Frantz
Directed by: François Ozon
Written by: François Ozon in collaboration w/ Philippe Piazzo - Based on the play by Maurice Rostand
Starring: Paula Beer, Pierre Niney, Ernst Stötzner, Marie Gruber, Johann von Bülow, Anton von Lucke, Cyrielle Clair, Alice de Lencquesaing
Drama/History/War - 113 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 6 April 2017
Written by: François Ozon in collaboration w/ Philippe Piazzo - Based on the play by Maurice Rostand
Starring: Paula Beer, Pierre Niney, Ernst Stötzner, Marie Gruber, Johann von Bülow, Anton von Lucke, Cyrielle Clair, Alice de Lencquesaing
Drama/History/War - 113 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 6 April 2017
Films exploring the consequences and aftermath of World War II, the Vietnam War, and even Operation Iraqi Freedom are aplenty. François Ozon’s Frantz presents the story of a slice of civilians from both sides of the Maginot Line in the year after November 1918’s Armistice. With both French and German characters, shot mostly in black and white, and with commanding performances from the leads, Frantz is a mesmerizing journey in the guilt-ridden lives of those who somehow survived the trenches and those left behind on the home front who will never see their loved ones again.
Frantz is an adaptation of earlier versions of the story. Maurice Rostand authored the play immediately following World War I and Ernst Lubitsch filmed a version of in 1931 called Broken Lullaby. Ozon switched the point of view to Anna (Paula Beer), the distraught German girl who lost her fiancé, Frantz, and he holds firm to the story’s secret until about halfway through. Having never seen the earlier play or Lubitsch’s version, I believe not knowing the secret from the beginning and exploring the lie and its myriad implications are all for the better.
Frantz is an adaptation of earlier versions of the story. Maurice Rostand authored the play immediately following World War I and Ernst Lubitsch filmed a version of in 1931 called Broken Lullaby. Ozon switched the point of view to Anna (Paula Beer), the distraught German girl who lost her fiancé, Frantz, and he holds firm to the story’s secret until about halfway through. Having never seen the earlier play or Lubitsch’s version, I believe not knowing the secret from the beginning and exploring the lie and its myriad implications are all for the better.
Why is a Frenchman, the enemy until just a few months ago, standing in front of a dead German soldier’s grave? He is not only visiting the grave and decorating it with flowers, his body language says devastated and his face shows deep anxiety and tear streaks. Adrien (Pierre Niney) sports a pencil-thin mustache automatically marking himself as an ‘other’ in a clean-shaven, isolated, and scornful German village unready to accept their government’s surrender and subsequent humiliation under the Treaty of Versailles.
That is the general consensus amongst the nationalist rabble at the town center Gasthaus. Others, including Anna and Frantz’s parents, look on with forlorn stares incredulous that some would rather fight on than recognize too much blood has been spilt already. Anna and Frantz’s parents reel Adrien in and beg him to tell them anything about their dear boy; how did they know each other? What was Frantz like the last time Adrien saw him? This devastated German family idealizes Adrien; he heals their shattered psyches with stories of Parisian adventures and violin lessons.
The audience knows there is more to the story. Adrien is far too affected for it to be just his good buddy who died in the war. There are a few plausible explanations and there is a good chance the truth is in your top three guesses. But what occurred between Adrien and Frantz is beside the point of this film. Look around 1919 village life in Germany and there are already the seeds of the spreading nationalism that will surge its ugly head in another decade or so.
That is the general consensus amongst the nationalist rabble at the town center Gasthaus. Others, including Anna and Frantz’s parents, look on with forlorn stares incredulous that some would rather fight on than recognize too much blood has been spilt already. Anna and Frantz’s parents reel Adrien in and beg him to tell them anything about their dear boy; how did they know each other? What was Frantz like the last time Adrien saw him? This devastated German family idealizes Adrien; he heals their shattered psyches with stories of Parisian adventures and violin lessons.
The audience knows there is more to the story. Adrien is far too affected for it to be just his good buddy who died in the war. There are a few plausible explanations and there is a good chance the truth is in your top three guesses. But what occurred between Adrien and Frantz is beside the point of this film. Look around 1919 village life in Germany and there are already the seeds of the spreading nationalism that will surge its ugly head in another decade or so.
Ozon filmed Frantz in East Germany because there are villages that did not need rebuilding after World War II because they were spared from the aerial bombing and most closely resemble the very early 20th century. But why the black and white cinematography which won the Best Cinematography Award at the César’s? I thought the choice was a metaphor about how our outlooks are affected and shaded by our thoughts. Whenever the characters think about Frantz, the war, and the calamity, the film is in black and white. However, Ozon switches to color in a few tell-tale scenes; one a flashback in the Louvre and another by a lake when Anna and Adrien walk and go swimming. They are not thinking about good and evil and war; their minds are on art and a warm spring day. However, the real answer is more pragmatic. The village looked too modern for 1919 and Ozon lacked the funds it would take for authentic production design; therefore, he shot in black and white so the audience wouldn’t notice the discrepancies.
Adrien came home from the terror unlike so many millions of others, but he left a chunk of himself somewhere in a trench. His suffering, integration with Frantz’s family, and the last half hour or so set in France tend toward the melodramatic. Frantz’s parents will cling to any memory of their son they can grasp onto and in a wonderful bit of dialogue directed at Adrien asking him to play the violin, they say, “Don’t be afraid to make us happy.” What a wonderful way to put it. Frantz is really Anna’s story and Paula Beer is spellbinding as a girl at first suspicious of and then comfortable with a French outsider. The duo’s dynamic and the future possibilities of healing or permanent emotional scarring for both of them is a worthwhile story and strong acknowledgement that the prolific Ozon remains at the top of his game.
Adrien came home from the terror unlike so many millions of others, but he left a chunk of himself somewhere in a trench. His suffering, integration with Frantz’s family, and the last half hour or so set in France tend toward the melodramatic. Frantz’s parents will cling to any memory of their son they can grasp onto and in a wonderful bit of dialogue directed at Adrien asking him to play the violin, they say, “Don’t be afraid to make us happy.” What a wonderful way to put it. Frantz is really Anna’s story and Paula Beer is spellbinding as a girl at first suspicious of and then comfortable with a French outsider. The duo’s dynamic and the future possibilities of healing or permanent emotional scarring for both of them is a worthwhile story and strong acknowledgement that the prolific Ozon remains at the top of his game.
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