Adrien Rivoire and Frantz Hoffmeister were practically like the Crittenden siblings in the American Civil War. The two friends were as close as brothers, yet the Frenchman and German wound up on opposite sides of World War I. The former survived, but the latter did not. Yet, Rivoire’s unexpected presence becomes strangely comforting to Hoffmeister’s parents and his fiancée in François Ozon’s “Frantz,” which opened March 15 in New York.
She almost became Anna Hoffmeister, but she lives with her intended in-laws anyway, like a dutiful widow. She is rather surprised to spy a stranger leaving flowers at Frantz’s grave, especially when he turns out to be French. Oddly, she had never heard of her not-quite husband’s close friend from Paris, but she is moved by his genuine grief. At first, Hoffmeister’s father is standoffish, but soon the entire family takes consolation from Rivoire’s fond remembrances.
