Annette

Caraxing the Maelstrom

or

Beauty and the Bastard
 

I've been wanting to watch this one since enjoying Edgar Wright's The Sparks Brothers documentary—which ended with an extended discussion about the band's next project, a musical film directed by Leos Carax. They'd almost done one with Jacques Tati, and then another with Tim Burton, but this one was going to be the one where a career-long goal was being fulfilled. The film had a controversial showing at Cannes (although Carax won Best Director at the festival) and an extremely limited run in theaters before streaming on Amazon prime. It was always going to be a fringe-watch, as Carax is a director whose projects are not everybody's cup of tea and Sparks is a vintage band with a long career, but have never had a pop hit in their entire tenure. It would only be some miracle of some aspect to it that would pack the mask-restricted cinemas with this one—like uniting Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. 

 

But, Annette doesn't have that, other than a curiosity factor. And that's only good for killing cats (regular cats, not Cats, the musical).

Adam Driver plays Henry McHenry, a provocational comedian stage-named "The Ape of God," who's a combination of Andy Kaufman and Richard Pryor, but less interested in laughs (Pryor) than in getting a reaction from his packed audiences (Kaufman). The entertainment channels are thrilled that the bad boy is romantically involved with Ann Desfranoux (Marion Cotillard), a renowned opera singer, but although the media delight in showcasing the mismatched pair, they two have their own fears that they may not know each other well enough to have a lasting relationship. Despite that, they marry, and soon have a child, Annette.

We'll stop the plot points there. Because at this point, you may go "full-stop" on the film. Baby Annette is portrayed by a marionette. No, they didn't use a real baby—a real baby isn't a good idea when you want it to be a passenger on a motorcycle. CGI? Well, you can't hold a CGI baby or interact with it. There are all sorts of rules and regulations using children in movies. And it has to interact. And babies are notoriously bad at taking direction. Parents can't direct them, so a French director/stranger couldn't have any chance at getting a performance out of a baby (they're so "in the moment/method"). So, it's not going to be a realistic or an even real baby. Get over it. It's a marionette. A quite good one.

If you can't get past that, you might as well not go on. The film is 2 hours 21 minutes and you'll just come away bitter. If you do go on, you'll get a tragic story of exploitation and hubris and several Sparks songs that may not be much lyrically—they're quite repetitive—but will become ear-worms in your head for many days to come.

And you'll get a film that tries mighty hard to be distinctive with some lovely shot compositions, but ultimately is not as inventive as any of the videos the Mael brothers make for their compositions. Driver does a hell of a good job in a tough role as a narcissistic pop personality that will do anything to stretch out his fifteen minutes of fame. But, the story feels a bit like a surreal version of A Star is Born (any of them). It doesn't end well.

But, if you're a completist Sparks fan or Carax fan or Driver fan, it's interesting to see, and you'll be glad that it's one more check-box you can pencil in your fanaticism. I hope it doesn't mess up another chance for Sparks to do another long-form project. But, Annette, ultimately had its own review, penned by the Maels themselves:

When you're a French director, it seems la vie est belle

Women say "oui, " they long to be, top of the bill, oh well
When you're a French director, you're an auteur as well
What does that mean?
Every scene must be obscure as hell
When you're a French director
You never smile, what's the deal?
Hollywood guys, with their CGI eyes smile
But their films lack "le feel"

So...you think doing it all in one take is easy?

And—what the hell—one more Sparks song