ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Black and White

Frantz – Is It Ever Right to Lie?

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“Don’t be afraid to make us happy.”

François Ozon’s Frantz is set in the aftermath of the First World War. It is a wonderfully visual film. (It won a César Award (the French equivalent of an Oscar) for Best Cinematography. That may surprise some since most of the film is in black and white (but some of the best looking black and white you may see), with portions of the film shifting to color. There is a sense in which this reflects the moods of the film. The heavier black and white reflecting the post-war gloom, and the scenes with color representing a bit of a return to life and joy.

In a village in Germany, Anna (Paula Beer) mourns her fiancé Frantz who died in the trenches. She still lives with his parents who are also in deep mourning. One day she sees a man named Adrien (Pierre Niney) at Frantz’s grave. She discovers that he is French. He tells her that he was Frantz’s friend from before the war. They spent time together in Paris where Frantz studied.

Adrien faces opposition from the townsfolk who are still hurting from having lost the war. As one local put it, “Every Frenchman is my son’s murderer.” But the stories that Adrian shares with Anna and Frantz’s parents begin to bring joy into their lives yet again. It is almost as if Adrien is a substitute for their lost loved one. Perhaps Anna may even find a chance for love again.

The foundation of the story is the devastation that war brings. Everyone in this story suffers from the war. Anna and Frantz’s parents (and many of the townspeople) grieve the loss of the young men killed in the war. (This is a loss felt in France as well when the story moves there.) For the Germans in general, the loss of the war was a terrible blow to their national pride. Adrien has his own sense of pain that comes from the war that eats at his sense of self even though he was on the victorious side.

But at the half way point of the film there is an important revelation that puts everything into a new light. From that point on we begin to think of the lies that have been told, and the new lies yet to be told. In a world in which “alternate facts” seem to be acceptable to some, we may wonder if there might be a place for lies in the world or if only truth is to be considered valuable. When the truth comes out, it then becomes a question of if that truth should be shared or if the lies should be continued—perhaps even built upon—for the happiness of those who have found comfort in those lies.

Can happiness and peace be built upon a lie? Even Frantz’s grave, we learn, is a bit of a lie. His body is actually in a mass grave somewhere. But for his family, this little plot in the cemetery gives them a focus for their grief and a way to honor him.

When Anna discovers the truth about Adrien, she must decide whether to share that truth with Frantz’s parents. The “alternate” truth that Adrien represents has brought joy into Frantz’s family. Anna is placed in the position of knowing the truth, but knowing the consequences if that truth is known. Should she, for the sake of her family, withhold that truth and let the lie that has been spun continue. Should she make that lie even more elaborate in order to bring even more happiness to those who had found peace in the lie? And what is the burden  on Anna of carrying the truth and the lie as she seeks to move on in her own life? It is easy to say that truth always is better than a lie. But is it?

Photos courtesy of Music Box Films

Bleak Street – And Is It Ever

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The black and white cinematography of Bleak Street sets the mood. There is no brightness or cheer in the Mexico City neighborhood in which it is set. This is a world in which gray is the dominant color. The characters live in desperation and on the fringes of the fringe. There is little or no hope for those who live here—only the possibility (or perhaps the curse) of surviving another day.

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The story revolves around a pair of aging prostitutes, Dora and Adela, who are no longer sent to the busier corners where they could get work. Both have issues going on at home that make their life even more miserable. There is also a focus on a pair of midget lucha libre wrestlers, Little Death and Little AK. They are twins who serve as “shadows” for a pair of full size wrestlers. Little Death and Little AK wear their masks at all time. These two story lines eventually intersect with tragic consequences. Through it all there is a sense of destiny being played out. The characters have lives that seem to have been fated to bring them to this point. From time to time one of them will talk about how whatever happens is what is meant to happen.

I can understand why a filmmaker would be attracted to this story. It is a film that plumbs the depth of human sorrow. It is not about depravity, but rather about the desperation that fills the world in the kinds of settings these characters find themselves. Each has his or her own burdens that have brought them to this point. And the idea of the way destiny has shaped them and continues to do so is a concept that can be fruitful to explore.

