When I first saw this movie, I didn't take the name of François Ozon, so there was no presupposition.
On a cold spring night, watching a gloomy and cold black and white movie, accompanied by the light rain outside the window, is perfect.
We, who have been bombarded by 3D and 4K, are far away from the world of black and white, and at first glance, it is very uncomfortable.
But slowly, I will gradually fall in love with this style - the original colorful world is converted into three shades of black, white and gray, and the texture and level of the composition can be appreciated through the difference in brightness, which gives the viewers ample room for imagination. , so as to return to the picture itself and pay attention to the emotions of the characters.
I have to say that the temperament of Paula Bell , who plays the heroine Anna , fits perfectly with the base color and tone of the film.
The first half of the movie is addicting.
A cold and melancholy woman in black, holding a pot of white flowers, walked alone. She walked all the way through the stone streets of a small German town that had been going through a hundred years, walked past the noisy market, walked past a young veteran who lost his arms due to the war, and walked all the way to the tomb of her deceased lover who was never seen again. Solitary.
It was not until she found that someone had offered flowers that her eyes began to light up and become vivid.
The suspense also started from here.
A Frenchman who was incompatible with Germany, who had not healed from the defeat, suddenly appeared in this small German town, first in front of Franz's tomb, and then directly broke into the home of Franz's parents, and also broke into Anna's life.
The silence, dullness and gloom of the young French Adrian at the beginning is puzzling. Under the inquiry of Franz's mother, he first admitted that he was Franz's French close friend, and then sketched a beautiful picture of Franz wandering in the Paris art palace.
These memories are deadly, and Franz's parents, who have lost their children, are helpless, and so is Anna. Everything related to Franz is a lifeline for a poor man struggling in the sea, let alone a living person?
And Adrian and Franz are so similar - the same sensitivity and delicacy, the same love for literature and art, and they can play a beautiful violin. For Anna, it was overwhelming, and the empathy happened naturally.
Likewise, the kind Franz parents are so in need of consolation that they even cast aside their hatred for the French, regard Adrian as a substitute for their son, and encourage Anna to approach Adrian.
Remarkably, at that perfect ball, we also saw the restraint of the Germans at the same time.
However, when the violin drifted and echoed again in this once warm and happy home, Adrian broke down.
In the face of Anna's questioning about his missed appointment, Adrian told the heartbreaking truth.
At this point, the film has reached a climax, and everything that was unreasonable before has been solved.
The audience burst into tears, and Anna was forced into a dead end in her life.
She could no longer find a reason to continue living.
In the small German town in the first half of the movie, the war is still pressing on everyone's heart like a boulder - the war is over, but the battle in people's hearts continues. Pain, humiliation, anger, grief, intertwined and collided, followed by a deafening reflection:
your son, your son, and your two sons, and my son,
Who sent them to the front? And who put the guns and bayonets into their hands?
It's us! It's their fathers...
Whether it's on our side or the enemy side, it's us who should be held responsible.
We are here to raise our glasses to celebrate our victory when we killed their son. When our son was killed, they were also toasting their victory.
And what we fathers toast to is our own dead souls.
The second half of the film is perfectly symmetrical with the first half in terms of scene, narrative and plot development.
After a long journey, Anna finally sat in a Parisian bistro. Just as she was writing a letter to Franz's parents, several French soldiers walked in, and the air immediately filled with a different smell. As a victorious country, the tragic and national pride of the French instantly burst. It is worth noting that even if some people were silent and some people frowned, in the end, most of them stood up and sang "Marseilles" together.
Anna observed all this in surprise, and there was a trace of panic and embarrassment in her eyes. She is like an outlier, just like Adrian who has just entered Germany.
Later, Anna went to the Louvre to see the famous painting "Suicide" by Manet. However, this masterpiece originated from a story made up by Adrian, but it had nothing to do with Franz.
At this moment, what she was looking for was not Franz's Paris, but Adrian's Paris.
After going through a grass snake and grey line, Anna finally arrived at the Adrian family's villa in the countryside.
The reunion is a pleasant surprise, especially for the fragile and sensitive Adrian, which proves that Franz's parents and Anna himself have forgiven him, and he can finally lose his identity as a murderer.
Abandoning her self in Paris and returning to her mother's house to be a new mother's treasure, Adrian demands a psychological redemption.
But that's not a good thing for Adrian's mother, who sees everything. She knows that a forgiveness does not require a long journey. It is either obsession, like Adrian going to Germany to apologize, or love, like Anna standing in front of her.
Reluctantly stayed overnight, but the atmosphere of the dinner was completely different from Adrian's at Franz's house. The light-hearted ridicule of those wealthy French gentry watching the war, and the arrogance of the victor, made it hard to eat.
And of course, because of Fanny.
Anna's piano finally broke down, just like Adrian who played the violin at Franz's house, she couldn't hold it any more, and hid her face.
And Adrian chased into the house just to tell Anna that if you want to leave, please leave in the morning...
At this point, a selfish, weak, hypocritical and ruthless Adrian, finally tore off the last fig leaf.
His so-called redemption is actually a secondary injury to the victim's family.
Just like the Treaty of Versailles after the war, the compensation that the French demanded will eventually lead to more tragic consequences, and they will pay for everything they own.
But Anna, who had died twice, wiped away her tears and chose to live before she came to Manet's painting again.
He lives and will live...
In the black and white tone of the whole film, there are several vivid color shots, but without exception, they are all lies, fantasies and memories. Does this also confirm the old saying,
Sigh life, unhappy things, ten times eighty-nine......
But what is thought provoking is, does the rest of life depend on lies, fantasies and memories to support it?
Throughout human history, we have always been in struggles, contradictions, struggles and repetitions. The most hateful thing is that we can never escape the tragic fate of "getting healed and forgetting the pain" , but it is also the tragic fate that runs through the entire film. Poetry, music, and painting have given mankind the strongest vitality in the humble destiny, just like the movie itself.
Franz is a work that "lives and will live" .
Only in the humus will splendid flowers bloom. To live, maybe, there is no need for a reason.
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