The year is 1919. Anna (Paula Beer), a young German woman, visits the grave of her fiance who died in the war. There, she discovers fresh flowers have already been laid. A foreigner – a Frenchman, no less – is grieving for the man she lost to a French bullet in an anonymous trench. The opening gambit of François Ozon’s elegant interwar romance invites us to second-guess the story that links Parisian musician Adrien Rivoire (Pierre Niney) to Anna’s late love, Frantz. Colour flashbacks are infused with inviting warmth, which contrasts with the black and white of a reality in which everyone mourns at least one loved one. There’s a pleasing symmetry to this story – lie is matched by lie, journey by journey – and Beer’s silky self-possession is utterly beguiling.
