5x2: Cinq Fois Deux, directed by François Ozon, is a character study in which filmviewers are challenged to infer the reason for the divorce between Gilles (played by Stéphane Freiss) and Marion (played by Valérie Bruni-Tedeschi) after a marriage from 1999-2003. More subliminally, the perils of bisexuality are exposed in a five-act story that is told in reverse. When the film begins, the last act chronologically, the two are being divorced by a civil magistrate, after which they go to a cheap hotel room and have sex, with Gilles forcing anal sex on Marion. The rest of the film reverts to four earlier timepoints in their relationship. In the next film scene, they are entertaining at home. One guest is Gilles's brother, Christophe (played by Antoine Chappey), the other his much younger promiscuous gay boyfriend, Mathieu (played by Marc Richman), who arrives late and leaves early. During the evening discussion, the subject of fidelity comes up, as Christophe does not object to Mathieu's affairs. When the question is posed about infidelity of the straight hosts, Gilles admits that they once went to a party that turned into an orgy; while Marion watched, Gilles had sex with both men and women. After the dinner party ends, Gilles speculates that the gay couple will not last but prefers to sleep that night with his son, Nicolas. The scene then shifts to the day when Marion gives birth to Nicolas. Although Marion's parents go to the hospital and argue with each other in front of Marion, Gilles enters the hospital but decides not to see his wife, a most puzzling development. The next scene takes place on the day of their wedding. That night, when the couple retires to the bridal suite, Gilles collapses into sound sleep. Marion decides to get some fresh air, meets an Italian-American (played by Jason Tavassoli), and presumably they have sex, as the following morning she enters the bridal suite to awaken her husband. Is Nicolas's father the American? The final scene takes place at a resort on the Italian Riviera, when Gilles and Marion meet accidentally. Gilles is with his girlfriend of four years, but they clearly are unhappy together. A Sicilian boyfriend has just jilted Marion, so she is alone and sad until Gilles comes along and befriends her. The movie then ends, leaving curious filmviewers with the task of speculating about the reason for the divorce. Certainly, one factor is that the couple has little in common besides companionship and sex, and whatever joy they once experienced seems to have evaporated over time. A second factor is that Marion's parents evidently provided no model of a happy relationship, so she evidently does not know how to make the marriage work. A third factor is that Gilles is bisexual, not only trapped by the constraints of heterosexuality but also jealous of his brother's happiness. With the divorce rate soaring in Western societies, 5x2 certainly poses an important question, but will gay and straight filmviewers really learn anything or just walk out of the cinema believing blissfully that they do not fit the paradigm case? MH
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