Frantz

It is 1919 and a young French man arrives in a little German village and puts flowers on the grave of a victim of the First World War. What was the relationship between the French man and the dead German? What shall be the relationship between the Franch men and the fiancee of the dead German? These are the central questions in the film "Frantz" by Francois Ozon. The first question is answered roughly halfway, the answer to the second question remains uncertain until the very end.

Up till now I had only seen "Huit femmes" (2002) and "Swimming pool" (2003) of Francois Ozon, and with the First World War drama "Frantz" Ozon goes "for something completely different" to use this Monty Python phrase.

The story behind "Frantz" was adapted earlier by Ernst Lubitsch in "Broken lullaby" (1932). "Frantz" is however not a remake of this film, if only because Ozon telles the story from a different perspective. The German Lubitsch takes the young Frenchman as his main character (Adrien played by Pierre Niney in "Frantz") The Frenchman Ozon takes the German fiancee as his main character (Anna played magnificently by Paula Beer).

This change of perspective is however not the only and not the most important difference between the two films. In "Frantz" Ozon takes a more complicated (but not necessarily negative) stance on the value of white lies versus the truth. In an interview about "Frantz" he says that behind each lie there is a desire.

In contrast with "Broken lullaby" "Frantz" was made well after the Second World War. Ozon had therefore knowledge about the relationship between the peace treaty of Versailles, ending the First World War, and the outbreak of the Second World War. The scenes showing remaining virulent nationalism are in this respect very disturbing.

"Frantz" is shot mostly in black and white, but some scenes are in color. In such a case I can't help to ask myself if there is a logic behind these choice. During the film I found none. In the above mentioned interview Ozon told that the emotionally more optimistic scenes (the film is about two persons damaged by the war and trying to pick up their lives again) are in color.

This is a story about how lying can be a good thing, a compassionate thing. When the female lead, Anna, goes to confession about her lies concerning her encounter with a Frenchman who seems to have known her dead finance, a victim of WWI, the priest in her German town tells her that her lies were totally forgiveable because they were meant well. This sounds simple, but the story is also about the aftermath immediately following WWI and the French and German feelings about one another's country and people. A film which begins perhaps in a mediocre way but becomes increasingly affirmative with the development of the plot.

This movie threw me for a loop. It got a good review in the newspaper I read, and a friend invited me to go with her friends, so I did. I was not expecting to be overwhelmed by one of the very finest, most beautiful movies I have ever had the good fortune to see.

To begin with, this movie repeatedly throws you for a loop. You are sure you know where it's going - or at least I was sure - only to discover that you were wrong and the characters have something else in mind. I can't explain any of that without spoiling it for you, which I won't, but suffice it to say that this movie is full of surprises.

It is also full of great acting. Understated, yes, but very great nonetheless.

And the photography, often black and white, is wonderful.

It's hard to write much about this movie without spoiling it for those who have not seen it yet, which I most certainly do not want to do.

So I will close by saying that I sat entranced through the whole thing - and that is no exaggeration. If you enjoy great acting beautifully photographed and directed, you will love this movie.

At the grave of her fiancé, Anna is startled to find a strange foreigner overcome with emotion. Anna's curiosity leads her to find out more about this stranger, and deeper still as she begins to understand the nature of his visit. It concerns forgiveness and sympathy for the lives of others, yet also cowardice, suffering, war and dark secrets. A similar mix of emotions swirls within and around Anna. Lies as well as truths are revealed. It becomes difficult to tell one from the other. Anna and the foreigner, Adrien, attempt to reconcile the truths with the lies, and the light with the darkness. This is done not merely through words, but with the way the wind moves through the trees, chords of the piano and violin, an unexpected swim, a beautiful view from a hill top, and more.

Part of the magic of the film is in the way it reveals how we are all as vulnerable as Anna and Adrien. There are dark secrets in all of us that may be turned to love, or perhaps other way around.

Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon obscured by mist, I felt a wave of emotion as the fog lifted and I could see the whole chasm – a mile deep and ten miles across, open in all its color and depth before my eyes. I felt a similar wave of emotion as this film shifted back and forth from black and white to color. Later I talked with a couple who disagreed. They thought the color shifts were too obtrusive and told them what to think. Yet good story tellers, as Ozon surely is, will toy with emotions in this way. I thought the shifts and cinematography were wonderful. The film characters are appropriately complex. The plot takes intriguing twists and turns. Themes include an anti-war element that Ozon deals with subtlety and adeptly. He doesn't rub our faces in it. The film is set in Germany and France in the aftermath of World War I, yet the themes are just as poignant today. The war is over, didn't you hear?! Languages and settings shift between German and French. Seen at the Miami International Film Festival.

Look, I'm not that guy to write reviews of movies online, and I'm not that guy to watch a love story with subtitles. But quite by happenstance I watched this film, and I was blown away. I didn't think I was going to make it at first, to be honest, due too the pace. But Paula Beer (whom I've never seen before this movie) kept me watching. What a great actress for this role! By the movie's end I was wishing for more, begging the movie not to end. I sat and stared at the credits' scroll (words I couldn't understand in French) and listening to the music. It's that good that I stared in awe at the credit scroll!

I'll now go back to watching Mission Impossible and Bourne movies (more my style), but I'll always remember Frantz, and a part of me will always wish that I could experience it again for the first time.