Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000)

Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000, Fr.) (aka Gouttes D'Eau Sur Pierres Brûlantes)

In French writer/director Francois Ozon's four-act, dark romantic comedy/tragedy, it was set in 1970s Berlin Germany and confined to the claustrophobic interior of the apartment of the central character. The nihilistic film forthrightly examined both homosexual and heterosexual relationships through its characters, involving exploitation, romantic oppression and game-playing. The script by Ozon was based on German writer Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1985 unpublished play of the same name Tropfen auf heißen Steinen.

• the 4-person chamber drama (consisting of 4 acts) began with by presenting a developing homosexual relationship between two males with widely-divergent ages: 20 year-old bi-sexual, deeply-unhappy, sensitive, and artistic red-headed Franz (Malick Zidi) (who had past homosexual experiences), and became the live-in lover and domestic servant-houseboy for domineering, tyrannical and predatory 50 year-old bisexual traveling insurance salesman Leopold Bluhm (Bernard Giraudeau); Franz told Leopold: "Age doesn't matter to me"
• by the end of Act 1, Leopold and Franz (with his innocence and vulnerability corrupted) had consummated their sexual love for each other in the bedroom, indulging in Franz's fantasy of being a "dream man" - a stranger coming to bed wearing an overcoat

• however, six months later, Act 2 found them at odds with each other, getting on each other's nerves, and constantly bickering, but their sex life remained good: (Franz: "I never want another man after you"); Franz wondered and had doubts: "Someday, you'll find someone to replace me"; soon, both threatened to leave and contemplated splitting up:
  • Leopold: "We're good together, we just can't live together."
• things would change for the gay couple with the sudden arrival of the two ex-loves of both males in the remaining acts:
  • Vera (Anna Thomson), Leopold's sad-eyed "complicated" ex-lover who had just undergone a sex change operation
  • Anna (Ludivine Sagnier), Franz's buxom blonde, lovelorn, and abandoned ex-fiancee
• in Act 3, Franz's ex-fiancee Anna made a surprise visit while Leopold was away; they had known each other for almost four years; she told him she wanted to see him again after being asked by another male to marry her; she confessed her love for Franz instead: "Because I love you, not him...Think about it"; but since he claimed he loved Leopold ("End of story"), she asked about their plans: "Our children, our house"; she was shocked by his devotion to Leopold
• as they talked about knowing each other for four years, and that they should celebrate as they always had, he mentioned how she had changed - looking at her bounteous chest, he noted: "You've changed, for the better. You're much prettier"; he asked if she liked their past love-making, and then he hinted: "I still like you a lot"; after they kissed, he acted out the same 'man-in-overcoat' fantasy with her before love-making, and they rekindled their love and joy of sex with each other, as Act 3 ended

• in Act 4, Anna opened the curtains on their bedroom as she approached him naked; with Franz, Anna spoke about moving out, getting a house and having children together to start their lives over: ("Let's talk about how many kids we'll have...today, we'll pack our bags and leave") - but he was slightly unsure and uncertain about the realities and responsibilities of life (making money, getting jobs, etc.)

• Franz was ambivalent and slightly saddened about immediately abandoning Leopold before explaining to him in person (with her) about their plans, once he arrived back Saturday evening: "What should I do about Leopold? I must see him and explain everything....It's not easy for me to leave like this. Alone I never could have"; Franz realized that he wouldn't have abandoned Leopold by himself, but that he had the strength to do it with her; she agreed: "But now we're together and we'll make it" - and although he responded: "Yes, we'll make it," he hesitantly told Anna: "I think I still love him. I think I love him alot," and urged that they should stay a bit longer; Franz was struggling to forget Leopold, as Anna reiterated: "We've got to start over"
• once Leopold returned (earlier than expected), Franz introduced Anna (wearing a blue bra) as they were packing their bags to move out; Anna began to be intrigued by Leopold's hypnotic spell that she was falling under; he enticed her by touching her bare leg as he encouraged her to stay awhile longer; he cast seeds of doubt in her mind by suggesting that Franz was too young and not "the marrying kind"; Anna was persuaded to postpone their plan to immediately leave

