In 1932, the great comic director Ernst Lubitsch switched gears to make an agonizing antiwar drama, “Broken Lullaby,” that did not impress audiences or critics and remains underappreciated to this day. Talking about “Frantz” and its connection to “Broken Lullaby” is a bit awkward, in that the premise of “Broken Lullaby” — the essential thing that the audience knows from the first minutes — is made into a mystery in “Frantz.” Both films are set about a year after World War I and involve a young Frenchman who travels to Germany, grief-stricken over the death of Frantz, a German soldier of his acquaintance. Anna lives with the family of her fiance, and it’s a house of grief in a small town that is also grieving, filled with heartsick women and old men — all the young men are dead. Like Frantz, Adrien was a music student, and his stories about friendship with Frantz, in prewar Paris, bring some relief to the family’s sorrow. A sense of loss pervades “Frantz,” one of tragedy that can’t be undone, of lives changed forever, of pain that can never go away. The movie is shot in a glossy but unglamorous black and white, which only sometimes switches or melts into color, either for prewar scenes or brief moments of hope. Ozon creates a beautiful stillness in “Frantz” that makes us feel we are there in the midst of these lives, witnessing the purity of their sadness. World War I was a horror that happened to all kinds of people, every one of them with a particular dream and vision of what life might be.
‘frantz’ An Inspired Reimagining Of ’30s Antiwar Drama
By Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Entertainment
Thu, 03/23/2017 - 3:23pm
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