Francois Ozon told Andrei Plakhov about how he thinks about his own and other people’s families.

— Many of your films depict the modern family with deadly sarcasm. Does she look like the one who raised you?

— While still in film school, I—I don’t know why—made a short film about a boy who killed his parents. My brother played the boy, and my father and mother played the parents. But seriously, my parents were middle-class intellectuals, teachers, taught biology and French. Dad is a cinephile and loves classic John Ford westerns.

— How do they feel about your work?

“Both didn’t really believe in me as a filmmaker, but they didn’t interfere either. Today, my parents are joyfully surprised when they hear about my professional successes. They don't really understand the type of film I make, but they take it for granted. And when dad reads a negative review of one of my films, he gets seriously angry.

- Nevertheless, you broke the family tradition...

“The choice of profession was a kind of protest for me. At school we were given the topic "Portrait of my friend." I took it with humor and portrayed the teacher - I must say, a rather ugly creature. I, eight years old, was called a pervert. Later, through cinema, I learned to overcome my isolation. Something that he could not do in any other way. I learned to do and experience things in movies that were forbidden in real life.

— The main love story in the film is shaded by two others, reflected in them as in side mirrors. On the one hand, there are the heroine’s parents, a traditional, routine family. On the other side are the hero’s brother and his young lover. What is the meaning of these contrasts? Is it that the institution of marriage has exhausted itself?

“I have nothing against marriage if it suits someone.” The older generation lived in an atmosphere of unfreedom; even getting a divorce was not so easy then. My heroine’s parents have gotten used to it, living in a monogamous marriage, they often quarrel, insult each other, let out their aggression, but still do not break up. Young people don’t want to live like this - it doesn’t matter whether they are gay or heterosexual. They consider themselves free, but this does not mean that they are happier. Contrary to stories about the beauty of open relationships, we see in the film that its characters suffer even in this form of union.

— Do you yourself prefer a traditional or free union?

— I prefer to live not one, but several love stories. I would define love as work. Work to get rid of illusions, stop idealizing each other and at the same time maintain the feeling.

"I'm not against marriage"