Two world stars plunge bravely into a French-American musical project: Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard and their extraordinary film child as well as a soundtrack from the Sparks – “Annette” will irritate moviegoers.
Berlin – It was to be expected that this film could get eccentric. The director of “Annette” is Leos Carax, who is now 61 years old and has become known as one of the savages of French film (“The Lovers of Pont-Neuf”).
The film idea, script and music also come from the brothers Ron and Russell Mael alias Sparks, one of the shrillest US bands in pop history.
That “Annette” – as the opening film of this year’s Cannes Festival in the spotlight of world cinema – would be so eccentric, however, is astonishing. When this 140-minute musical melodrama hits the cinemas, the German audience should be prepared for two fearless star actors (Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver), some grandiose crowd scenes and a myriad of visual ideas – but also for a story that comes with krude is still carefully circumscribed.
So there is a lot of singing in “Annette” to the bombastic electropop orchestral music of the Sparks. Driver as a quick-tempered stage comedian Henry on the descending branch and Cotillard as the gentle, frenetically celebrated opera singer Ann do their job not at all, although the American Driver (“Star Wars”, “Marriage Story”) is sometimes more convincing than with his muscular torso by a great voice.
The performances of the two top actors are not ready for an Oscar. In addition, the Maels / Carax script and the French director demand too much pathos and often blooming nonsense.
Of course, as is so often the case in musicals, the coming and going of love up to the common path into the abyss (Driver sings about him several times until the bitter end) plays a major role in “Annette”. The title character, on the other hand – this much can be revealed here – is a baby, and what a baby! The serenity with which the parents fondle this incredible creature borders on the involuntarily comical (like one of the sex scenes with singing, by the way).
“We don’t give a damn about the logic / it wasn’t the plan,” sings Adam Drivers Henry as a potentially violent comedian with the stage name “Monkey of God” right at the beginning. That fits. “Annette” takes (too) a lot of freedom, the meaningfulness of the plot falls by the wayside. On the other hand: There aren’t many directors like Carax who dare to be so close to trash with opulently illustrated images. A film that will polarize – although in the end, critic raspberries could be closer than Oscar honors.
Annette, France, Belgium et al. 2021, 140 min., FSK from 12, by Leos Carax, with Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg dpa
