H ow do you keep art treasures of immeasurable value from falling into the wrong hands? More precisely: the masterpieces of the Louvre like the "Mona Lisa" against the Nazi occupiers. From 1940 onwards, Jacques Jaujard (vice-director of the Louvre) and Prince Franziskus Wolff-Metternich (Hitler's man for art "acquisition") faced this challenge, which was to have a major impact on our cultural history. Enemies then became brave allies, saving irretrievable works from the greedy hands of looters.
But the extraordinary director Alexander Sokurov does not only illuminate this special alliance in his picture frenzy “Francofonia”. His fantastic mixture of recreated scenes and great shots of the Louvre follows his thesis, which has already been made into a film several times, that museums are much more than places where our past is kept. For him, the Louvre, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg (captured on film in Sokurov's work "Russian Ark") and other legendary houses are part of the heart of a nation. And the DNA of our civilization.
One thing is certain: none of us have ever seen the Louvre like it was in “Francofonia”. A visual feast!
More about the film on the accompanying website .
