Frantz (2016)

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.

Fmovies: 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.

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.

Frantz fmovies. 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.

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.

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.