FRANCUZ ( A Frenchman) directed by Andrej Smirnov. (Russia, 2019)
This film was presented on day two of this years Trieste Film Festival of Central and Eastern European cinema. It is set in 1957 and follows the fortunes a handsome young Frenchman Pierre Durand (Anton Rival) after moving from Paris to Moscow for an internship. He is studying literature but is also there to resolve a family mystery. His background means that he is fluent in French and Russian. Director Andrej Smirnov says “I decided to show this moment through a foreigner’s eyes [someone] who would have an objective look at our reality.”
Pierre falls in love with a beautiful but aloof ballerina Kira Galkina and meets a hyperactive photographer Valera Uspenskiy. They show him the underground culture of the city rooted in American models that exists in defiance of rigid state censorship rules that are still dominated by the former Stalinist regime.
Pierre + love interest
The authorities are constantly vigilant , looking for any hints of anti-soviet propaganda. Pierre, as an outsider, is constantly viewed with suspicion. However, apart from a going to Jazz clubs, visiting the homes of modernist painters and drinking vodka with dropouts, he maintains a relatively respectable appearance. Although he is a member of the French Communist Party, he doesn’t come across as a rebel with a cause.
The luminous black and white photography and overall sense of style prompted the film festival programmers to allude to the Nouvelle Vague movement of the 1960s. This comparison seems to me to be fairly wide of the mark. ‘A Frenchman’ has more substance than style in that it highlights how the 1950s generation marked a sea-change in the complex and repressive political system of Russia. Although the protagonists are young, Pierre is 25, it is the narratives of the older characters that add real substance and authenticity to this film. These voices are based on harsh real life experiences under a repressive totalitarian regime. None give the impression of being trained actors. Their lives have been lived under the constant threat of arrest and imprisonment.
Pierre was not always welcome in Moscow.
This fictional Frenchman’s life is indelibly linked to that of Tatishchev, a laborer who is 60 going on 90. He spent many years of his life in concentration camps and tells Pierre “Hatred kept us alive”. Smirnov says this character is not based on a real person but has a lot of prototypes. The movie is dedicated to the memory of Alexander Ginzburg , one of the first Soviet dissidents who was sentenced three times to labor camps.
The serious intent of the film means that some more conventional aspects of the plot seem overly contrived. It moves slowly so demands patience but, by taking time to put history into a personalised context, it vividly evokes the contrast between one lost generation and another discovering the courage and necessity of resistance.
