Theatricality is the name of the game in The Crime Is Mine — for both the characters and the actors playing them. Even when the subject is murder, penury or thwarted ambition, everyone seems to be having a blast in François Ozon’s latest. Based on a 1934 play and set in the mid-’30s, the comedy opens with the image of a red velvet stage curtain, abounds in exquisite art deco flourishes, and is propelled by a screwball zaniness that arrives as a welcome antidote to awards season’s Serious Cinema Syndrome.
Sending up celebrity, the legal system and a medley of movie tropes, Ozon has spun serious ingredients into a zesty soufflé, albeit one that doesn’t avoid a sense of deflation. Led by two relative newcomers, with colorful support from a who’s who of French movie stars — key among them Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon and André Dussollier...
Sending up celebrity, the legal system and a medley of movie tropes, Ozon has spun serious ingredients into a zesty soufflé, albeit one that doesn’t avoid a sense of deflation. Led by two relative newcomers, with colorful support from a who’s who of French movie stars — key among them Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon and André Dussollier...
- 12/20/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Stars: Paula Beer, Pierre Niney, Ernst Stötzner, Marie Gruber, Anton von Lucke | Written by François Ozon, Philippe Piazzo | Directed by François Ozon
A remake of Ernst Lubitsch’s 1932 film Broken Lullaby, itself based on a stage play, Frantz is the latest character-based drama from prolific French director François Ozon. Deeply melancholy and very moving, it’s a proper old school tearjerker, and more accessible than its austere monochrome aesthetic might imply.
1919. Widowed Anna (Paula Beer) lives in Quedlinberg with the Hoffmeisters, the parents of her late husband, Frantz, who was killed in battle the previous year. One day Anna visits Frantz’s grave and finds fresh flowers. The flowers were laid by a visiting Frenchman named Adrien (Pierre Niney). He says he knew Frantz.
The Hoffmeisters tentatively welcome Adrien into their home. Mrs Hoffmeister (Marie Gruber) and Anna are keen to establish a posthumous emotional connection with Frantz via Adrien.
A remake of Ernst Lubitsch’s 1932 film Broken Lullaby, itself based on a stage play, Frantz is the latest character-based drama from prolific French director François Ozon. Deeply melancholy and very moving, it’s a proper old school tearjerker, and more accessible than its austere monochrome aesthetic might imply.
1919. Widowed Anna (Paula Beer) lives in Quedlinberg with the Hoffmeisters, the parents of her late husband, Frantz, who was killed in battle the previous year. One day Anna visits Frantz’s grave and finds fresh flowers. The flowers were laid by a visiting Frenchman named Adrien (Pierre Niney). He says he knew Frantz.
The Hoffmeisters tentatively welcome Adrien into their home. Mrs Hoffmeister (Marie Gruber) and Anna are keen to establish a posthumous emotional connection with Frantz via Adrien.
- 7/20/2017
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
It's April already! We're too impatient to wait for the "halfway" mark for year in review listicles. So why not do it each quarter to encourage more moviegoing? Unlike many critics orgs and the Oscars, The Film Experience believes that moviegoing is a 12 month long activity and each month can hold worthy efforts. Here are 3 (or 4 if we're torn) highlights of what we've seen thus far this year per Oscar category in alpha order. How will they measure up to what's still to come? (We'll hit favorite performances on Sunday or Monday)
Key films I missed in the first quarter that I might try and catch up with later: Cure for Wellness, The Great Wall, Staying Vertical, T2 Trainspotting, United Kingdom, and Wilson
Picture / Director / Screenplay
Frantz (François Ozon, written by Philippe Piazzo & François Ozon)
Future Perfect (Nele Wohlatz, written by Pío Longo & Nele Wohlatz)
Get Out (Jordan Peele)
Personal Shopper...
Key films I missed in the first quarter that I might try and catch up with later: Cure for Wellness, The Great Wall, Staying Vertical, T2 Trainspotting, United Kingdom, and Wilson
Picture / Director / Screenplay
Frantz (François Ozon, written by Philippe Piazzo & François Ozon)
Future Perfect (Nele Wohlatz, written by Pío Longo & Nele Wohlatz)
Get Out (Jordan Peele)
Personal Shopper...
- 4/1/2017
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
(Note: This review was originally published after the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September 2016.) There is exactly one great sequence in “Frantz,” the latest film from modern master François Ozon (“The New Girlfriend,” “8 Women”), and even though it’s a short scene, it creates an impact that suggests that it was the entire reason for the film’s existence. The rest of “Frantz,” unfortunately, is a mostly dreary and heavy-handed affair in which the director (who co-wrote with Philippe Piazzo, loosely adapting a play by Maurice Rostand) examines the damaging cost of nationalism and the toll that war.
- 3/15/2017
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
Frantz Music Box Films Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Showbiz Grade: A- Director: François Ozon Written by: François Ozon, Philippe Piazzo, inspired by Ernst Lubitsch’s film “Broken Lullaby” Cast: Paula Beer, Pierre Niney, Ernst Stoetzner Marie Gruber Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 2/23/17 Opens: March 15, 2017 Not surprisingly, war does something to both the people […]
The post Frantz Movie Review: The performances come across as utterly authentic appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Frantz Movie Review: The performances come across as utterly authentic appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 2/28/2017
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
PARIS -- Organizers of the Festival de Cannes said Wednesday that the festival's artistic director, Thierry Fremaux, has named the members of two selection committees to separately review French and international films for the festival's 57th edition's Official Selection. The committee to select foreign films, which make up 70% of the films to be shown, includes Virginie Apiou, Guy Braucourt, Paul Gransard and director Laurent Jacob, organizers said. The French film committee includes Lucien Logette, Gilles Lyon-Caen and Philippe Piazzo. Fremaux, a film historian, will work closely with the committees, but the final decision will be his.
- 12/18/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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