Themes: Crumbling Marriages, Breakups and Divorces, Infidelity
Main Cast: Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Stéphane Freiss, Géraldine Pailhas, Françoise Fabian, Michel Lonsdale
Release Year: 2004
Country: FR
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The rise and fall of one couple's marriage goes under the microscope in this drama from French filmmaker François Ozon. Gilles (Stephane Freis) and Marion (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) have filed for divorce following several years of marriage, and after the judge declares their union is over, the film follows the couple through five lengthy flashbacks, presented in reverse chronological order, in which glimpses of their lives together are shown, ending with the couple meeting for the first time. As the film follows the peaks and valleys of Gilles and Marion's relationship, viewers witness a few of the many small events that make up a marriage. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Cast
Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi - Marion
Stéphane Freiss - Gilles
Géraldine Pailhas - Valerie; Françoise Fabian - Monique; Michel Lonsdale - Bernard; Antoine Chappey - Christophe; Marc Ruchmann - Mathieu; Jason Tavassoli - American man; Jean-Pol Brissart - Judge
Credit
Antoinette Boulat - Casting, Pascaline Chavanne - Costume Designer, Hubert Barbin - First Assistant Director, François Ozon - Director, Monica Coleman - Editor, Philippe Rombi - Composer (Music Score), Katia Wyszkop - Production Designer, Yorick Le Saux - Cinematographer, Marie-Jeanne Pascal - Production Manager, Olivier Delbosc - Producer, Marc Missonnier - Producer, Jean-Pierre Laforce - Sound Mixer, Jean-Pierre Duret - Sound/Sound Designer, Brigitte Taillandier - Sound/Sound Designer, Duret Hillebrant - Sound/Sound Designer, François Ozon - Screen Story, François Ozon - Screenwriter, Emmanuele Bernheim - Screenwriter
5x2 (also Cinq fois deux; English: Five Times Two) is a 2004French 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]
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 the 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]
