With 'Peter von Kant,' François Ozon Gives Fassbinder Classic a New Twist

More than two decades ago, in 2000, openly gay French filmmaker François Ozon adapted a Werner Fassbinder play, "Water Drops on Burning Rocks," into a film. Since then, the prolific director has made a new movie almost every year, including international hits like "Under the Sand" (2000), "Swimming Pool" (2003), and "Summer of 85" (2020) – to say nothing of comedies like "8 Women" (2002), "Potiche" (also known as "Trophy Wife," 2010), and "The New Girlfriend" (2014), as well as historical dramas like "Frantz" (2016), and thrillers like "In the House" (2012) and "Double Lover" (2017).

Now, Ozon has returned to an early source of inspiration by reimagining Fassbinder's 1972 film "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant" (based on Fassbinder's play of the same name) in a gender-flipped gay version. "Peter von Kant" centers around a self-centered, often histrionic film director (Denis Ménochet) who treats his assistant (a wordless, and utterly devoted man named Karl, played by Stefan Crepon) as though he were a particularly passive sub in a BDSM relationship.

Indeed, if the film is about anything, it's power dynamics between couples... all sorts of couples, What's more, the film perches in a place of multiple intersections and dualities. When Peter's friend and collaborator, an actress named Sidonie (Isabelle Adjani), shows up at his door, Peter brims over with the story of how he and his longtime male partner have broken up. But when Sidonie introduces Peter to a young actor named Amir (Khalil Gharbia), Peter is instantly and forever smitten. His love is operatic. It doesn't matter that he had a wife in his youth who he also loved, or that Sidonie was also once a lover. Amir is now his eternal flame... and Peter's torch burns so bright that it's bound to flame out. But what will be the cost?

Mixing elements of satire, farce, romance, and drama, Ozon and his cast create a tumultuous, uproarious rom-com with an almost literally bleeding edge. It's a film that's set in the past, but feels contemporary. Almost every moment of the film takes place inside Peter's apartment, and yet the movie feels expansive. The emotional dysfunction could have made for a suffocating runtime, but the film is unstintingly atmospheric.

EDGE caught up with François Ozon to discuss the film, his love for Fassbinder, and the exquisite casting at the heart of the movie.

EDGE: "Peter von Kant" is a "free adaptation" of Fassbinder's "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant." Why did you choose to remake this film, and why did you re-cast it as a gay drama?

François Ozon: I'm a big fan of Fassbinder for a long time. I had already adapted one of his unknown plays he wrote when he was 19, "Water Drops on Burning Rocks." It was very important for me as a student to discover his body of work. It helped me as a director to find myself, and I feel Fassbinder is like a big brother, you know, in my way of making movies.

During the lockdown I was, like many directors, afraid of the situation. We didn't know if it would be possible again to make films the normal way, with extras and with lot of locations, so I was thinking about making a lockdown movie in one place, with not so many actors. So, I watched "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant" again, and I thought maybe it would be interesting to make a kind of a... not a remake, but to give another vision of this play and this film. I had the intuition that Fassbinder was talking about himself, and behind Petra von Kant it was Werner Fassbinder. I spoke with Fassbinder's widow, [who was also] his last editor, Juliane Lorenz, and she confirmed for me that the play and the film came from his love story with one of his actors, Günther Kaufmann. I asked her, "Do you think it's a good idea to change the sex?" and she said to me, "It's great. I'm sure Fassbinder would have loved it." So, I felt free to change [the main character's gender] and it was a way to take the story and to make it my own as a director.

EDGE: Another change is that Petra von Kant was a fashion designer, but Peter von Kant is, like you, a film director. Like Fassbinder, have you taken the opportunity with this film to explore some of your own characteristics, or even some of your own foibles?

François Ozon: Yes, you know, I don't know anything about fashion. I like fashion, but I'm not involved in fashion. I'm involved in cinema. I know what is the relationship between the director and his actress or his muse. So, I have many things to say about the work.

You know, in the film by Fassbinder you don't really care about the fashion; it's just decoration. For me, it was important because it's a film about love – to talk about the love of [the] work [the main character does]. I think Fassbinder's film is very pessimistic at the end, and my film is more optimistic [that he might] survive after the disaster of his private life. I wanted to say that movies can help you to survive and to live. Maybe it's a metaphor or fiction. You know, fiction can help you to accept the sadness of the reality.

EDGE: Do you see this film as a critique of gay culture, gay relationships, perhaps even a tendency between gay couples to be a little codependent?

