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et de quoi confirmer la belle initiative, due à Carole Aurouet, de fêter le “Cinéma des poètes”, êtres qui habitent en fins connaisseurs l’intervalle séparant la page de la pellicule, l’encre de la lumière. Johns Hopkins University (MD) Derek Schilling Ozon, François, réal. Frantz. Int. Pierre Niney, Paula Beer, Ernst Stötzner, Marie Gruber. Music Box, 2016. As France and Germany rebuild their cities in the aftermath of the Second World War,Adrien Rivoire, a young French soldier, travels to Germany to beg forgiveness for the death of one particular enemy soldier, Frantz. In Ozon’s (mostly) black-and-white film, the spectator is witness to a subtle journey from despair to hope as the characters reconstruct their lives and find purpose. The film follows Anna, Frantz’s fiancée, and Adrien Rivoire, the French soldier, as they seek peace after the death of Frantz. Unsure of how to introduce himself to Anna and Frantz’s parents, the Hoffmeisters, Adrien allows them to believe that he is an old school friend of Frantz’s from before the war. After gaining Anna’s affection, Adrien confesses to Anna that he killed her fiancé, Frantz, during the war. Anna hides this information from the Hoffmeisters and only forgives Adrien after she realizes that she loves him. Anna finds further heartbreak when she travels to France and finds Adrien engaged to another woman. Anna once again hides the truth from the Hoffmeisters, allowing them to believe that she has found happiness with Adrien in Paris. The majority of Adrien and Anna’s relationship is filmed in black-and-white. However, there are several moments when Ozon uses a transition to color to convey a change in Anna’s emotional state. Each of these instances represents a moment of peace and contentment for Anna, the first of which takes place as Adrien recounts his fabricated friendship with Frantz to the Hoffmeisters. Subsequently color appears when Anna spends the day with Adrien in Germany and again when she plays the piano with him in France. In these moments of color, Anna is able to escape the sadness she lives daily. In contrast to the moments of color and happiness, Ozon uses images and acts of suicide to set up a juxtaposition between joy and despair. One such reference is found within the first transition to color, which serves to solidify the association from the beginning. At one point, after Adrien’s confession, Anna attempts suicide, which conveys to the spectator the profound sadness and isolation that she feels. Viewing the remainder of the film through the lens of this suicide attempt, the spectator expects a devastating ending for Anna. However, through his use of color throughout the film, Ozon is able to raise the spectators’ hope for happiness for Anna in the end. In the last moments of the film, Anna sits in the Louvre staring at a painting of a man who has committed suicide. When a young Frenchman asks her what she thinks of the painting, she responds that it makes her want to live. As she confesses a desire for life, the film transitions one 244 FRENCH REVIEW 91.4 Reviews 245 last time to color. Intertwining despair and suicide with joy and color, this film is an absolute pleasure to watch. It leaves the spectator anxious to see what Ozon will do next. New Manchester High School (GA) Ann Marie Moore Powrie, Phil. Music in Contemporary Cinema: The Crystal-Song. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. ISBN 978-3-319-52361-3. Pp. 273. Aux lecteurs croyant que voici un travail sur le cinéma: il est surtout un hommage à la chanson et aux frissons qu’elle provoque en nous lorsqu’elle apparaît sur la bande son des films français. Et pourtant, l’auteur l’inscrit dans la catégorie des études de film et son approche est ancrée dans les études culturelles et de genre. Le corpus cinématographique analysé est immense, comptant environ quatre cent films, et vise avec prédilection les productions récentes (la majorité datant d’après 2001) et thématiquement diverses, à l’exclusion du musical...

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