Frantz
Music Box Films | Release Date: March 15, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 23, 2017
This new film is exceptional and one of Ozon’s best. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMar 15, 2017
Every one in the film, down to the smallest characters on the fringes, is keeping secrets and spinning lies. And those lies beget more lies and more until the truth is a distant memory. It’s what can happen when life feels too overwhelming and unbearable to face. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMar 23, 2017
It is a cunningly crafted fiction, full of visual artifice and narrative sleight-of-hand, that by the end could hardly feel more sincere. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijSep 16, 2016
The way in which Ozon again uses mirror images, which reveal the similarities between the French and the Germans just after the war, or the way Fanny and Anna come to possibly mirror each other again suggest that a master storyteller is at work. Read full review
90
Screen DailyJonathan RomneySep 16, 2016
Frantz is arguably one of the straightest films Ozon has made – in both the dramatic and the sexual senses – but his complex sensibilities and fine-tuned irony are very evident in a mature work that transcends genre pastiche to be intellectually stimulating and emotionally satisfying. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiApr 5, 2017
The film sucks you in with its exquisite cinematography (shot in lush black-and-white, with a handful of carefully curated moments in color), and a heavy influence of Thirties and Forties Classic Hollywood filming techniques. Read full review
88
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanApr 6, 2017
Frantz contains revelations unrelated to the manner in which it protects, and then peels away, its central mystery. Ultimately, it addresses the question: Why go on living when life itself betrays us? Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMar 30, 2017
It’s a simple, moving story about love, loss and storytelling itself. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 24, 2017
The sources of this happiness become far more complex when Adrien’s revelation is imparted (only to Anna). At this point the movie’s moral compass spins. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnMar 15, 2017
While the entirety of Frantz holds less appeal than its gorgeous ingredients, it’s impossible to deny the sheer narrative sophistication that makes this gentle story much more than your average retread. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 22, 2017
Frantz is the work of a rascal, but a rascal in an unusually reflective frame of mind. Even with its mysteries solved, you can’t help but keep turning it over. Read full review
80
EmpirePhil de SemlyenMay 15, 2017
Ozon’s latest is a twisty-turny post-War mystery — think ‘A Very Long Bereavement’ — that boasts a kaleidoscope of quiet emotions. It unfolds slowly, but rewards patience with strong performances and a swooning third act. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen HoldenMar 15, 2017
Frantz takes pains to show both sides’ lingering hostility after a devastating and (the movie implies) senseless war. Read full review
80
The GuardianNigel M SmithSep 16, 2016
Ozon is often at his best when working with women, and he has a fabulous talent in Paula Beer to bring his protagonist, Anna, to vivid life. She’s stunning in the role. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorApr 6, 2017
A fine bilingual cast, haunting period detail and a provocative approach to a twisting story carry the day. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 30, 2017
Frantz is pleasurable slow going, developing its themes at an amble but with a measure of suspense, sympathy toward its characters, and a lasting faith in filmmaking craft. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 16, 2017
The filmmaker is walking a creative tightrope. How do you resist that? My advice is: don't. There are a few fits and starts, and a palette switch from black-and-white to color. But Ozon is onto something about nationalism, borders and a hatred of the other that's as timely as Trump. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 23, 2017
For a film that moves at a deliberate pace, Frantz grows remarkably involving; Mr. Ozon is a formidable storyteller, as he has previously demonstrated in such films as “Under the Sand” and “Swimming Pool.” Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMar 13, 2017
As Adrien, Pierre Niney is extraordinary to behold: pale, tapered, and flickering, like a candle made flesh. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloMar 14, 2017
Beer and Niney do solid work, but their sensitive efforts can’t quite breathe life into a story that no longer seems terribly relevant. Read full review
67
The Film StageZhuo-Ning SuSep 16, 2016
It’s a heady hall of mirrors that keeps revealing, or at least suggesting new depths and angles. But while this kind of intense creative exercise no doubt deserves respect, ultimately one has the uneasy sense that things don’t really add up. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMay 8, 2017
Frantz is a slightly over-polite and overly careful, and the black and white palette is unappealingly washed out – more like a collection of greys. But the sense of festering postwar anger and pain is strong, and there are intriguing questions here. Read full review
60
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonMar 15, 2017
The savage derangements of grief so guttingly explored by Ozon in Under the Sand (2000), a career-revitalizing project for Charlotte Rampling, are decorously treated in Frantz. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiMar 16, 2017
While it is far from Ozon’s worst movie, it is perhaps the first one he's made that feels like it could be the work of any other director. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMar 13, 2017
The pacing is so humorless and funereal that it squelches the possibility of heat or conflict arising between the characters. Read full review
50
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeSep 16, 2016
Frantz too often belabors the obvious and ultimately blunts its own message. Read full review
50
VarietyJay WeissbergSep 16, 2016
Frantz plays like classic melodrama, and has certain charms. Read full review
40
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 16, 2016
Ozon's Frantz is, sadly, an underwhelming tale of a European union that didn't quite make it, its chocolate box sheen belying the emptiness at its heart. Read full review
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