François Ozon: I don't really care if the character is gay or straight. I think [these relationship issues are] universal. What I like about Fassbinder is he doesn't care. He shows that the [power struggle] is the same in straight couples and in gay couples. It doesn't change. [Similarly,] I don't think there is a difference between gay and straight couples. It's always the same mess.

EDGE: You choose to set "Peter von Kant" in 1972, which is the year Fassbinder's film "The Bitter Tears..." came out. Why not update the time to today? Is the visual palette that's available for that time – styles, décor, colors, even some camera techniques – part of the reason for that choice?

François Ozon: I love the setting of the '70s. I love the fashion, the furniture... I was very young in the '70s, so maybe it's an ideal for me. And [also], I knew I wanted to talk about the hold on someone – I wanted to talk about power, and to make a link with what happens today [in the movie industry], what you see in the relationships between actors and producers. I felt it would be better to have a kind of distance from today. Sometimes it's better to [have that kind of distance when you] express strong feelings. When it's too close to reality, it can be difficult. [That distance] gives you the opportunity to have more humor.

EDGE: Denis Ménochet is very funny and over-the-top, and also heartbreaking, as Peter. What quality did he bring to the film that made him your choice to play the part?

François Ozon: It was difficult to balance the ridiculous [aspects] of the character and the empathy you have with him. The film of Fassbinder is quite cold. It's very distant. You watch the character and you have a kind of admiration, but you don't empathize. With Denis, we tried to give the opportunity to the audience to be touched by him. When he suffers, when he's crying, I wanted people to be moved. It was quite complex for an actor, because at first he's totally over-the-top when he courts Amir, you know, he's a little bit too much. But at the end, I want you to be touched by his tears.

EDGE: What made Denis the actor of choice for this role for you?

François Ozon: I know Denis very well because it's our third film together. We made "In the House" and "By the Grace of God" already together. [This film] was a big challenge for him because very often [his film roles are] very virile. [His characters are] brutal, and he's not used to showing his emotions or being feminine. He was a little bit afraid, but we made some readings together and he realized it could be amazing to play such a part because it was a great opportunity.

EDGE: Let me ask you about your other leading man, Khalil Gharbia. Your camera celebrates how gorgeous he is, and how charismatic. But there are so many other layers that he brings to the role. What, specifically, told you he was right to play Amir?

François Ozon: Actually, he was not the first choice. I was looking for [an older actor], because I knew the taste of Fassbinder was more for men about 30, 35 years old. But all the other actors I tried to cast said "No, we don't want to play such a part." They were afraid of the part. They didn't want to play a gay character. So, we decided with the casting director to meet some younger actors, and we met Khalil Gharbia, who was 19 years old – much younger than what I was looking for. But he was so innocent, charming, and clever, and not afraid to play such a part. It was quite obvious to work with him. So we had some readings with Khalil and Denis together, and the chemistry was perfect. Denis loved him, and Khalil felt totally comfortable with Denis, and they loved to play together.

EDGE: Do you see that character as really being a young gay man? Or do you see him as someone who's opportunistic and who will have a relationship with anyone who will help his career?

François Ozon: You know what, he's just an actor.

[Laughter]

He's able to seduce Peter for the scene of the casting [when Peter films him telling his life story]. Does he say the truth when he speaks about his family, about the death of his father and mother? Or is it just a way to seduce Peter as an actor? We don't know. And Khalil is great with this ambiguity of the character. I wanted that the audience could, after one scene, say that he is a putain, but [in the next scene] to say, "Oh, he is so innocent." I wanted to have some ambiguity about the character. You can have the feeling that maybe there was a real love story. It was not just a question of opportunity. Maybe there was a real relationship between them. Was it love? I don't know. But there's something strong between them.

EDGE: I have to ask about Stefan Crepon, who plays Karl. He's such a significant part of the film, even though he doesn't have one word of dialogue. What was it like to direct someone with no lines?

François Ozon: We [went back and] watched Irm Hermann play the character of Marlene in the original movie, and she was amazing, too.

EDGE: Stefan might have the most impactful and surprising moment of the film.

François Ozon: Yes. And it was funny, because when Hanna Schygulla [who played Karin in the original film and plays Peter's mother in this version] met Stefan she said to him, "You see, you will have no dialogue, no words. But you have the best part. You will keep everything. It's the best part of the play."

EDGE You're so prolific. Every year you have a new movie. Are you working on something already for next year?

François Ozon: Yes, I'm finishing the editing of a new film, ["Madeleine,"] which is a comedy in the spirit of "8 Women" and "Trophy Wife." It's a comedy with a big French cast, and it's a comedy which happens in the '40s, in Paris. So, it's something totally different.

"Peter von Kant" opens in theaters Sept. 2.