French director Francois Ozon is best known on this side of the Atlantic for his kinky 2003 thrillerSwimming Pool.
Hes got an especially strong talent for showcasing rich performances from his female leads.
His latest import,Frantz, is no exception.
Her luminous eyes and expressive face provide a constantly shifting map of grief, hope, and longing.
Shes a real discovery.
Frantzis set in Germany in 1919, shortly after the countrys defeat in World War I.
Beers Anna was engaged to one of them, a sensitive musician named Frantz.
She now lives with his parents, Hans Hoffmeister (Ernst Stotzner) and Magda (Marie Gruber).
It feels like the three of them are still sharing their home with a ghost.
Then, one day, another spectral figure appears standing over Frantzs grave.
He looks like he stumbled out of the pages of a Proust novel.
Why is there and whats his connection to Frantz?
Adrien claims to have been friends with Frantz before the war pitted their countries against one another.
But its obvious that theres more to the story.
We prepare ourselves for a shocking, tablecloth-yanking revelationsomething like he was Frantzs lover.
But Ozons secret is both less shocking than that and more powerful.
To say any more would risk breaking the hushed spell that Ozons film casts.
But it is the most restrained film hes made in a while.
And those lies beget more lies and more until the truth is a distant memory.
Its what can happen when life feels too overwhelming and unbearable to face.A