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I wonder more about the audience for the film. Certainly those who frequent art houses are used to dark, depressing films without happy endings. But there are not a lot of people who really want to see just how dark the world can be. To be sure, this film has its qualities: the visual use of light and shadows fits perfectly with the story; the treatment of the characters as frail and broken rather than as flawed or sinful. There is an artfulness to this film that many will appreciate. Some will appreciate the humanity of the characters and mourn their fate. Some will ponder the role destiny plays in the tragedies of life. But all who brave this film (and some will see the value in doing so) will journey through darkness that may feel overwhelming.

Photos courtesy of Leisure Time Features

In the Shadow of Women

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“Don’t blame me for being a man.”

What is the cost of infidelity within a marriage? Should it just be assumed that a man will wander? What about a woman? In the Shadow of Women takes a look at such questions in the lives of a young couple. Pierre (Stanislas Merhar) and Manon (Clotilde Mourau) are a pair of documentary filmmakers. They are very much in love. Manon serves in the background as Pierre advances his career. In reality, Pierre is a bit of a slug and in many ways it is Manon who is far more involved in their work.

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One day, Pierre meets a young intern and begins an affair. He likes the idea of having a mistress, but also wants to maintain his marriage. But when his mistress discovers that Manon has an affair of her own, the situation becomes much more volatile.

In a world where many people claim self-actualization as a motive of doing things that may be hurtful to others (or themselves), this film shows the consequences of such an approach to life. The film is not really interested in looking for fault or for villains in the story. It merely shows us what happens and where that ends up leading for all those involved.

It is of note that the documentary Pierre and Manon are working on is about an aging man who was a part of the French Resistance during World War II. That story serves, in the end, for a way of us to see the meaning or deception within relationships—and perhaps may even point out that it is only by moving through deception and betrayal that we can find a sense of comfort that allows us to lead a life of happiness, even if it is built upon the mistakes of the past.

Aferim! – When Everyone Knew Their Place

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“We live as we can, not as we want.”

Aferim! is set in 1835 in the Balkans. It is a time in which the structures of society were clearly stratified. Everybody had their place—and nearly all groups looked down on other groups. For filmmaker Radu Jude, this is an attempt to better understand modern day Romanian society by bringing into focus the history that people often overlook or even try to suppress.

It is a bit of a road trip film in which a constable, Constandin, has been dispatched by the local aristocrat to find and return a runaway Gypsy slave. As Constandin and his son travel to various areas, they have a series of encounters with different people: Christians and Jews, Russians and Turks, Romanians and Hungarians. Each group says terrible things about those not like them. A Christian priest is by far the most prejudiced against Gypsies and also heavily anti-Semitic. Even after the slave is found and brought back, we see the strictures of society continuing to play out in very unjust ways. Jude portrays all these various prejudices with humor through overstating them, but it is clear he expects his viewers to see and hear what is still being said more subtly today.

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Constandin is a man in the middle of competing worldviews. On the one hand, he has been charged with maintaining the order of society. The slave (in more than just running away) has broken that order, and Constandin must bring him back to face the consequences despite the fact that, when he hears the slave’s story, he knows that it will not be justice. All along the way, as he and his son encounter so many people and ideas, it shows that change is in process, but he has been tasked with obstructing any change. He is at times somewhat philosophical about it all, but only on the level of aphorisms that often contradict each other.

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While the near feudal aspects of that society may seem very different than our own past, it should be noted that, in the United States at that time, slavery was still in force. The Antebellum South was in some ways just as rigidly stratified as the culture we see in Aferim! And just as Jude looks back at where his society was nearly two centuries ago to get insight into where they are as a people today, we also sometimes look back at Western or Civil War epics to reflect beliefs and situations that continue on our time. It is important to understand that many of the issues that exist today are the results of ideas and actions from many years ago that continue to influence us for good or ill. It is only by such recognition that we can begin to bring the kinds of change that may be required to make a better world.

Photos courtesy Big World Pictures