French filmmaker Franҫois Ozon’s latest film Frantz recalls the mourning period that follows great national tragedies, as seen through the eyes of the war's 'lost generation.' Anna is a bereft young German woman whose fiancé, Frantz, was killed during trench warfare. Adrien is a French veteran of the war who shows up mysteriously in her town to place flowers on Frantz's grave.
In this elegant love story, Ozon’s characters wrestle with deeply felt, conflicting feelings— survivor's guilt, anger at one's losses, the overriding desire for happiness despite everything that has come before, and the longing for sexual, romantic and familial attachments. Frantz was inspired by Ernst Lubitsch’s 1932 drama Broken Lullaby and premiered in Competition at the 2016 Venice Film Festival, where Paula Beer won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actress.
Through March 28th at Film Forum.
