IFFR 2020 - A Frenchman
IFFRA Frenchman follows Pierre Durand, a French exchange student played by Anton Rival, as he attends Moscow State University to finish research on a famous Russian ballet school. While researching, Pierre finds love, art and seeks out family members lost due to the suppression in the Soviet Union after the war and revolutions since. Set in 1957, A Frenchman is not a history lesson of the time, but a research on the effects of the times, just like its plot. The intent is not to show, but to question.
Information is difficult to obtain since Pierre is a foreigner in Kruschev’s post Stalin USSR. The university and government consistently make trouble. Pierre and his fellow French students rearrange a dorm room to record a radio show. The broadcast is quickly shut down on the basis of taking a speaker off the wall. The headline in the following day’s paper: “Dear Guests, Let’s Not”.
Although school is the main idea, it is love that side-tracks both the film’s plot and Pierre. His fellow affectionate Kira Galkina, a dancer at the ballet school played by Evguenya Obraztsova, steals the show. The narrative can get lost in despair and politics, but immediately lights up when Obraztsova takes the screen. The performance is energetic, only letting her character’s troubles show when need be. The roots of an up-and-coming star are there.
However, A Frenchman doesn’t let a simple star-crossed romance get in the way of its main goal of viewers getting an understanding of the time, as Pierre and Galkina are always hanging out at underground art shows and concerts. The jazz concerts are shot in a medium close-up giving the sense that you’re right upfront soaking in the music. Pierre is stunned by how much art he is shown that he asks, “You have jazz here in Moscow?” with one character replying “We have everything in Moscow. You just have to know where to look.”
Gaining an understanding of what the 1957 Soviet Union was like comes best through Pierre’s search for long lost family. The problem is that this plot point is the weakest. Conversations about wars and revolutions splitting families across the countries sound straight out of a textbook. The editing puts in scenes that can only be explained through being alternate takes. A family member tells Pierre they want nothing to do with him only to cut to the two having a full conversation. It feels confusing and out of place.
Director Andrey Smirvov’s A Frenchman may take on one too many big ideas to be able to go deep into each, but the essence of what it would have been for the people to live heavily suppressed is prevalent. Entertainment wise the film takes a back seat to Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, but those interested in the history will not be disappointed. The film is worth it for the jazz alone.