He's certainly creative - he taught himself to play piano, he's made a couple of films - but Franck's best is yet to come, he says.
hot the video “Druh” (Friend) for Ukrainian pop-rock stars Okean Elzy a few years back. The second time was when two members of that super-group quit this summer to make music with him. The third time was when the resulting band, Esthetic Education, took to the stage at Podil’s live music club Kvartira on Sept. 4. The three media flurries proved two things: that Franck’s a very creative young man, and that he’s kind of hard to define.
“I was born in Zurich,” he says, sitting across from me late on a recent Wednesday at the Belgian brasserie Belle Vue, relaxing after a busy day. “My father is half-Belgian, so I hold a Belgian passport. But the truth is I don’t feel Belgian or Swiss. I’m nothing.”
Franck, 32, has lived in five countries, never staying in any one place for too long.
“I’ve been traveling since I was a child,” he says. “I think it’s my destiny – every five years my life changes completely.”
After leaving Switzerland when he was 18, Franck went to the United States to study art history. He did graduate studies in art history and French at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, but soon afterwards left the States on something of a whim. He was bound for Russia.
The Big Theater
“I was still attending college in New York when I saw this announcement: ‘The Moscow-based Studio School of MHAT (Moscow Art Academic Theater) invites students to come and study.’”
Sipping on a glass of Leffe Blonde (Hr 21 for a half liter), he recalls there being just one other person who stopped to look at the announcement. It was Sasha Popov, a student from Russia and a future Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer, who told Franck more about the Moscow theater school. Franck took a shine to the idea of the place, and before long found himself standing in Moscow’s Red Square. The year was 1995.
He had a good time looking at all the Moscow sights and historic landmarks, but then it came time to get serious about finding a place to live. He didn’t want to room with Americans, as he feared they might be big partiers, and that he’d never be able to study. So he asked his father if he knew any Russian families in Moscow.
Indeed, the elder Franck – a gallery owner and mover in art circles – did know somebody, and put his son in contact with the family of the famous Russian cartoonist Sergey Alimov, best known for his cartoon “Kanikuly Bonifatsya” (The Holidays of Bonifatsy). Alimov and his wife took in Franck, and he stayed with them for his first six months.
“I was very lucky,” he begins, “because I met so many artists and so many interesting people through them. I became deeply enmeshed with the local arts culture.”
Emotions in Moscow
According to Franck, that first half year was a very romantic time, full of beautiful sights, colorful people and walks along the Neva River. It only got more intense when he met his future wife – a MHAT graduate student named Dina Korzun, a now-prominent Russian actress known for her role in the Russian film “Strana Gluhih” (The Land of the Deaf).
“MHAT organized a certain party for us foreign students to meet with locals. It was an exciting opportunity for us, but boring for Russians. Many students, including Dina, who was married then, didn’t want to go. But as she told me later, her inner voice told her to go,” he says with a wide grin.
As for Franck, he knew it was love at first sight.
“I spoke to her all night, and she didn’t understand anything. She was nodding and smiling all the time. I thought that she understood me, but she didn’t. In fact she thought I was Mexican, because I had long, black curly hair.” Franck laughs at the memory before helping himself to some split pea soup (Hr 24).
When Franck graduated from MHAT as a film director, he went to work in Toronto. He says he felt like a “prostitute” as he shot commercials for McDonalds, General Motors and Coca-Cola.
After Toronto, Franck wandered again, this time briefly to London before returning to Russia to reunite with Dina.
“By then [1998] Russia was so different; it wasn’t restless anymore. It was all about money.
“Besides, I wasn’t a tourist anymore – I was set to live there and had to cope with everything. I had to discipline myself a lot,” he explains.
“But it’s also true to say that I became a man in Moscow – I was forced to grow up,” Franck adds.
In Moscow, Franck’s Russian skills developed. Soon he was working as a photographer and filmmaker in the city, and met up with his future bandmates, Yuriy Hustochka and Dmitriy Shurov, as well as with the rest of Okean Elzy. He was a major creative force behind the “Druh” video.
He admits the video didn’t come off the way he wanted, but the band members liked it, as it was different from their other videos.
What Next?
Out of that video project, however, came a friendship with Hustochka and Shurov.
“I liked their style of playing, so I asked them to do the music for a movie I did called ‘Marfa.’ They agreed, and Yura [Hustochka] asked me to come to Kyiv to work on some music.”
The music the three worked on didn’t result in a soundtrack for Franck’s film, but it did result in an album and a new band, Esthetic Education.
“We recorded about nine songs, just for ourselves,” he says. “Then Yura said ‘Come back in September and we’ll see what happens.’”
Sept. 4 saw Esthetic Education’s concert debut.
Kvartira, the tiny, cozy club tucked away on a moody street in Podil, was packed wall to wall for the show, and judging by the reaction of the audience, which kept the place rocking all night, it would be fair to call EE’s debut a success.
“We thought nobody in Ukraine would be interested in us. I personally thought people would hate me for breaking up Okean Elzy, but it all turned out the other way.
“So now I’m here for one year at least. My wife understood that it’s my destiny. It wasn’t like that with filmmaking,” he remarks.
Though his short film “Kartina” (Picture) was successful, Franck doesn’t consider himself to be a successful filmmaker.
“I spent three years of my life doing ‘Marfa,’ which starred Dina, and it’s still unfinished. I was trying to do too many things all by myself,” Franck says. He hopes to finish the film, but for now music is his real passion.
A self-taught piano player who still can’t read sheet music, Franck feels a natural aptitude for music, and he’s happy to be realizing himself and his true potential here in Ukraine.
“It’s very strange. ‘Why am I here?’ I ask myself. Maybe this group will move on – to Africa, for instance. But maybe I’m wrong. Indeed, we don’t know the future.”
Belle Vue
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English menu: Yes.
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