FRANCOFONIA – Review

Review by Stephen Tronicek

As an emotional experience Alexandr Sokurov’s FRANCOFONIA holds up better than most films manage. As a narrative enterprise, not so much.

The problem lies in the proposition of a narrative that never really comes to a fruition. The last time that Sokurov made a film about how important the depths of emotion that can be captured in the midst of great art, and history was Russian Ark. The greatness of that movie came from the whimsical disregard for all sense of structure, and narrative becoming just a representation of the history and emotion that the Russian Hermitage represents.

FRANCOFONIA does much the same thing, but goes about it in a different way. It splits its historical, and surreal interpretation of the Louvre museum into two sections of movie playing against each other.

The first is a documentary styled section about the origins of the Louvre, and the effects of the German occupation of France on the Louvre. This section of the film is actually very dynamic and interesting. The cinematography on this section isn’t only tied down to your normal pictured documentary. Sokurov’s camera swings through the halls of the Louvre to show the audience the beauty that he is describing so enthusiastically. Sokurov has always shot art very respectfully, and the result almost gives the feeling of being in the museum itself.

The dramatic section of the film has two men trying to save the art of the Louvre during the German invasion. Sokurov directs the men’s conversation scenes by way of Spielberg (BRIDGE OF SPIES being the most noticeable comparison), and while most of the scenes don’t amount to much they are always enlivening.

The main problem with FRANCOFONIA is that these two sections, though structurally combined, never seem to tonally come together. The story seems like it’s too straightforward for such a complex way of telling it, and the film seems to grind to a halt when it stops to consider the meaning of the museum or explain the two men. Not that any of these “halts” are bad, just that they are quite noticeable as exposition dumps in a film that might have worked better as a flowing tone poem similar to the work of Terrence Malick.

All that said again none of it looks bad. Sokurov’s direction has always been top notch and the aspect ratios and aging of the film that he employs create a wonderfully old fashioned aesthetic for the film. Much of the film looks like slightly colored old photographs, and it’s a beautiful look.

Overall, narratively the two pieces of FRANCOFONIA fight each other over space, and seem to complicate a film that could have been slightly more effective telling one of them. However, Sokurov has crafted a film that is a joy to look at, and speaks emotionally.

3 1/2 of 5 Stars

FRANCOFONIA opens in St. Louis April 15th exclusively at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater