Reviews
Annette
Reviewed by Ian Payne
Story, words and music by Ron and Russell Mael – Sparks if you remember them. Stellar actors Adam Driver (Marriage Story, Star Wars) and Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose, Rust and Bone) in a rock opera cum musical. What could possibly go wrong?
Add Director Leos Carax into the mix and maybe that is where the wheels started to come off. Annette is the story of a doomed love affair between two international artists, edgy stand-up comedian Henry McHenry and soprano Ann Defrasnoux, and the early life of their daughter, the eponymous Annette.
The Mael Brother's concept had been seven years in the making and the opening sequence had all the hallmarks of their particular brand of humour and musicality. It was joyous. The closing sequence of the film had real dramatic power achieved by a remarkable cinematic twist. The problem was the two interminable hours between those particular scenes.
Throughout the film there was a real willingness in the audience to suspend disbelief, to make the picture work as a coherent whole, however so many elements jarred, the gears never really meshed. Adam Driver dominated the screen as Henry but there was nothing in his stage set that convinced you that he was ever funny enough to draw in a crowd. Carax said that he had made the film darker than Sparks' concept – Driver's character was several shades deeper than was necessary.
Driver and Cotillard sang the set piece numbers beautifully together but the sung dialogue always appeared to be forced. Opera never sounds as good in English. Then we come to Annette. We see the baby and later the child, as puppets, held and cherished by mother and father. What should have been the most bizarre element of the film actually worked superbly – we were genuinely touched by this little 'girl'.
The Cannes Festival Jury gave Carax the Best Director Award. But what do we know in Keswick?
Add Director Leos Carax into the mix and maybe that is where the wheels started to come off. Annette is the story of a doomed love affair between two international artists, edgy stand-up comedian Henry McHenry and soprano Ann Defrasnoux, and the early life of their daughter, the eponymous Annette.
The Mael Brother's concept had been seven years in the making and the opening sequence had all the hallmarks of their particular brand of humour and musicality. It was joyous. The closing sequence of the film had real dramatic power achieved by a remarkable cinematic twist. The problem was the two interminable hours between those particular scenes.
Throughout the film there was a real willingness in the audience to suspend disbelief, to make the picture work as a coherent whole, however so many elements jarred, the gears never really meshed. Adam Driver dominated the screen as Henry but there was nothing in his stage set that convinced you that he was ever funny enough to draw in a crowd. Carax said that he had made the film darker than Sparks' concept – Driver's character was several shades deeper than was necessary.
Driver and Cotillard sang the set piece numbers beautifully together but the sung dialogue always appeared to be forced. Opera never sounds as good in English. Then we come to Annette. We see the baby and later the child, as puppets, held and cherished by mother and father. What should have been the most bizarre element of the film actually worked superbly – we were genuinely touched by this little 'girl'.
The Cannes Festival Jury gave Carax the Best Director Award. But what do we know in Keswick?