Le Refuge

Total Film “A slight but sensitive study of a woman coming back to earth with a bump...” The narrative’s flimsy, but Ozon’s intimate HD camerawork mainlines Carré’s palpable emotion, blurring hormonal instinct into acting craft for a rounded portrayal of Mousse’s conflicted impulses...

Time Out film“Blessed with a mesmerising performance from Carré...” An intimate contemporary drama that plays out on bourgeois, metropolitan terrain and concerns itself with examining one or two people and their relationship to love or death. It’s short and even slight, more of an observational short story...

Little White Lies“Experimental. Funny. Tender. Quintessential Ozon...” Ozon’s auteur credentials are all present and correct. We get scenes at the beach, sexual tension between characters, sarcastic or deadpan dialogue and clever aesthetic experimentation...

The Independent“A leisurely, bucolic drama...” The film is as much a celebration of pregnancy as it is a drama about addiction and bereavement. Carré, who was herself pregnant during the shoot, excels as the defiant, rebellious but acutely sensitive mother-to-be...

The Telegraph“Welcome authenticity...” Carré, pregnant in real life, gives François Ozon’s film a semi-documentary fascination, even if we never wholly buy her relationship with Poupaud’s gay brother (Louis-Ronan Choisy)...

Guardian“Skilfully weaves suspense out of the mystery of human behaviour...” There is perhaps not quite enough to flesh out a full film in the vignettes between this grieving and lonely pair, and the pat resolution makes it an incomplete pleasure. A pleasure nonetheless...

Channel4 Film“An elegant drama...” Like much of Ozon's back catalogue, Le Refuge has a whiff of the beautifully vacant, but it's an understated, classy mood piece nonetheless...

Variety“Leaves a satisfying afterglow...” If a late twist underlines the rootlessness (even selfishness) of these lives, the fadeout nonetheless suggests a nesting impulse transcending gender, class, even maturity...

Empire“Slight and even prosaic, in the way French odd-couple dramas tend to be...” Lyrical in style and presentation, this drama alludes to serious issues but does not address them. Enjoyable stylistically, but not substantiated beyond glossy advertisement...

The Observer“Not yet reviewed”