MFAH Film Houston Premieres: Francofonia

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents another in its Houston Premieres series. Enjoy these critically acclaimed, award-winning international films as they make their Houston debut!

Francofonia

Directed by Aleksandr Sokurov
2015, in French with English subtitles
France/Germany/The Netherlands
88 minutes
DCP

More than a decade after his breathtaking, single-take tour of the Hermitage in Russian Ark, Aleksandr Sokurov enters another renowned museum, the Louvre.

This meditative essay shifts from the present—the filmmaker Skypes with the captain of a ship carrying treasured works of art—to dramatized scenes about the intersections of art and history.

The history is traced from the establishment of the Louvre following the French Revolution to the 20th century, tracing the relationship between Louvre director Jacques Jaujard and Nazi Occupation officer, Count Franziskus Wolff-Metternich, whose association transformed from enemies to collaborators with the shared goal of preserving the museum’s treasures during the war.