François Ozon (“Swimming Pool,” “Ricky,” “Angel,” “Young & Beautiful”) masterfully addresses the transgender affair in his latest work, “Une nouvelle amie/The New Girlfriend,” finding a man in need to become a woman, not like a foolish obsession, but as a conscious decision that will affect everyone surrounding him, including his baby girl.
As Pedro Almodóvar did in “All About My Mother” and Xavier Dolan in “Laurens Anyways,” Ozon’s “Girlfriend” also has a male character deciding to be a woman, not a transvestite but a total transgender.
The emotional journey starts with a montage of an elegant funeral, then cuts to a flashback where two little girls, Claire and Laura, make a blood covenant, swearing: “A le vie, a le amour….” In a flash-forward where the girls have grown up, they go to the disco, have their first boyfriend, kiss, and break up.
The intensity of the musical score elevates the emotions without relying on unnecessary words to convey what the actors are feeling through their actions.
One of them marries, gets pregnant, and dies, leaving a baby girl needing a mother.
The “other girlfriend,” Claire, naturally played by Anaïs Demounstier (“Bird People,” “Thérèse”), remembers the promise she made to her late girlfriend to look after her baby. In that sense, she gets closer to David to discover an uncomfortable truth for everyone, but she conforms for the baby.
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| Romain Duris at COLCOA 2014. Photo by Jose Alberto Hermosillo |
David, the widower, fantastically played by Romain Duris (“Chinese Puzzle,” “Russian Dolls,” “The Spanish Apartment”), notices that the only thing that makes the little girl stop crying is the smell of her late mother’s perfume still infused in her clothes.
He disguises himself as the woman who passed and cares for the baby. The baby is content in the arms of his new “mother.”
The story gets complicated when Claire discovers David dressed in her late girlfriend’s garments. She runs away but returns, remembering her promise and honoring her word to take care of the baby.
Things get convoluted when David becomes Virginia (“The New Girlfriend”) and wants to go out shopping. Romain Duris is terrific, just like David and Virginia.
“The New Girlfriend” is a well-crafted French queer drama that underscores the importance of high-quality costume design and makeup in achieving proper characterization. Audiences value authenticity and honesty in a film with a good story and production value.
Other memorable performances of terrific actors taking the risk by doing a transgender role outside of Hollywood are:
Gael García Bernal in “Bad Education,” Spain.
Finally, the British drama “The Danish Girl,” starring Oscar-winning best actor Eddy Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything”), who now plays a man transforming into a woman.
Virginia says, “Men are born in cabbages, women are born with flowers, and I was born in a cauliflower.”
Ultimately, we all learn a valuable lesson: “It’s a hard job to be a woman.”
François Ozon’s “New Girlfriend” was screened to a packed house at the Los Angeles Closing Night Gala of the renowned Outfest 2015.
The film lovers who attended the event laughed, cherished, and applauded this male-to-female transgender feel-good movie.
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| Closing Night Outfest 2015, Photo by Jose Alberto Hermosillo. Copyrights Festival in LA |
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