François Ozon has just released a film freely adapted from a play by German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder with Isabelle Adjani.

A sadistic fashion designer

For his film Peter von Kant, the adaptation of the play Les Larmes amères de Petra von Kant by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, François Ozon wanted to work with Isabelle Adjani. In fact, for years the filmmaker has been hoping to collaborate with the actress on one of his projects, but several attempts have proven unsuccessful. So much so that François Ozon thought that Isabelle would refuse this film. The character of Petra von Kant interpreted by Isabelle Edjani is a beautiful playground for her : she is a narcissistic and sadistic fashion designer, who takes perverse pleasure in humiliating and mistreating her assistant. This twisted and loving love-hate relationship will be complicated by the arrival of a young woman, with whom Petra falls in love.

The film deals with male homosexuality

In Fassbinder’s play and film, it’s behind closed doors, which takes place entirely in Petra’s apartment. An admirer of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, whose play Drops of Water on Burning Stones (2000) he has already adapted for the cinema, François Ozon revisits Petra Von Kant’s Bitter Tears (1972) in Peter Von Kant which will be released on Wednesday July 6 . Its adaptation is based on the transformation of the female and lesbian character of Petra, into a gay man, Peter. The film deals with male homosexuality, an interesting transposition whose subject becomes Fassbinder himself. François Ozon’s transposition of one of Fassbinder’s major films adapted from his play is based on the French filmmaker’s conviction that his German counterpart confided intimately in the female character of Petra Von Kant.

Isabelle Adjani chooses her roles carefully

A claimed homosexual, twice married to women, Fassbinder is ambiguous. What we find in the character of Peter Von Kant, openly gay but also fascinated by his actress Sidonie, interpreted by a resplendent Isabelle Adjani. If François Ozon connects the films, Isabelle Adjani, she chooses her roles carefully. Apart from her appearance in Dix pour cent and Capitaine Marleau, she does little filmmaking: The World is Yours in 2018, Carole Matthieu in 2016, Under the Girls’ Skirts in 2014, David and Madame Hansen in 2012, or De Force in 2011 .