The director on waiting 35 years to film the perfect gay love story, and how French cinema is coping with Covid
French writer-director François Ozon, 52, is famous for his prodigious output. He directed his first full-length feature, Sitcom, in 1998, and his 19th, Summer of 85, a love story about two teenage boys in a Normandy seaside town, is out in the
UK this month. In between, his diverse output includes the musical 8
Women, the retro
comedy Potiche, the Ruth Rendell adaptation The New Girlfriend and last year’s By the Grace of God.
What were you doing in the summer of ’85?What was I doing? I think I went to
Spain with a friend – I can’t remember exactly, I’d have to ask my parents. The film was going to be called Summer of 84. I changed the title because of Robert Smith of the Cure. I absolutely wanted to use their song In Between Days, and he said, “Sorry, but that came out in 1985.” So I changed the title, and he let us have the song. For me, the film’s really about 1984, because that’s when I was 16.