François Ozon directs Paula Beer, Aierre Niney and Ernst Stötzner in this post World War One drama about a Frenchman who visits a grieving German family with hidden motivations.

A lovely slice of arthouse this. Visually intoxicating, achingly heartfelt yet Ozon still gets to play his games. By the end of the first act we still aren’t sure what the Frenchman is planning on confessing? Where he and the titular dead German pre-war lovers? Or did he kill the young man in the theatre of war? Or is he now Frantz himself, warped into the body of the enemy? And then by the end of second act we are heading somewhere else entirely. There’s a fine romance to hook you in throughout but as mediation on loss, guilt, patriotism and deceit this beautiful work excels.

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