Cannes at last! After the forced absence of last year due to the pandemic, the most glamorous film festival in the world starts again. And it does so with one of the greatest French directors in business, Leos Carax, highly anticipated on the Croisette nine years after the wonderful «Holy Motors».
Always one of the most eccentric authors of European cinema, Carax is back behind the camera for “Annette”, the film chosen as the opening title of this year’s festival and his first work shot in English.
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It is a musical accompanied by the songs of the Sparks, which stars Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard as a couple, a cabaret artist and an internationally renowned singer, whose life is revolutionized by the birth of their first daughter, Annette.
A rock opera
“Annette” can be defined as a full-fledged rock opera, in which the musical pieces are not limited to accompanying the action, but create a real script in its own right. The film opens in a profoundly metacinematographic way, with Carax himself who kicks off the action, occupying a role similar to the one already played in the incipit of “Holy Motors”. There are numerous connections with the 2012 film (from the reflection on the role of the performer to the deeply episodic narrative structure) , but there is no lack of possible links with the melodramatic genre, which Carax had faced both in his first work, “Boy Meets Girl”, and in “Lovers of Pont-Neuf”.
More than the overall design, at times too confused, the individual moments in this feature film count, which thrives on great flashes and sudden falls, also due to the boundless ambition and always worthy of great esteem of an author who continues to risk, film after film, always remaining consistent with himself.