Frantz
Dir: François Ozon
2016
****
I’ve been a fan of Francois Ozon’s for some time, although I don’t
always like his films, I love his direction and the certain something he brings
to each of his films. While you can’t accuse him of having a specific style –
his films are all very different – you can see his signature in each of his
works quite clearly. However, there is something just that little more special
with his 2016 drama Frantz. It’s a fairly faithful adaptation of Ernst
Lubitsch’s 1932 film Broken Lullaby that deals with the social aftermath once a
war is over. Both films deal with events after the First World War, a
mysterious French soldier is seen putting flowers on the grave of a German
soldier and is spotted by the dead soldier’s fiancée. After a cold reception
from the townsfolk, the Frenchman is soon welcomed into the home of the dead
soldier’s parents and he gets close to them and his fiancée until he can no
longer keep his secret to himself. Many themes are explored here, more so than
in the original. While xenophobia, regret, remorse and redemption are obvious,
Ozon also highlights the long term effects and also suicide. Edouard Manet’s
famous painting Le Suicide is featured heavily and acts as a revisited
foundation that sets the rather eerie tone throughout the film. On the opposite
side of the spectrum however, Ozon gives the characters, and the audience, a
glimmer of hope. When the characters begin to forget their grief and/or guilt,
the colour returns to the mainly black and white film. The cinematography is
sublime, the addition of colour in certain scenes is beautiful and rather
subtle. While Spielberg will ram the red coat down the viewer’s throat, Ozon
simply suggests a change of tone, like when a clouds shadow passes on a sunny
day. This is not style over substance though, the characters are complex and
speak a thousand words without uttering a single line. Pierre Niney (who was
brilliant in 2014’s Yves Saint Laurent) is wonderfully graceful in his
depiction of the French Soldier and Paula Beer is stunning in her quiet and
subdued performance of the fiancée who falls for her lover’s killer. The two
young actors both understand the power of silent expression and Ozon knows just
how to capture it. I can only imagine how comforting and also how infuriating
Lubitsch’s Broken Lullaby must have been when released in 1932 but I can’t help
but think its message on forgiveness and xenophobia rings loud and true in
2016. Frantz suggests to the viewer that we should accept life’s imperfections
and see the similarities between us and our ‘enemies’ to realise that we are
largely the same. I’m relieved that Ozon kept to the original post-First World
War setting as I think it lends itself perfectly to the notion and narrative,
although there is a refreshing urgency about it that somehow works even though
it is set almost a hundred years ago. It’s funny how a future thinking story,
from 1932, can still feel modern in its ideology today. The balance between
truth, kindness and a little white lie is where I found the film to be most striking
as it never suggests that it is wrong, or indeed for the best. The old saying
‘ignorance is bliss’ sort of rang true, surely knowing something and accepting
it is better than being fooled but it’s certainly not as romantic or poetic,
and where would we be without romance and poetry? The balance of life is
constant, Frantz suggests we keep it so through mutual understanding and
respect, fully acknowledging that we can, from time to time, agree to disagree,
as long as we all promise to live.
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