User reviews

Nations reconcile after war but it is only people who can grant forgiveness. For many, it is an impossible grant that leaves wounds unhealed. This theme dominates the Franco-German film Frantz (2017), a psychological drama about a former soldier's personal quest for forgiveness. Filmed mostly in black and white, it is a poetically beautiful essay about guilt, lies, and tragic loss, set in the between-wars era.

The storyline is shaped by deep grief and national hatreds. In a small German village, Anna (Paula Beer) is grieving the death of her fiancé Frantz who was killed fighting in France. She visits his gravesite daily and one day finds that someone else has left flowers on the grave. A few days later she finds a stranger standing solemnly at the headstone and introduces herself to a brooding Frenchman called Adrien (Pierre Niney). They are soon in conversation and Anna is shocked to hear that Adrien had spent time with Frantz in Paris, sharing a love of music, art, and good times. Anna introduces Adrien to Frantz's parents who bitterly blame all French people for their son's death. As the parents hear Adrien share his grief and his memories of Frantz, a bond begins to form between all of them, at first reluctantly then warmly. But the mysterious Adrien is harbouring a tragic secret. Eventually he breaks down and confesses to Anna with whom a romantic attachment has developed. She immediately shuns him and he returns to Paris. Time elapses and she cannot forget him. Urged by the parents, she goes to Paris to find Adrien where she must confront a new loss and learn about forgiveness.

For audiences expecting an action-driven narrative, there little on offer in this film. The story moves forward in sombre but exquisite monochrome and often tense dialogue that is punctuated by a few scenes in colour as respite from melancholy. The performances of its four main roles are laden with emotion but stops short of melodrama. The principals Paula Beer and Pierre Niney give finely nuanced performances evoking the behavioural norms of the era. All performances are high-wire acts of emotion and dramatic tension: the pain on the parent's faces when they hear stories of their son is palpable and the tense suppression of Adrien's dark secret is electric. Anna's struggle between her loyalty to the cherished memory of Frantz and the possibility of new love is mirrored in the Franco-German struggles with blame, guilt, grief, and hope. As the relationship between Anna and Adrien strengthens there are several lyrical scenes of languid days enjoyed at the side of a pond that are composed like painting masterpieces and emblematic of the artistry brought to the making of this film.

Frantz is multi-layered with intense emotion that is explored at the personal and national levels. Truth is always the first victim of war and where truth fails, lies, promises and secrets take over. Frantz can rightly be described as an art-house feminist film. By taking Anna's viewpoint it encompasses universal themes of agency over victimhood that empower her to move on in her life.

'Frantz' would be the perfect film to be aired by the bilingual Franco-German television station Arte. It's half German and half French. In fact, the film is about how these two countries come to grips with the aftermath of the First World War. There is a German and a French lead character, and both languages are spoken. This is unusual, but doesn't feel strange. The story starts in 1919, with a young widow visiting the grave of her fiancé, who died in France during the war. When she notices a Frenchman visiting his grave, she is taken aback. He presents himself as an old friend from the time the soldier studied in Paris. But little things reveal that this is not the whole story. Soon, the truth emerges and the story takes some surprising and moving twists. Acclaimed French director Francois Ozon has put a lot into this movie. It is an anti-war story, but also a bitter-sweet love story as well as a portrayal of a society suffering from a post war trauma. It is most of all an appeal for mutual understanding and rejection of prejudice. In this sense, the message is now more urgent than ever, in view of the growing support for populist and even racist politics on both sides of the Atlantic. The film is shot in beautiful and stylish black and white, perfectly capturing the elegance of the period. Ozon doesn't need any distracting subplots or flashy gimmicks, apart from the use of colour in a few scenes. I couldn't quite figure out the meaning of this. Some colour scenes are set in a different time frame, others seem to indicate the rare moments of happiness in a time that's full of grief and sorrow. The very last scene captures one of those moments in a wonderful way.

I found this intensely moving in unexpected ways...yes, there were the conventional triggers of war, death, loss etc. but it was so much more complex than that. The choice of black and white seemed appropriate for the period, (other reviews have referred to some scenes being in colour, but I don't think I saw any color whatsoever...maybe I'm wrong) and reminded me of Japanese films made by Ozu which can also portray very deep emotions without anyone raising a voice. This was restrained, beautifully paced, and reflected a time when people held their feelings in, in order not to make others suffer more. I had no trouble finding the events and the behavior totally believable.

The end wasn't what I might have predicted, but it was so much more "right" than anything else could possibly have been. It was the sort of ending a confident director, who knows his characters, would give the audience. In my opinion, a beautiful film.

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.

"It makes me want to live." Anna (Paula Beer)

After viewing Manet's Le Suicide, protagonist Anna asserts her will to live despite the deaths from WWI and especially her fiancé, Frantz (Anton von Lucke). Up to this point director Francois Ozon has kept the mostly black and white melodrama in a state of mourning, relieved by the visit from a French friend from the war, Adrien (Pierre Niney).

A film of such classical pedigree, which was originally made by Ernst Lubitsch in Broken Lullaby, takes its time for dialogue to flesh out the ironies and plot twists emanating from Adrien's visit. His secrets will change Anna's life and that of her guardians, Dr. and Mrs. Hoffmeister. It is a film of depth that asks us to accept life's imperfections and our enemies.

Over all this deep drama lies the allegorical relationship between France and Germany: The Germans do not easily accept this French visitor, despite the fact he has come to honor his friend, because he reminds them of the humiliating German loss from that war (still a very proud people). As Anna learns the true nature of Adrien's visit, like Germany and France she is caught in the struggle of vengeance versus forgiveness.

We learn about the salutary effect of that forgiveness through a confessional scene, where the priest is able to express the hope that Anna can forgive Adrien just as the French must forgive the Germans. It's not a subtle subtext, but it is a powerful theme that dogs French and Germans to this day.

Frantz the movie will keep you thinking not only about the aftermath of WWI, but also of the ignorance most people have about the ones we love the most. Not all is as it seems, but like Anna we must choose life over death while we have the choice.

Although Le Suicide is a fine and pretty painting, life, including a new love, is the real subject for this film and our future.

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.

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.

Broken Lullaby, 1932. Frantz is a remake...sadly without given credit due. Writers please mention from where you get your source? I liked both movies and both movies were well done.

OOPS: Apologies to François Ozon ... (scenario)

Philippe Piazzo ... (in collaboration with)

Ernst Lubitsch ... (movie "Broken Lullaby") Michael Z.

I could watch this movie a hundred times just to see the beauty that is in it. It may be the most beautiful movie I have ever seen. But it is much, much more than that. It is a fascinating historic film about a very important time and place that Americans know far too little about. And it is a romantic mystery. The actors in the film are among the best on earth and everything about "Frantz" is first-rate. But the reason that most people will love watching this film is because it is so full of twists and turns that keep the audience guessing. I doubt that anybody will ever predict how the film ends. After you leave the theater you will realize that the ending made sense, but you will never guess it ahead of time. I fell in love with almost every character in the film.

Not the second world war that is being used as a background here, but the first one. Which means there is no clear line that you can draw and say there are the bad Germans (for once). Then again, the way the behave around a french man who comes to visit a fallen soldiers family ... is really something and I reckon some may see seeds planted for what was about to happen later on in history and in Germany.

Having said that, not all is as it seems and there will be some surprises along the way. Some weird choices but also some understanding. Trying to get to know others and trying to give some people a peace of mind - for better or worse. And the truth is not always setting everyone free - and that ending "picture" ... well that is something beautiful, which is a word that quite a few have used to describe the movie overall.

The Good: Strong, unyielding performances were to be enjoyed by all - especially the ladies, and even more particular, Cyrielle Claire who graces our screens for mere minutes but still manages to demand our admiration all the same. The cinematography, in parts, is tremendous, with beautiful, natural backdrops and framing worthy of a master. The film starts off strong and with great promise; endless possibilities are spread before us, my expectations are rising, my excitement bubbling.

The Bad: The chosen music, albeit... atmospheric, is wholly unjust to the paired scenes, managing nothing more than to yank me right out of the fable's truth and set my mentality on murder-mystery film noir -- which 'Frantz' is not. On top of that, the pacing is all over the place. With the narrative circling itself around symbolic details and rushing past what needed to be a solid foundation for the supposed plot twists, we are being left with a hammered in, fatigued story, screaming out implausibility and limp emotive manhandling.

The Ugly: Somewhere in there, the potential for two really good movies withers away; two good movies we'll never get to see. Instead, we get a discordant approach towards presenting the expected in an unexpected way, with the pursuit focused on a subtly clever and stylish roundup where it should be driving to adequately relate and resonate with the viewer on a sentimental level.

My disappointment: Loss, sorrow, nostalgia, pain, grief, loneliness... I understand the need to develop a thematic tight bound that aims to impress; it's the ever-present creative strive for 'more', always there, always scratching away at the confines of any artist's imagination. But these are topics that don't always need to be brushed clean with refinement.

Borrowing and reapplying the words of T S Eliot, sometimes one's world ends "not with a bang but a whimper".

And that's okay.

First, because it is an Ozon. so, your expectations are well defined. second - it seems be familiar. your memories about "Broken Lullaby" are the basic clue. but, "Frantz" is different. special. surprising. yes, provocative. for motifs out of words. it is a love story. and more. it is a war film. and more. it is the story of a meeting and discover and family and clash between different cultures. and, off course, more. because all has the status of source for new steps on a way without rules, limits and forms of delicacy remaining unique. a film like one of yours memories. seductive. moving. discret . convincing. like an old song . or a flavour. so, an experience. fragil, strange, useful. about force and vulnerability. preserving not only the realistic images of a lost period but, in refreshing manner, its spirit. so, "Frantz". it is enough its title for define each aspect of this, in charming way, film.

It's 1919 in the small town of Quedlinburg, Germany. Anna dutifully lays flowers at her financee Frantz Hoffmeister's grave. She's living with his parents who are still devastated from his death at the front. An unknown Frenchman named Adrien is visiting Frantz's grave. He tells them that he's a friend from their time in Paris.

The black and white look is poignant and sad. There are interesting sections of colour. I do question if the Hoffmeisters would not question Adrien's story. It's obvious where the story is going. There are good moments throughout. The most powerful is Anna on the train as she first witnesses the war damage. The ending has a good helping of understated sadness but I was looking for something even darker. This film is poetic and works fine.

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.

Honestly I only recorded this film believing that it was about a gay romance during World War 1, however, while there was a homosexual undertone regarding their relationship at the beginning of the film, I was not too disappointed when it turned out not to be the case at all because the film was so well made and such a pleasure to watch regardless of the sadness at its core.

Not only was it artistically filmed and beautiful in a sad way, but there was a great symmetry between the two lead characters and how they were shown or photographed. Not only that, but the occasional use of colour to show certain emotions in the mostly black and white film was genius.

The casting was superb, using a great collection of faces that fit perfectly in the era of post war Germany and France.

I wanted a drink throughout the film, but couldn't bring myself to pause it, because I was so keen to see what came next.

Emotional, evocative and thoughtfully put together. A surprise to be sure and a happy one, even if it was not the most cheerful of settings or stories.

I go to the cinema to see often - two or three times each month - 'the better movies and no so commercial movies' and in 2016 Frantz was the best movie I have seen so far this year, by far! The brilliant narrative structure of this movie in black and white and the use of colour just at the right moments is something you should see for yourself. I like also the fact that the German people really talk German and that the French people really speak French. And with the black and with images you can feel yourself dropped back in 1919. François Ozon is such a diversified director. I have seen already his movies Sous le sable, Swimming Pool, 8 femmes, 5x2, Le temps qui reste and Jeune & Jolie. These are all very different movies. And as in all movies from Ozon he always tries to surprise us - viewers - with a twist in the plot. So the story line is never predictable, and in Frantz you never know what will happen next. All the actors we're splendid, and you really could feel yourself back in 1919. And the melodrama is the genre of movie I like so much.

