On the face of it, the film is a horrific and perfectly constructed piece of theater art captured on film.
Peter, a successful filmmaker, is an artist with a "pretense" from the moment he responds to a phone call offering him a job, or in other words, he is an artist with the temperament of a "samurai who doesn't eat, but has a good heart. The first few minutes of the film show that Peter is an artist with a "Samurai's character is like a Yangzi, even if he does not eat.
However, when he calls his mother on the phone, his infantile nature comes out.
The story is mostly about the way his eccentric love, which could be described as his true nature, involves the people around him (or, in fact, he is involved).
His eccentricity is exposed when he meets Amir, a beautiful young man of 23 years old. Peter, who is smitten with Amir from that moment on, casts him in a film, the success of which earns Amir the status of an actor to be reckoned with.
The film is full of scenes of middle-aged men flirting with young men who look like Greek sculptures, including lovers' quarrels, but it becomes clear in the latter half of the film that making the viewer fed up with the scenes was just what director François Ozon wanted.
Toward the end of the film, Peter keeps chasing the vision of Amir, who has left him like a broken man, and as the sense of misery grows, his daughter (Peter's wife is already dead), mother, and Sydney, his former lover and a successful actress (she brought Amir to Peter) join him to celebrate Peter's birthday. Peter's daughter (Peter's wife is dead), his mother, and Sydney, a former lover and successful actress (she introduced Amir to Peter), gather to celebrate Peter's birthday. ......

Keywords.

When Peter asks Amir, whom he has just met, "What is your dream? Amir replies, "I don't have a dream. I just need to find my place in the world.
It is hard to believe that Amir was merely expressing his true feelings, since he is an unknown young man with a confident appearance in front of a famous film director, and we can imagine that he was planning to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
In other words, Amir had decided how he was going to play himself when he was taken by Sydney to visit Peter.
And Peter has swallowed all of Amir's bait.
The foreshadowing and psychological tactics in this area are elaborately drawn, so that even in the latter half of the film, the viewer can watch the story from the sidelines as if enjoying the suspense, wondering if this will be the recovery of that part of the story.
Yes, it's a vicarious observation.
It is not a setting in which you can really get into the characters, but the exquisite sense of distance that does not make you feel alienated continues until the dark turn at the end.
When I thought of the word "on the sidelines," I realized the importance of Carl's presence in this film.
As Peter's assistant, Karl is in charge of a room in the apartment that also serves as an office.
He silently handles all of Peter's impossible tasks and observes all of the romantic entanglements that take place in his living space, and is perhaps the personification of Peter's "sanity.
The film opens with Karl opening the curtains of his room and ends with him leaving.

Additional Comments

As the title suggests, the film has a bitter aftertaste.
You will again realize the greatness of director François Ozon to convey such a bitter taste so well.
With almost only six characters and only indoor scenes, the structure of the film is exactly like watching a stage performance, with no quotable scenes or look-backs.
The film is structured as if we are watching a stage performance, with no quotable scenes or look-backs, which brings into sharp relief the psychology of Amir, who disappears midway through the film, and Peter, who is bewitched by his illusions.
The story of a man's doomed obsession with a beautiful young man reminds me of Luchino Visconti's "Death in Venice," but in the sense that it is more intense and expresses the psychology of "love" that cannot be depicted in heterosexuality, it is one of the best films of the 21st century. In the sense that it expresses the psychology of "love" in a way that heterosexuality cannot.
In "Death in Venice," Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 was used effectively as a "dramatic accompaniment," and in this film, Peter uses it in order to listen (or dance) to it himself.
In other words, it is interesting to note that the performers as well as the audience are listening to the same music, and that the production requires the audience to be a "participant" rather than an "observer" when it comes to the music.

映画「苦い涙」はヘテロ・セクシュアルを超える愛の深さと恐ろしさを炙り出した「ベニスに死す」のアプデ版⁈