4/5 stars Francois Ozon opens this year’s Berlin International Film Festival in raucous style with Peter von Kant . The French director, who won the Golden Bear at the festival with 2018’s By The Grace of God , which skewers the Catholic Church, is back with the second adaptation of a Rainer Werner Fassbinder work in his career. The first, Water Drops on Burning Rocks , arrived in 2000 – it was just his third feature – and feels rather quaint in comparison to this explosive exploration of creativity, power and loneliness. Taking on The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant , Fassbinder’s 1972 film about a fashion designer and her muse, Ozon twists it on its head. “Petra” becomes Peter, a successful but savage film director played with monstrous energy by Denis Ménochet ( Inglorious Basterds ). Set almost entirely in his quarters, where he is attended to by his silent, mustachioed assistant Karl (Stefan Crepon), the film finds him working on his latest opus, “a portrait of a woman” as he reveals. Visited by Sidonie (Isabelle Adjani), a glamorous actress whose blown-up black-and-white photo adorns his louche apartment, he is introduced to the handsome young Amir (Khalil Ben Gharbia). Before long, he is promising him a role in his new film, a precursor to them jumping in bed together. But as the months wear on, this sets Peter on a rocky path of drink, drugs and destruction. “It’s so easy to go downhill,” remarks Adjani’s character, witheringly. This is Ménochet’s movie, and he gives a titanic turn as Peter Ozon pays tribute not only to Fassbinder, but also his star Hanna Schygulla, who featured in Ozon’s last movie Everything Went Fine and here pops up late on in a crucial role. Ultimately, though, this is Ménochet’s movie, and he gives a titanic turn as Peter. “I feel so alone,” he wails, amid what must be the worst 40th birthday party ever, as his school-age daughter Gaby (Aminthe Audiard) – yes, somehow he has sired a child over time – comes to visit. A word too for Crepon, absolutely wonderful as Karl, who performs entirely without one word of dialogue and yet says so much in a role originally played by Irm Hermann in the Fassbinder version. His relationship to Peter is poignant and tragic, and Crepon – who also rocks several fantastic outfits – plays it to perfection. Death on the Nile: detective sequel is glossy but dull Ozon, with the help of some to-die for costumes and set decoration, has crafted a worthy successor to Fassbinder’s film. Driven by a desperate, abusive, toxic protagonist, in the post-MeToo era Peter von Kant feels unnervingly apt. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook