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.

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.

"Frantz" is a co-production between Germany and France and this also explains (apart from the story) that both languages are included to some extent in this almost 2-hour movie. Unless you are fluent in both languages, make sure you get a set of good subtitles. This one here is the newest work by BAFTA-nominated filmmaker François Ozon, one of France's finest for sure. The lead performances come from German actress Paula Beer and promising French actor Pierre Niney. And with this (already) award-winning film, both show their potential at times. Still, despite the solid performances, I see this film mostly as a writer's and director's piece for Ozon and this is how I would define it. It is the story of a young woman who meets a man with a mysterious reference to her late boyfriend. And with "late", I am referring to the fact that the film plays right after World War I, so over a century ago, and said boyfriend died in combat. But this is just half the film. When the female protagonist finds out exactly who the male protagonist is, it is far from over, but things actually get more complicated. Anyway, I personally guessed there may be a homosexual relationship involved between the two men, but I was very wrong with that. Talking about the main actors, I felt that Beer occasionally looked like a slightly rougher Rachel McAdams and this is also why sweetheart roles will probably never be her thingey. There has to be something dark and soulful to her characters, but that's perfectly fine. Niney on the other hand to me looked like a mix of Adrien Brody and one of the Boardwalk Empire actors whose name I cannot remember right now.

This film is (fittingly with the time when it plays) in black-and-white. However, there are some moments of color and Ozon used these mostly to show a promising, somewhat optimistic moment and when things got worse again or bleaker again, then he quickly returned to the standard black-and-white. It's personal preference how much you like his approach there. I myself thought it was okay without being too overwhelmed by this creative decision. The acting overall was fairly good. German audiences will see a handful familiar faces too, such as Johann von Bülow's for example. As a whole I enjoyed the watch. I was not totally impressed and I would not mention this as one of my favorites from 2016, but the film certainly had its convincing moments. I quite liked the singing in the French pub as this scene made it obvious for the main character to be an outsider as well while, for everything before that the French male character was the one on the outside. And I liked that Ozon did not go for a kitschy happy ending as there were admittedly here and there some scenes that were slightly kitschy already. But in terms of degree and quantity, it is all very bearable. The very last scene was an uplifting one and I guess the director wanted his audience to leave the theater on a positive note with a bit of a smile on their lips and not in a too depressing state, even if he had to sacrifice a bit of realism for a feel-good moment there. But honestly, the film could have become much darker even with the suicide of one of the two main characters that was definitely an option looking at how many times the suicide-related painting was reference. Okay, enough now. I enjoyed the watch and I recommend seeing it, especially if you like historic films about the first half of the 20th century or just German/French films in general. You will not regret the watch in that scenario.