• and then, Leopold's ex-lover Vera of seven years arrived on the scene; she had been dumped by her boyfriend Helmut; earlier, for Leopold's sake, she/he had undergone a sex change (or gender reassignment) operation (according to Leopold, she was "a former buddy who cut his dick off in Casablanca")
• enticed by the company (both Vera and Leopold), Anna had been persuaded to stay longer: "I want to stay awhile. The situation is so exciting"; however, Franz disagreed: "You're all so bizarre, like puppets, manipulated by God knows who?"; Anna bragged about her sensual love-making with Franz: "We've made love for two days straight. We got lots of pleasure"
• as the film was reaching its predictable, bleak and tragic climax, in the midst of sexual game-playing, in a strange sequence, the group gyrated, hip-twisted and danced together to Tony Holiday's song: "Tanze Samba mit mir"
• Leopold commanded the humiliated group: "Everyone in the bedroom" - and both Anna and Vera were especially excited about the prospects of going to bed with him, and raced down the hall; however, Franz wasn't as eager; Franz was disgusted with Leopold, who told him that Franz needed him (and not vice-versa)
• Franz walked slowly down the hallway to the bedroom door to peer in - in a fantasy sequence, as he flung open the door, revealing his concealed, morbid, and vengeful wish to murder Leopold by shooting him in the middle of his forehead during his threesome while making love to the other two women
• during their threesome, Leopold immediately showed a sexual preference for the younger Anna, and Vera left the bedroom (as Franz noted: "Fresh flesh wins out"); Leopold had used Vera to hurt Franz and to help him seduce Anna
• in the living room, Franz commiserated with fellow outcast Vera, who was sorrowful about her condition of not being loved or needed: "I've suffered in every way imaginable. So much sadness....I'll suffer forever...How could I forget him? Even with the others, I think of him. I'm his creature." She admitted that she was "starved for love" when she first met Leopold in Germany, and he was good to her sexually; she was happy until he stopped desiring her as a male
• Vera admitted that when Leopold stopped loving her and touching her, she still couldn't stop loving him; she took a drastic, love-crazy measure:
  • "It was unbearable. So, I took a drastic measure, crazy, crazy with love....I had a sex change for him, out of love for him, so he'd want me again. I was a boy and I became a woman. I spent all my savings. For awhile, his desires were revived. It was the newness. I deluded myself. Then the desire died again. He made me a whore. Then he left me."
• they both admitted to each other that in spite of everything, they still truly loved Leopold; to Franz' surprise, Vera proposed to him: "How do I look to you?... I'm not too old for you?...Well, maybe we could try something together," but he cautioned her: "It's too late"; Franz had realized that Vera had given him a glimpse of his own doomed future with Leopold, and had decided to end his life
• Franz told Vera that he had already suicidally taken poison and was dying; just before expiring on the living room floor, he told her: "I'm his creature, too."
• meanwhile, Anna was happily making vigorous love to Leopold in the back bedroom, as he promised her how to easily make more money - with him:
  • "Do you like your job?...How much do you make?...Would you like to earn more?...I know an easy way to make money....You''ll need to work for me."

• Anna reacted to Franz' death with instant tears: "Who'll father my children?", but Leopold calmed her by ordering her back to bed, and she quickly obeyed him. He continued to exert his control and entrapment over an unloved and unwanted Vera when he instructed her: "Get undressed and come join us in bed," but when Vera replied: "You don't need me," he responded: "You need me" - the film's final spoken line [Note: These were the same words he had earlier said to Franz.]
• the trapped Vera struggled to open the apartment's sealed windows as the film ended, revealing her desolation and despair, and failed attempt to commit suicide herself