Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes is a 1999 French drama film directed by François Ozon and released in Belgium and France in 2000.
The film is adapted from Rainer Werner Fassbinder's play, Tropfen auf heiße Steine, which the German artist wrote at the age of nineteen but never directed, neither in theater nor in cinema. Taking place only behind closed doors, the film has only four actors, Bernard Giraudeau, Malik Zidi, Ludivine Sagnier, and Anna Thomson.
Synopsis
In Germany, in the 1970s, Leopold, a 50-year-old businessman, moved his 19-year-old lover, Franz, into his home. Then begins for the young lover a secluded life at home, from where his companion is regularly absent for his work. Despite Leopold's bad temper, everything goes moderately well until the day when Anna, Franz's former fiancée, reappears in the life of the latter, then Vera, transgender, in that of Leopold, with whom she had spent 7 years of her life.