Water Drops On Burning Rocks

Water Drops On Burning Rocks

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Editorial Reviews

Leopold, a smug, still-hunky 50-year-old businessman, picks up and seduces fresh-faced, carrot-topped 19-year-old Franz who swiftly moves into his bachelor pad. Their cozy relationship soon sours as Leopold, a kind of gone-to-seed Dirk Bogarde, turns cranky and argumentative. When Franz's buxom blond girlfriend surfaces, and then Leopold's elegant and enigmatic ex, things get funnier, steamier and a lot more complicated. Set in Germany in the '70s, and brilliantly adapted from a play by the great R.W. Fassbinder, by one of France's most daring and innovative new directors, WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS is fraught with intimations of violence, betrayal, and sexual shenanigans run amok.

Customer Reviews

Depressing and depraved.

Reviewed by J. Martin, 2009-03-04

This was a hard one not to like, because Malik Zidi is one of the most appealing men I've ever seen anywhere. If the movie had ended after the first half hour, I would have given it at least four stars just because of him. But the rabid, mean-spirited homophobia that drives this movie (and I assume the Fassbinder play it was based on) to its thoroughly depressing and depraved conclusion just becomes unbearable. Technically it's very well made, and I'm grateful for discovering Zidi, but I wish I'd never watched this depressing, hateful movie.

about this DVDfilm/movie water drops on burning rocks.......

Reviewed by Ang Poon Kah, 2008-12-13

This film story is basically about a young man hintersted in an older man where they praticed gay sex and later in the film where their woman came to find them and the later the yong man's woman praticed sex with the older man and he killed himself due to the yong man troubled and unhappy over the older man's reaction to their man to man's relationship...that's all....I views this film based on the hongkong's version and give this film a 3 star due to the fact that this film is talking about deviant type of loveship.

Water Drops On Burning Rocks

review written by:


Dr, MR Franc MBBS (PhD) GPS Ang Poon Kah
director 'lou ye'- Ang Poon Kah for film summer palace.

Strange but Brilliant

Reviewed by Amos Lassen, 2008-05-07

"Water Drops on Burning Rocks"

Strange but Brilliant

Amos Lassen

In Germany of the 70's, Leopold, a 50 year old businessman, meets Franz, a 20 year old and Leopold invites him over. A love affair begins until one day a matter of little importance leads to a difference of opinion and what was is no more.
The movie is based on a play by Fassbinder that had never been filmed and here is directed by Francois Ozon. It retains its theatrical structure and the dialog takes the viewer in from almost the first word. Leopold is a self-indulgent and persuasive bi-sexual who restructures the lives of three people when he introduces them to new sexual adventures. First is Franz, the 20 year old who is thinking of marrying his girlfriend, Anna. He became confused about love when he had a homosexual dream which Leopold is glad to recreate for him after the gets the inexperienced Franz into bed. Next is Anna who is overwhelmed at Leopold's advances on her. Finally there is Vera who is now a woman but had once been a man and was once Leopold's lover. Leopold always quested for novelty and he feels what each victim desires and he is ready to help them.
Each of the actors is excellent but it is a bit hard to tell what the director wanted to say here.
The film is wonderfully well done even though it is not meant to be realistic. Despite its minimalism, it is hard not to be taken in by the film. The dialog is enchanting and the atmosphere is certainly palpable. The characters act in mysterious ways and it is impossible what is going to happen next.
From the opening sequence the film is full of sexual tension. In fact, the entire movie takes place within the same four walls which gives an intimate feeling. Even though Ozon directed the film, Fassbinder is totally evident here. The movie is odd but charming and to not enjoy this film would being a void to your cinematic fun.

Campy surface with murky depth

Reviewed by J. Kara Russell, 2006-11-06

I watched this film because I am a fan of Ozon's quirky, witty, surprisingly deep work. As some have mentioned, this bears some similarity to 8 WOMEN, but this actually works better, due to a more complex script. (Ludivine Sagnier, of the boyish face and the hottie-girl body, played the tomboy in that.)
Every element here works on a level of being both interesting and stomach-turning. This is one of the very few works I have ever seen that captures the reality of the "free love" 70s; that it really only "worked" for those who were heartless users willing to play games with other people's lives for their own fleeting desire.
Ludivine Sagnier, is not at her acting peak here, and part of what is stomach turning is that she is so beautiful, but possibly underage when she shot this film... (she was 20 when it was released), it completes the "outside looking in" voyerism of the film. The patently absurd casting of the mysterious lady with a very female, if enhanced, beauty (Anna Levine) completes the kind of fantasy where people enmeshed in a menage a quatre could stop to take a break to dance.
Exceptionally fine performances by Levine and the young male lead take this frothy sexcapade into much deeper territory (but not 1/2 so deep as SWIMMING POOL which is brillant). Vintage Ozon.

Ozon Updates Fassbinder in an Edgy Ménage a Quarte

Reviewed by Grady Harp, 2005-08-25

François Ozon has flair and style ('Swimming Pool', 'Under the Sand', '8 Women', etc) and in scripting Rainer Fassbinder's 1970s play 'Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes' for the screen he has created an edgy, fun, and poignant examination of the lives of four people at their intersection.

Act I (for that is the way the film is laid out in homage to Fassbinder's play): 50-year-old Léopold (Bernard Giraudeau) is entertaining 19-year-old Franz (Malik Zidi), who he has picked up in a bar, with sharp repartees about his past loves and is sparred by Franz relating his current affair with the young and beautiful Anna (Ludivine Sagnier). The conversation gradually gets around to seduction and both Léopold and Franz happily reenact each other's physical fantasies. Act II: some months later and Franz has moved in with Léopold becoming the devoted housewife in lederhosen to Léopold's increasingly cranky self. They argue, threaten, but eventually succumb to the safety of the boudoir to settle differences. Act III: Léopold's ex lover Vera (Anna Levine) arrives at the door to find Léopold in a new life and departs brokenhearted. Anna likewise arrives during one of Léopold's absences and for two days Franz and Anna try to recapture their previous affair. Upon Léopold's return, Anna finds Léopold appealing and behaves seductively. Vera arrives, reports that she is a transsexual now in a female form, and Léopold is delighted with the idea of a ménage a quarte. But it is Franz who has found his true life and love and how he deals with the proposed turn of events forms the rather surprising end to this film.

Each of the four actors is excellent and Ozon paces them well. There are some really fine moments, as when Franz reclines in his bath quoting Heine's poem 'Lorelei' revealing how far more penetrating the changes in his vision of his life really have become, when Ozon improves on Fassbinder. Not a great movie but a bit of the different that spices movie viewing. Grady Harp, August 05