In a movie landscape filled with formulaic popcorn flick, when something this different comes along, you sit up and take notice.
You have to give it to filmmaker Leos Carax for having the vision and guts to mount a movie that is so different and challenging in a marketplace that loves a formulaic popcorn movie.
Of course, Carax (Holy Motors, Pola X) has never been a mainstream artist and there was never any expectation that his first English-language film would be anything other than a big swing.
A musical starring Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard and Simon Helberg, Annette had its unusual genesis in Ron and Russell Mael, otherwise known as the glam rock and pop duo Sparks.
The Maels conceived the story and the music with Carax collaborating on the lyrics and screenplay. There’s a knowingness about it, a warning from the get-go that Annette isn’t necessarily a movie you lose yourself in but one which makes you aware of its larger-than-life melodrama.
And not just because people burst into song or that the titular Annette is a baby played not by an actor but by a marionette puppet.
The very first scene draws attention to its artificially when it starts in a recording studio with the Maels and Carax on screen.
It’s an ambitious one-take that flows from the studio to the streets of Los Angeles, with back-up singers and the actors all marching and singing, “So May We Start” as if they’re a theatre repertory, before transitioning to Annette’s narrative right at the end.
Henry McHenry (Driver) is a provocateur stand-up comedian whose antagonistic stage presence involves him pranking his audience into thinking he’s being shot.
After a quick romance with famed opera singer Ann Desfrasnoux, the two marry and have a baby named Annette – all charted in entertainment tabloids, of course. Their relationship is volatile, especially as Ann’s career soars while his flounders.
After a wild sea journey, something miraculous happens to baby Annette, a gift Henry is keen to exploit with the reluctant help of Ann’s accompanist (Helberg).
Annette is drawing on the musical conventions of rock opera and it frequently evokes Steven Sondheim’s more maudlin sensibilities.
The songs, including “We Love Each Other So Much”, a ballad tinged with desperation and sadness, emphasise the emotional extremes on display in every scene, especially in Henry, a character who knows no moderation.
It’s a fully committed performance from Driver, a complex and prickly turn that defies the idea of overacting. It’s an indelible performance that sticks in your subconsciousness long afterwards.
Annette isn’t going to be most accessible movie for many audiences, especially if they’re not attuned to the melodrama of rock operas. But even if you spend the first 30 minutes going, “What is happening?”, be assured that Carax’s movie wins you over in the end.
It may be frequently discordant and confronting, but it is doing so many bold things, such as its commanding use of colour, particularly greens and yellows, to convey the ever-present threat of both Henry and Ann.
And the story’s interaction with a Greek Chorus highlights Annette’s grand and Shakespearean vibes. By the end, you might be exhausted, but you’ll be all in.
The best thing about artists taking big swings is when they hit it out of the park.
Rating: 4/5
Annette is in cinemas now (excluding lockdown areas)
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2021-08-26 06:32:26Z
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