French filmmaker Francois Ozon likes to keep his audience on their toes, and his last three pictures are a good example of how he likes to switch things up each time around. 2012’s comedy/mystery “In The House” was followed by 2013’s provocative erotic drama “Young & Beautiful,” and 2014’s “The New Girlfriend” was a transgender melodrama. And now comes “Frantz” which sees Ozon shifting gears and going black-and-white for this WWI tale.
Starring Paula Beer, Pierre Niney, Marie Gruber, Ernst Stötzner, Johann Von Bülow, and Anton Von Lucke, the story is set shortly after World War I, and centers on a young woman who crosses paths with a Frenchman who lays flowers at her fiancé’s grave. Here’s the synopsis:
Shortly after the World War One, in a small German village, Anna goes to her fiancé’s grave every day, to reflect and pay her respects to her love, who was killed in France. One day, Adrien, a mysterious young Frenchman, also comes to lay flowers on the grave.
“Frantz” will screen at Venice and TIFF, and opens in France on September 7th, but there’s no U.S. distribution for this one at the moment.
