In 1919, French veteran Adrien (Pierre Niney) travels to Germany to visit the family of Frantz, his alleged German friend who died in WW, which could make the audience think that Adrien is suffering from survivor's guilt. According to Adrien, he and Frantz met in Paris, where Frantz used to travel often and where they spent lots of time together.
Anna, Frantz's sensitive fiancee, lives with Frantz's parents, and at first, she's happy about Adrien telling them stories of life in Paris. Frantz's parents after a short resistance find solace in knowing that Frantz was happy in Paris.
However, the townsfolk are not happy about a Frenchman staying in town and about Anna showing sympathy to him.
Halfway through, the plot turns into the "washing of one's conscience by ruining other people's lives", otherwise known as "telling the truth when nobody asked for it", as in a confession appreciated only by the person dumping unpleasant truths to some third party who could have stayed blissfully ignorant.
This ruined my appreciation of the film, but I didn't like it much anyway, first because of the random switching of the photography from gorgeous black and white to color for NO reason whatsoever (whatever explanation they give, doesn't make any sense) and then because I just saw Pierre Niney for the first time as an actor in the awful "Fiasco" and I couldn't get rid of his image as the inane wimp of the series. It doesn't help that in this movie he sports a moustache that makes him look like one of the Marx brothers. Word of praise to Paule Berr playing Anna, she's good, like the actors playing Frantz's parents.
Anna, Frantz's sensitive fiancee, lives with Frantz's parents, and at first, she's happy about Adrien telling them stories of life in Paris. Frantz's parents after a short resistance find solace in knowing that Frantz was happy in Paris.
However, the townsfolk are not happy about a Frenchman staying in town and about Anna showing sympathy to him.
Halfway through, the plot turns into the "washing of one's conscience by ruining other people's lives", otherwise known as "telling the truth when nobody asked for it", as in a confession appreciated only by the person dumping unpleasant truths to some third party who could have stayed blissfully ignorant.
This ruined my appreciation of the film, but I didn't like it much anyway, first because of the random switching of the photography from gorgeous black and white to color for NO reason whatsoever (whatever explanation they give, doesn't make any sense) and then because I just saw Pierre Niney for the first time as an actor in the awful "Fiasco" and I couldn't get rid of his image as the inane wimp of the series. It doesn't help that in this movie he sports a moustache that makes him look like one of the Marx brothers. Word of praise to Paule Berr playing Anna, she's good, like the actors playing Frantz's parents.
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