2015 - GERMANY/ FRANCE/ THE NETHERLANDS - 87 MINUTES - IN RUSSIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
A FILM BY ALEXANDER SOKUROV
June 1940: German troops march into Paris. Jacques Jaujard and Count Franziskus Wolff Metternich worked together to protect and preserve the treasure of the Louvre Museum. Alexander Sokurov tells their story. He explores the relationship between art and power, and asks what art tells us about ourselves, at the very heart of one of the most devastating conflicts the world has ever known.
"Russia as Allegory for Art and Life" - An interview with Alexander Sokurov
- New York Times
4 Stars! "Bold and confident film from Aleksandr Sokurov roams the corridors of the Paris museum to reflect on its history from the Renaissance to the present"
- The Guardian
"Francofonia: Nothing Short of Sensational"
- Next Projection
3 Stars! "Aleksandr Sokurov explores wartime plundering"
- Globe and Mail
3 Stars! "Aleksandr Sokurov’s Francofonia proves if you have the Louvre, you have everything you need"
- National Post
"Like RUSSIAN ARK, FRANCOFONIA is a profoundly beautiful film. Sukorov’s love for art is evident from the first to the last frame of his film. At the end audiences around the world will be grateful to Sukorov, who like the great two men in the film, has preserved art, in this case of the Louvre and its treasures, forever on film. Highly recommended to anyone who owns at least one painting."
- Toronto Franco
"a delightful deviation from the talking-heads structure of the typical documentary"
- Toronto Film Scene
"fascinating stuff"
- Georgia Straight
"Francofonia is more than just a Louvre gift shop souvenir"
- NOW Magazine
"a stunning and urgently relevant meditation on the essential relationship between art, culture, and history; what art tells us about ourselves even in the midst of one of the bloodiest conflicts the world has ever seen."
- Bye Bye Couch
"Meditative and incredibly spectacular"
- Vestnik