7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Taking place after WWI, Frantz follows a young German woman who grieves the death of her fiancé in France, and a mysterious French man who visits the fiance’s grave to lay flowers.
Starring: Pierre Niney, Paula Beer, Marie Gruber, Cyrielle Clair, Alice De LencquesaingForeign | 100% |
War | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
History | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English SDH, French
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
It’s probably intentionally ironic that the titular character in Frantz is a German, despite the fact that the pronunciation of his name is almost a homonym for how a native Frenchmen at least would pronounce the name of Germany’s nemesis in World War I, the aftermath of which is the temporal setting of the film. In some ways considerably less intentionally provocative and considerably more chaste than some other François Ozon films (8 Women, Swimming Pool, Potiche, In the House), Frantz has a rather interesting “ancestry”, tracing back to a play called L'homme que j'ai tué by Maurice Rostand (son of Edmond Rostand, who famously wrote Cyrano de Bergerac), which was in turn adapted into a rare Ernst Lubitsch drama in 1932 called Broken Lullaby. Those with an understanding of French may already have a clue as to a major “secret” at play in the subtext of Frantz, wherein a German war widow (more or less, anyway — more about that in a moment) named Anna (Paula Beer) is almost ineluctably drawn to a French man named Adrien (Pierre Niney), who shows up at the grave of Anna’s beloved. A halting relationship follows, but there are both personal and societal issues at play that keep this romance from easily getting to that vaunted happily ever after stage. Frantz is a really interesting effort from Ozon, one which seems a bit more measured in pacing than some of his other work, and one which employs a visually arresting but perhaps unneeded stylistic conceit wherein black and white footage morphs into something approaching color and back again at several key moments.
Frantz is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Music Box Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Kind of interestingly, the IMDb lists this as having been shot on good old fashioned celluloid with Arricam LT and ST cameras, though the actual look of the film is (at times at least) much more reminiscent of modern digital capture, especially with regard to the transitions between the black and white and color elements. Detail levels are uniformly excellent, and the black and white sequences offer good delineation of gray scale. As can be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review, the "color" sequences almost resemble the old Handschiegl process, with some parts of the frame still being in black and white (see screenshot 5), and even those moments without any black and white elements rarely rising to saturation levels most modern viewers will be familiar with. The entire transfer has a nicely organic appearance one way or the other, despite the obvious tweaking the image has undergone, and as usual Ozon and cinematographer Pascal Marti offer some sumptuous framings that offer some beautiful views of various German locations.
Frantz features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 mixes that are about evenly split between German and French (the disc is authored to show German in a disc drive, so that's the language I've put in the specs above). While ostensibly not really very showy, the surround track does have moments of quite excellent immersion, courtesy of both on screen music performances (Adrien is a violinist and Anna is a pianist), but also underscore and a number of outdoor scenes as well as occasional crowd sequences where a wealth of ambient sounds dot the surround channels. That said, this is a fairly subtle track that never really overtly calls attention to itself. Fidelity is fine throughout, as is prioritization.
I'm admittedly kind of fond of some of Ozon's artier tendencies, and stylistically at least they're on full display in Frantz, though as outlined above I'm not quite sure how helpful or even necessary they are. Content wise this is kind of an odd duck in Ozon's filmography, but it has some potent subtext about war and nationalism that helps it overcome some otherwise melodramatic plot mechanics. The film offers excellent performances and the disc offers excellent technical merits. Recommended.
Jeux interdits
1952
Grand Illusion
1937
Jules et Jim
1962
1927
Boże Ciało
2019
2019
1975
1928
Les croix de bois
1932
White Nights
1957
Conte d'automne / Autumn Tale
1998
1954
Un long dimanche de fiançailles
2004
2009
De rouille et d'os
2012
Westfront 1918: Vier von der Infanterie
1930
Баллада о солдате / Ballada o soldate
1959
1959
Le silence de la mer
1949
南京!南京! / Nanjing! Nanjing!
2009