Frantz

At the close of WWI, with animosity toward the French still rampant, a Frenchman visits the grave of a fallen German soldier to pay his respects to the Hoffmeisters, whose son, Frantz, he had befriended. Going to great lengths to console Anna, Frantz’s widow, to bury her grief, their relationship is strained as she fields suitors, though she is intrigued enough to follow the Frenchman back home where he turns out to be something of an enigma that both seduces and repulses her with good intentions. Shot in both color to recapture the pleasantries prior to war, and somber black & white to reflect the healing process afterward, director Francois Ozon fashions his period romance into a quiet thriller similar to Carol Reed’s The Third Man.

[PG-13]