drarthurwells Two drug addicts have a baby but the father dies from overdose. This is before the birth of the baby.The mother manages to get help from someone who provides her a house in a village. She meets a friend, and then later, a one-night stand lover.The mother abandons the baby to the friend. Hopefully this friend will be a good parent, so she can find herself (get high?).We can predict the baby will likely become a future drug addict, lacking in responsibility, like his parents.This movie shows why a nanny-state nation degrades over time - dependency and irresponsibility are fostered by the nanny-state.Many viewers may be emotionally moved by the sad state of affairs depicted in "Hideway", but I see a situation that could have been prevented by a culture that encouraged less dependency and more responsibility in its citizens.

bandw By the time this movie rose to the top of my queue I had totally forgotten how it ever got on my queue and had no idea what it was about. I think this turned out to be fortuitous, since from the very beginning you never know quite where the story is going. Not wanting to spoil the effect for those who come to this cold as I did, I will only say that the main character, name Mousse, is a woman of shifting moods and a woman who remains somewhat mysterious. There are men in her life, but the relationships are not predictable.The filming is interesting. A lot of the movie takes place in the night and I found myself turning up the brightness on my TV to make out some of the scenes. Also, a lot of the scenes are back-lit, or are taken from a darkened room with a doorway or window opening onto bright sunlight. On the other hand there are many scenes filmed outdoors in brilliant sunlight. I could never figure out if this was strictly a director's stylistic technique, or whether the contrasts in light and dark were to reflect Mousse's mood shifts.Some may find the pacing rather too measured, but I found this film to be a satisfying character study. I came away with a renewed appreciation for the near infinite variety of human experiences.

film_ophile While I don't agree w/ Chris Knipp's view that this boiled down to a vague glossy ad....I am thankful that he used words like lyrical and elegance , which caused me to see the movie tonight as part of the Boston MFA's annual French Film Festival. I am a big fan of Ozon. I don't know what it is about him, but I feel very simpatico with his sense of humor,and his gazings and subtle observations about humanity. There is this allowance for space in his serious films, space for the characters to feel and grow, and space for the audience to partake in this. I do not find that space flat or boring; rather, it has me fully engaged as a viewer. In this film I was surprised and very taken in by the mesmerizing spiritual nature of Louis-Ronan Choisy . I have not seen him before and he was quite wonderful to watch.He was so perfectly cast for this role. I have been quite taken in by Isabelle Carre before, but I think it was a shame that her character in this film was not able to play to the ethereal and quite 'saintly'persona she has exuded in other roles.I was hoping to get at least a glimpse of the (in-reality) pregnant Carre with that beatific presence that she can emanate.All in all, the relationship between the two of them, and the scene with her being verbally harangued by the guilt ridden woman on the beach, were enough to make me recommend this film. I found it not perfect;too many things unanswered character and plot wise, but still quite lovely, and it left me with a feeling, a mood, that I am still carrying.

Chris Knipp I.V. drug use and pregnancy don't mix, but that is a fact smoothed over in this chic meditation by François Ozon, who enlisted the actually pregnant Isabelle Carré as the lead. In the prologue, the innocent-looking Emile Berling is the dealer who brings a fatal dose that kills off boyfriend Louis (Ozon's Time to Leave star Melvil Poupaud) and lands girlfriend Mousse (Carré) in the hospital. There, awakening from a drug coma, she learns she is pregnant by Louis. A post-funeral interlude with Louis' posh family follows in which we learn he has a handsome gay brother, Paul (Louis-Ronan Choisy). The parents seem to differ sharply on which sibling they'd rather have given up; the father is devastated by Louis' early demise, the mother feels somehow vindicated. Eventually we get a glimpse at why, though in this pretty film, relationships are more talked about than acted out on screen.Mousse moves to a spacious house in the country near the beach lent her by an older former lover, and here she leads a quiet but rather lonely existence, having groceries delivered by a local, Serge (Pierre Louis-Calixte). Along comes Paul on a visit. Uninvited and at first unwelcome, he nonetheless lingers for a while and hugs, talks, and a visit to an ear-splitting disco follow in which the two bond and details of their lives are revealed. Mousse gets an opportunity to process her relationship with Louis and achieve a degree of emotional closure. However, it seems Paul is a more appropriate parent for her child than she is. Even though he gets drunk a lot, spends his time on the beach, and has a fling with Serge, who turns out also to be gay.Once we've gotten past Louis' and Mousse's empty flat and overused veins in the prologue, Le refuge is beautiful to look at, and its melancholy happens in summer sunlight. It's an upscale, French version of a Hollywood movie, but with the punch-line scrupulously removed. It's just an exploration of themes. But what themes? Certainly drug addiction and pregnancy are not subjects treated in any depth. Using an actually pregnant actress and having various people touch or listen to her belly never keep this from being a strangely clueless tour of expectant motherhood. Mousse periodically quaffs vials of Methadone, but the significance of this for a pregnant woman is barely touched on. One wonders whether, were he not as handsome, suave, and sun-kissed, Paul's presence as a family therapist would be as welcome.Ozon isn't flip or stylistically playful as he is in films like Swimming Pool or 8 Women, or (most of all) Water Drops on Burning Rocks; this is more the serious vein of Time to Leave, and has a feeling that's more lyrical and sweet than any of these, perhaps a bit like Under the Sand. But there is a troubling sense of serious matters alluded to, but insufficiently addressed. Despite reference to such heavy stuff as drug addiction, single pregnancy, and loneliness, Le refuge (doesn't the title itself focus on escape?) makes them all seem too easy, assuaged by sun and sea and a handsome, conveniently undemanding gay man. Le refuge winds up being a vague, glossy advertisement for gay parenthood. In his mid-forties now, the prolific Ozon is moving toward more serious subject matter, but seriousness doesn't always mean depth. His moments of boldness may work better when they're a bit more flip and sassy. Le refuge winds up being flat and obvious, despite its elegance.Le refuge was co-scripted by Ozon with Matthieu Hippeau. After going the rounds of some festivals (it won a special prize at San Sebastian), the film opened in Paris January 27, 2010 to generally lukewarm but not unkind reviews. It has gotten good international distribution and will be released in the US by Strand. It was part of the uni-France/Film Society of Lincoln Center series the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in March 2010 with screenings at the Walter Reade Theater and IFC Center.