This is my TOP 20 of (new) movies that I saw at the cinema in 2016: 1. Frantz; 2. Magallanes; 3. La Pazza Gioia; 4. An; 5. Juliana; 6. Tanna; 7. Hell Or High Water; 8. Les Innocentes; 9. L'Économie Du Couple; 10. El Olivo; 11. 45 Years; 12. Truman; 13. Carol; 14. Spotlight; 15. The Idol; 16. Slow West; 17. Eye In The Sky; 18. The Handmaiden; 19. The Hateful Eight; 20. The Revenant.

"Frantz" is director Francois Ozon's loose re-working of "Broken Lullaby" (1932), a rarely seen film by Ernst Lubitsch based on a play by Maurice Rostand. The original was an atypical work for Lubitsch, a director known for his witty comedies. "Broken Lullaby" was a serious depiction of regret, and a pacifist manifesto. Between the two world wars it was also timely. 84 years later (!) Ozon is a bit late to join the conversation about Franco-German relations, but his version is going for a universalist spin of the narrative.

I am not altogether against remakes, and if the original film has become obscure, newer re-tellings might bring it exposure. "Broken Lullaby" is a good film, but not a masterpiece, and hence it is a work that could benefit from a well-thought-out second stab by a capable director. However, if the viewer has seen the original, it affects the viewing experience of "Frantz", as Ozon tries to frame it as more of a mystery narrative than Lubitsch, whose film was tied closer to the perspective of the male lead.

The film is set in 1919, in a small town in Germany. A mysterious Frenchman (Pierre Niney) has been bringing flowers to the grave of Frantz, a soldier who died in the recent war. The family of Frantz, consisting of a father (Ernst Stötzner), a mother (Marie Gruber) and a fiancee (Paula Beer), believe the Frenchman to be a friend of their son's, and quickly welcome him with open arms. It is as if they got a part of their son back. However, the stranger has a secret.

The Lubitsch original featured no such element of mystery, as the film opened with a catholic confession. Out of the two, I preferred the way the original told the story-line. That is not to say "Broken Lullaby" is the superior film in every way. "Frantz" is acted much better. The leading man of the original, Phillips Holmes, was very stiff and did not feel the least bit French. Pierre Niney's take in this film is both gentle and sentimental. Nancy Carroll, the leading lady of "Broken Lullaby" felt more like a Hollywood star, whereas Paula Beer of this film delivers a fantastic performance, filled with inner turmoil. The fathers in both films, Lionel Barrymore and Ernst Stötzner, were really good.

The anti-war message is clearer in the original, which is also the shorter of the two films. Ozon tells the first half of the film well enough, but the second half felt less cohesive, as the film also takes distance to the predecessor. I have liked several of Ozon's films, but also disliked many. He is not one of my favorites, as Lubitsch is. "Frantz" has some cheesy artistic choices that water down the narrative. First there is the color of the film. The film is mostly in black and white, as it depicts a world devoid of color because of the tragedy of war. Yet, every now and then there is a happy moment, which brings color to their lives, quite literally. I did not care for this choice. Another silly choice is the music. At times, the soundtrack plays a bit of "Ode to Joy", which is an anthem for the European Union. Thus the film's attempt to unify the peoples of France and Germany becomes anything but subtle. The third issue I had was the choice to name the fallen soldier "Frantz", as this sounds like "France", and would further serve the pacifism of the character. These are choices that a film-maker like Lubitsch would never have resorted to.

"Frantz" was overall a disappointment for me. The idea of a French director reworking a film by a German one fits the subject, but Ozon does not add much to the film, and doesn't have much to say about war and peace, that could be seen as original.

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.

After seeing the trailer I was genuinely interested in this film. I felt that World War I and the immediate post-war years are generally underrepresented in film, and the trailer promised a suspenseful romance/mystery.

My enthusiasm turned into disappointment after the first 30 minutes of the film. Cliché dialogues, which I thought to be a stylistic device at first, just became silly and repetitive. It seemed Characters constantly uttered melancholy lines and broke out into tears seemingly at random. The wooden acting did not help at all. In the end I actually found it quite upsetting that the suffering of World War I was being exploited for such a dull tearjerker.

The themes of European rapprochement after World War I and individual forgiveness had a lot of potential in my opinion, but in the way this film dealt with them, this potential was almost entirely wasted.