Francofonia
Music Box Films | Release Date: April 1, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 6, 2016
Francofonia is a brilliant meditation on art, on war - and what happens to art when nations go to war. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 5, 2016
As Sokurov examines a pivotal point in the Louvre’s history and gives us a virtual tour of the magnificent museum, he makes larger points about the vital importance of art throughout human history. This is one of the most beautiful films of the year. Read full review
88
Boston GlobePatricia SmithApr 21, 2016
Sokurov’s elegy for Europe — and for art — is eloquent, sorrowful, and challenging. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 8, 2016
Sokurov is a playful philosopher. If his playfulness is sometimes juvenile – as in those Napoleon scenes, or, worse, in the scenes of an actress playing Marianne, the spirit of France, exhorting, “Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood” – at least he’s not stuffy. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid ParkinsonNov 14, 2016
Impossible to appreciate in a single sitting, this masterly piece of polemical filmmaking is as intoxicating as it is intriguing. Read full review
80
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlMar 30, 2016
Skipping across ages and genres, this cine-essay beguilement from Russian Ark director Alexander Sokurov considers the Louvre — and the miracle of the transmission of art and culture across its history. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 19, 2015
Francofonia is a chatty and occasionally brilliant rumination on art, history and death. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 19, 2015
Francofonia is a fascinating essay and meditation on art, history and humanity’s idea of itself. Read full review
80
Screen DailyStaff [Not Credited]Sep 19, 2015
Aleksandr Sokurov’s Francofonia is rich, complex, challenging. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 19, 2015
The mood’s often as fun as it is funereal, and though the film occasionally feels clever in a way that isn’t necessarily a compliment, Sokurov’s ideas have a philosophical depth and richness that are found almost nowhere else in cinema. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisApr 28, 2016
A powerful cinematic essay. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Nathalie AtkinsonApr 7, 2016
“Who would we be without museums?” Aleksandr Sokurov wonders as he narrates this challenging philosophical essay, and sifts materials back, forth and around in the Louvre’s history. Read full review
75
The Film StageTommaso TocciApr 7, 2016
The Sokurov of Francofonia seems different from his usual self — more doubtful, uncertain in his focus, perhaps more open. And the film duly mirrors the attitude of its maker, jumping from one barely formed thought to the next, tracking back, mixing things up, like we all do while visiting a museum, and letting distraction get the best of us for a minute. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldApr 7, 2016
Blending archival footage, actor re-creation and special effects (sometimes all in the same shot), [Sokurov] creates a sense of specific place and time — and, in doing so, crafts a sort of cinematic ode to art. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comAlissa WilkinsonApr 7, 2016
For Francofonia, Sokurov returns to the art museum, but perhaps taking a cue from its Parisian setting, this film wanders like a flâneur between past and present, traversing space and history, crossing from fiction to nonfiction and back. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineSean NamMar 28, 2016
For all its congratulatory spirit, the film has the persistent feeling of an elegy bidding adieu to a bygone time. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenApr 14, 2016
Sokurov's open-ended Eurocentric meditation is, above all, a stunning visual achievement. The fluency with which he combines the pixels, ghosts and artifacts is extraordinary, and his deft use of drone footage is a lesson to many gadget-happy filmmakers. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMar 31, 2016
It’s a work of art that troubles the conscience, in part because it suggests, both by default and by design, that no art is innocent, and that its preservation, like its destruction, depends on the operation of power. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMar 28, 2016
When I first saw the movie, at a festival, it wavered on the brink of the precious. That changed on a second viewing. Most of Francofonia now seems tender, stirring, and imperilled. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungSep 19, 2015
The subject of Francofonia is art as the spoils of war, and the example he gives is the period when the Louvre – called at one point “the capital of the world” – came under Nazi control. Making the barest hint about the destruction of historic artworks in Syria at the hands of ISIS, Sokurov gently reminds the viewer why all this is terribly relevant today. Read full review
70
VarietyJay WeissbergSep 19, 2015
Does it all come together? Well, yes, if viewers think of the film as a freewheeling poetic essay, highly personal yet captivating. Read full review
60
Total FilmKate StablesNov 8, 2016
The portentous narration, restless visuals and whimsical ghost characters (an unexpected Night at the Museum-style Napoleon) combine to make a thoughtful case about the inevitable interweaving of art and war. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMar 30, 2016
Less fluid than "Russian Ark," Francofonia is even harder to pigeonhole, which is something of a feat. Read full review
50
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeMar 31, 2016
Most of the film, while handsome to look at, doesn’t rise above this level of obviousness. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMay 5, 2016
The director Alexander Sokurov is a visual virtuoso. So it’s odd, not to mention a bit disappointing, to find that the Russian filmmaker’s latest project, Francofonia, is so talky and, with rare exceptions, visually dull. Read full review
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