imagination, for example the story of Louis and Paul's parents, which begs a whole film in itself; there's a kind of pendulosity to the suggestions there that really make the film feel like a masterpiece.

Visually I think there are some nice touches, this is the first time Ozon has filmed in digital, and he and the DP were playing around here. There's a psychological resonance when Mousse is at the beach on a bright summer day and a scene is played out with grafittoed breakwaters in the background that scream hazard as the water smashes into them. There's also a lovely shot at the beginning where a coruscating river reflects off a glass-fronted building.

It's ultimately an extremely winsome tale of fallible characters. I think the fallibility is extremely well portrayed, these characters are fallible just like pretty much everyone who'll be watching the film. So I give the film a lot of points for humanity, as well as, by the way, for not having an ounce of fat at 88 minutes.

For more excellent acting from Isabelle Carré in a "bad woman" role, you could do worse than watch Anna M. A note as well that this film could as seen a return to the aesthetics of Ozon's 52 minute thriller Regarde la mer, also about a disquieting movie starring a mother figure who frequents the French beaches.

Hideaway from responsibility - spoiler in basic plot revealed.

[drarthurwells · 1/10 · 7 November 2011]

Two drug addicts have a baby but the father dies from overdose. This is before the birth of the baby.

The mother manages to get help from someone who provides her a house in a village. She meets a friend, and then later, a one-night stand lover.

The mother abandons the baby to the friend. Hopefully this friend will be a good parent, so she can find herself (get high?).

We can predict the baby will likely become a future drug addict, lacking in responsibility, like his parents.

This movie shows why a nanny-state nation degrades over time - dependency and irresponsibility are fostered by the nanny-state.

Many viewers may be emotionally moved by the sad state of affairs depicted in "Hideway", but I see a situation that could have been prevented by a culture that encouraged less dependency and more responsibility in its citizens.

Perhaps best seen if you know nothing about it

[bandw · 8/10 · 8 April 2011]

By the time this movie rose to the top of my queue I had totally forgotten how it ever got on my queue and had no idea what it was about. I think this turned out to be fortuitous, since from the very beginning you never know quite where the story is going. Not wanting to spoil the effect for those who come to this cold as I did, I will only say that the main character, name Mousse, is a woman of shifting moods and a woman who remains somewhat mysterious. There are men in her life, but the relationships are not predictable.

The filming is interesting. A lot of the movie takes place in the night and I found myself turning up the brightness on my TV to make out some of the scenes. Also, a lot of the scenes are back-lit, or are taken from a darkened room with a doorway or window opening onto bright sunlight. On the other hand there are many scenes filmed outdoors in brilliant sunlight. I could never figure out if this was strictly a director's stylistic technique, or whether the contrasts in light and dark were to reflect Mousse's mood shifts.

Some may find the pacing rather too measured, but I found this film to be a satisfying character study. I came away with a renewed appreciation for the near infinite variety of human experiences.

The Gift of François Ozon

[gradyharp · 10/10 · 25 February 2011]

François Ozon ('Time to Leave', 'Swimming Pool', 'Under the Sand', '8 Women', 'Angel', etc) continues to bring to his films a sense of intimate relationships offered in a style of filmmaking that makes them personal and unique. He often uses the same actors for his films, a trait that makes his work seem truly ensemble in nature. HIDEAWAY (Le Refuge) is a story about the tapestry of love in all its forms and as written by both Ozon and Mathieu Hippeau it is a delicate view of the many facets of relationships.

Mousse (Isabelle Carré) and Louis (Melvil Poupard) are young and wealthy and deeply in love, but they are addicted to drugs. In an extended almost wordless scene we watch them inject themselves with heroin in a luxurious Parisian apartment. Days of drug induced idyll are suddenly disrupted one morning when Louis' mother (Claire Vernet) arrives and discovers the couple: Louis is dead from an overdose but Mousse survived and is taken to a hospital where she finally awakens and is informed she is pregnant. After the funeral and burial of Louis, his mother convinces Mousse that Louis must have no heir and sends the confused Mousse her off to terminate the pregnancy. Louis brother Paul (Louis-Ronan Choisy) looks on, empathizing with Mousse.

Some months pass and we find Mousse in a seaside country house where she is a recluse during the pregnancy she has decided to keep: Mousse is now controlling her addiction with Methadone. Her only outside contact is the grocer Serge (Pierre Louis-Calixte) who delivers her food until Paul stops by to pay a visit. Mousse allows Paul to stay in her hideaway and they become friends - Paul admits to Mousse that he is not Louis' blood brother but was rather adopted. Paul is gay and not a threat to the very pregnant Mousse. Paul goes into town, meets Serge, and a love affair ensues. The manner in which Mousse and Paul relate and together with Serge form a type of family leads to a rather surprising ending. How the shared relationship with Louis (Mousse's lover and source of her pregnancy and Paul's longtime admiration of his adopted brother) bonds the two provides a surprising but satisfying ending to the story.

Isabelle Carré is radiant as the conflicted Mousse and both Poupard (despite the brevity of his role) and Choisy are excellent. This is quality, quiet, intimate filmmaking at its finest. Another little masterpiece from François Ozon. In French with English subtitles.

Grady Harp