Melodramatic? Yes, but filled with themes that never age

a mysterious Frenchman doing the same thing.

He turns out to be Adrien Rivoire (Pierre Niney), and claims to have been a friend of Frantz in Paris before the war. Not everything about his story adds up, but Anna and Frantz’s parents eventually welcome the stranger into their home as a way of getting closer to the memory of their lost loved one.

Ozon films the tale in plush black-and-white, with one early scene that bursts into colour as though someone had just opened a window onto a sunny day. It drains away just as quickly, like a man falling into a faint. It’s a fantastic technique that I only wish the director had used more sparingly; by its third or fourth appearance it’s lost its punch.

Anna and Adrien quickly become friends. She and Frantz shared a love of all things French, and used to converse in their “secret language” together, which she now speaks easily with Adrien.

But the townspeople aren’t as welcoming of a Frenchman so soon after the war, and soon Adrien heads home. When a letter comes back undelivered, Anna decides to follow him to Paris and find out what has happened to the melancholy foreigner. She’ll face a similar prejudice as a German in France.

Ozon is wise to retain the original setting; the Great War certainly created longlasting hostile feelings on either side, but without the kind of lopsided blame that accompanied its, er, sequel. And the time period also allows for a certain circumspection in manners, not to mention a more relaxed speed of communications.

That said, the tale sometime becomes bogged down in excessive melodrama; and at least one major plot twist will be clear to viewers long before it is revealed to those in the film. Nevertheless, this remains a lovely story about acceptance and understanding, themes that never get old. ∂∂∂