Eiffel
The celebrated French engineer Gustave Eiffel falls in love in a fictionalised take on his life.
Romantic engineering: Emma Mackey and Romain Duris
Eiffel might well seem to be the most apt title for a French period film concerned with the building of the famed tower in Paris in 1889. However, the character of this film directed by Martin Bourboulon is such that the more appropriate one might well have been Gustave and Adrienne. Although Eiffel lived to the age of ninety-one and had a hand in the design of the Statue of Liberty, it would still seem natural enough that a film about him should choose to concentrate on his most famous achievement. However, Caroline Bongrand and a team of writers have come up with a screenplay which, despite its emphasis on the 1880s, also looks back to 1860. At that time Eiffel was working on a bridge in Bordeaux, but the reason for the film’s frequent flashbacks to that year is to show what happened following his first meeting with the teenage Adrienne Bourgès.
The building of the Eiffel Tower was a controversial project and one not without problems. But, while these aspects are touched on in Eiffel, the film is in large part a love story and it is told through a narrative that keeps jumping back to 1860 to portray bit by bit the ill-fated romance between the 16-year-old Adrienne and the 27-year-old Gustave Eiffel. Martin Bourboulon’s film declares at the outset that it is freely inspired by a true story and the use of the word "freely" doubtless reflects the fact that the history of the relationship between these two is open to debate. It does seem that they really did meet in 1860 but, while it was previously stated that there was no evidence of a love affair developing, it is now claimed that such evidence does exist. But, if there is good reason to suppose that they may have met again in Paris in the 1880s, this film appears to be speculating when it shows Eiffel, then a widower, resuming a passionate relationship with Adrienne who is here depicted as having become the wife of an influential journalist, Antoine de Restac.
The leading players in Eiffel are Romain Duris and Emma Mackey and both give confident performances in a film with able production values. It also boasts yet another highly professional music score from Alexandre Desplat. But, despite the presence of good actors, the film does come across as one that seems to be striving first and foremost to appeal as a popular love story. Indeed, the way in which it tells the tale often suggests romantic fiction regardless of those parts of it which may be historically correct. Initially, however, one can regard the film as being adept in its own way even if its romanticism is more likely to be appreciated by the public who embrace works of this kind than by critics. But, as the film goes on, the frequent intercuts between the two periods become rather sloppy and both the revelation of the dramatic termination of the relationship of the lovers in 1860 and the decisive moment of choice that confronts them in 1889 smack of melodrama. The film is less effective than it should be in other respects too. There is a subplot concerning Eiffel’s daughter Claire (Armande Boulanger) and her desire to marry, but it remains undeveloped while Pierre Deladonchamps, who plays Adrienne's husband, has a role which counts for little because it is inadequately fleshed out. On its own terms Eiffel may despite these weaknesses give some pleasure to lovers of historical romances. But, even if some aspects of Eiffel’s life remain shadowy, one is left with the impression that enough is known about the contentious building of the Eiffel Tower and about its creator to have yielded a far more satisfying film than this decidedly fanciful attempt to place the tower at the centre of a love story.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Romain Duris, Emma Mackey, Pierre Deladonchamps, Armande Boulanger, Bruno Raffaelli, Jérémy Lopez, Alexandre Steiger, Andranic Manet, Stéphane Boucher, Damien Zanoly, Sophie Fougère.
Dir Martin Bourboulon, Pro Vanessa van Zuylen and Jérôme Seydoux, Screenplay Caroline Bongrand with Thomas Bidegain, Natalie Carter, Martin Bourboulon and Martin Brossollet, Ph Matias Boucard, Pro Des Stéphane Taillasson, Ed Valérie Deseine and Virginie Bruant, Music Alexandre Desplat, Costumes Thierry Delettre.
VVZ Productions/Pathé/Scope Pictures/Constantin Films Produktion/M6 Films/Canal+/Ciné+-Vertigo Releasing.
108 mins. France/Germany/Belgium. 2021. US Rel: 3 June 2022. UK Rel: 12 August 2022. Cert. 15.