Eiffel (2022)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
A romantic biopic on Gustave Eiffel is an interesting concept, to say the least.
The production design, cinematography and costumes are tremendous, adding an authenticity to the time period and presentation on screen.
Melodrama and romance meets architectural design challenges and a brooding leading man, Eiffel is actually quite an accessible film despite appearances.
NO
Much of this is not accurate; and any modest dive into Eiffel’s life and story allows you to soon realize we are making a lot of this up as we go along.
Unnecessarily convoluted as the film utilizes non-linear storytelling to span a 20-year story of professional success and personal loss.
This is not, as producer Vanessa van Zuylen described it, “the French Titanic.” Like not even remotely close.
OUR REVIEW
Movies based on true events need not be accurate to effectively tell their story. And while that seems an odd acknowledgment coming from someone who has complained about films trying to pass off fiction as truth for as long as I have been watching movies, if we are simply upfront about things - and play fair - I can roll with whatever is thrown before me.
Which makes Eiffel, a French import making its way stateside, a bit of a conundrum. Opening with a title card that translates to “freely inspired by a true story,” we have a movie which tries to live in this weird purgatory between fact and fiction. Ultimately, the movie is far more concerned with the love story it presents, than Gustave Eiffel’s association with the building of the iconic tower which bears his name.
That love story, which clumsily tries to latch Eiffel’s connection to wealthy feminist Adrienne Bourgès (Emma Mackey), serves as the thesis for why the A-shaped tower’s design and creation was constructed. While director Martin Bourboulon infuses his film with this impassioned story of love, longing, and regret, we also receive a short-changed analysis of how Eiffel (Romain Duris) was able to curry investors, develop plans, and coordinate the building of one of the most extraordinary pieces of architecture in the world.
Ultimately it’s as if Bourboulon and his team of four additional writers didn’t see a whole lot of value in telling the story of Eiffel’s working life. Duris portrays the engineer over a nearly three-decade span, which he delivers with brooding intensity in his older years, and a youthful optimism when younger. In his older days, he is widowed with children, and early on, his oldest daughter surprises him with the announcement that she is engaged to be married to a member of Eiffel’s staff. He indicates he doesn’t know him, though he hired him, and his daughter laughs off that he’s worked for her father for seven months.
Which begs the question: Is the intent of this early scene to show Eiffel is out of touch with his family, a workaholic, and focused on selfish gain? No, not really. The film never really returns to that framing. Instead, we see a man fiercely dedicated to his work, but lost in the memories of a former romance with Adrienne, now married to the sullen and tightly wound Antoine (Pierre Deladonchamps).
As the Eiffel Tower project blossoms, Adrienne’s feelings rekindle for Eiffel. And so, we have this quasi-love triangle develop, which dives into a significant backstory of Eiffel and Adrienne meeting when she was 17. They fell in love. He was older. They got pregnant, and after her parents rejected not only the pregnancy, but prospects of Gustave being a member of their family through marriage, a tragedy cost the young couple everything.
Now, some 20-plus years later, Adrienne veers away from Antoine, chases her heart, and finds Eiffel ready and willing to rewrite their doomed first chapter together.
And again, this burdensome little story of a make-believe love affair belongs better suited perhaps in an episode of, say, Downton Abbey or “Bridgerton.” Here, it simply stands in contrast with the story most people think they will be getting when they settle in to watch a movie called Eiffel.
The acting is nonetheless solid, Duris and Mackey develop some wonderful chemistry. Bourboulon has created a film which, technically speaking, looks gorgeous and impressive. The hindrance of not having a large budget is not readily apparent as the visual effects, production design, set builds, and cinematography are all exquisite in their craftsmanship. Add in a rich Alexandre Desplat score and you have the makings for a film that should impress on many levels.
And yet, the story just doesn’t work. Eiffel seems to use the behind-the-scenes politicking and literal nuts and bolts which went into the making of the Tower, as a patchwork to get back to Eiffel jonesing for his former love. If you do any deep dive whatsoever on the machinations and controversies around how Eiffel seized control of the patent, and put his name on someone else’s design work, plus saw the truth behind his love life and personal struggles, you will see a fascinating movie waiting to be told.
Instead, we see a lovelorn middle-aged man sketching the Tower’s iconic A-shape next to Adrienne’s name in a journal, like a kid with a middle school crush. Stares lead to tears when the two see each other from afar. The obsession here is folly. The purpose of the build, reduced to myth. The story and film, a missed opportunity.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Romain Duris, Emma Mackey, Pierre Deladonchamps, Armande Boulanger, Bruno Raffaelli, Andranic Manet, Philippe Hérisson, Stéphane Boucher, Jérémy Lopez, Sophie Fougère
Director: Martin Bourboulon
Written by: Caroline Bongrand (screenplay); Caroline Bongrand, Thomas Bidegain, Natalie Carter, Martin Bourboulon, Martin Brossollet (adaptation and dialogue)
Release Date: June 3, 2022
Blue Fox Entertainment