Frantz (2016)
Directed by François Ozon

Film Review

A masterfully crafted melodrama that serves as a poignant allegory of Franco-German rapprochement in the second half of the 20th century, Frantz is François Ozon's most accomplished film to date.  Being two years in the making (as opposed to the six months the director usually allows for his films) it is a more refined and nuanced work than we have come to expect of Ozon of late and shows a significant advancement in his maturation, both as a storyteller and as a film director.  Ever since his first bizarre feature Sitcom in 1998, Ozon's output has been dizzyingly varied both in subject matter and quality, so it is probably too soon to tell whether Frantz marks the beginning of a new phase in the director's career or is merely yet another blip of inspired brilliance in an oeuvre of perplexing variability.   

Frantz isn't Ozon's first attempt at a period piece - his earlier film Angel (2007) claims that honour - but it is the first of his films to be shot mostly  in black and white and to have predominantly German dialogue.  The film is a remake of Ernst Lubitsch's little known anti-war piece Broken Lullaby (1932), which was itself based on a 1930 stage play by Maurice Rostand entitled L'Homme que j'ai tué.  Ozon makes some significant departures from the original film, first by making the female character Anna the centre of the drama instead of the war veteran Adrien, and then tacking on a second part to the narrative in which Anna follows Adrien to France to further their mutual therapy and a possible romance.  Colour inserts are included sparingly but effectively, mostly for the flashbacks depicting much happier times before the war.  The transition from colour to black and white is jarring but adds greatly to the impression of overwhelming grief that haunts the two central protagonists as they struggle to put the war behind them.

Bereavement is a subject that François Ozon has already covered, with surprising finesse, in his earlier film Sous le sable (2000), which still ranks as possibly his best film.  Combined with guilt, the death of a loved one becomes an unbearable load to carry, and this provides Frantz with its devastating emotional core, which is beautifully rendered by some sublime writing and a genuinely heartrending performance from Pierre Niney.  Niney is an actor who is presently very much in demand after he won the Best Actor César for his leading role in Jalil Lespert's Yves Saint Laurent (2014), and Ozon rewards him with a well-written part worthy of his abilities.  Impressive though Niney is in this film, it is his co-star Paula Beer who proves to be the film's biggest revelation.  Not only is Beer equipped with a beauty that mesmerises in every shot, she has a gift for engaging our emotions that is remarkable for an actress of her years. How can anyone fail to be moved by the fragility and resolve that she brings to her portrayal of a young war widow hopelessly entrenched in the delusions of love and grief?

Ozon has proven himself to be a master when it comes to playing with the ambiguities and subtleties of human relationships.  The bond between Adrien and the dead soldier Franz (seen only in the flashbacks) is as ambiguous as that between Adrien and Anna.  From what we see it is apparent that Adrien's love for Franz was of a much deeper and more enduring kind than that which Anna can ever hope for with Adrien.  The possibly homoerotic nature of the relationship between the two men is not dwelled on but there are some subtle pointers in this direction, the most apparent being in the film's most devastating scene - which is the linchpin to the entire drama and the reason for Adrien's tortured guilt.  Adrien's likely homosexuality adds a tragic dimension to Anna's desperate quest for love, leading to some moments of exquisite poignancy in the film's second half where the full extent of her bereavement and the futility of her illusions both become apparent.  Both Adrien and Anna have a profound need to put Franz's death behind them, and the question Ozon poses is whether romantic love is the cure or a mere palliative for a heart stricken with grief.  The answer he ventures, in the film's exquisitely poignant closing scenes, can hardly fail to touch the heart and bring a tear to the eye.

Film Synopsis

It is 1919 and the human cost of the First World War is still being counted across Europe.   In a small German town, a young woman named Anna attends the grave of her fiancée Franz, one of the hundreds of thousands of casualties of the Somme.  She is surprised to find a young man by her beloved's grave, his face a picture of grief.  The stranger introduces himself as Adrien, a Frenchman who has come to pay his last respects to a close friend.  Glad to meet an acquaintance of Franz, Anna introduces him to her former fiancé's parents, the Hoffmeisters, and after an initial unfriendly reception they begin to take a liking to him.  Adrien's account  of his happy days in Paris with his friend Franz earn him the Hoffmeisters' respect and gratitude.  But not everyone welcomes the Frenchman's presence.  Kreutz, a fervent nationalist who has hopes of marrying Anna, regards him with suspicion and contempt.  As their friendship begins to develop into love, Adrien feels that he must finally confront Anna with a truth that has being weighing heavily on him since he came to the town.  He knows it will destroy her feelings for him but, for the love he owes his dead friend, he has no choice but to unburden his terrible secret...