Petit Bulletin SAINT-ETIENNE - Cinema Saint-Etienne: Opening Cannes 2021 - “Annette” by Leos Carax: Wedding of sound - article published by Vincent Raymond
Appearing at the opening on the Croisette is not necessarily good news for a film. A fortiori this year, after two years of scarcity. Because what the Festival expects from its first climb of the steps is that it primes the pump with stars, rhinestones and unifying flashes. The work that houses these first climbers often finds itself relegated to the luxury envelope and above all it runs the risk of being quickly obliterated first by the rest of the selection, then by the time sieve — we will not have not the cruelty to recall a few wet firecrackers from the past...
Ticking the boxes of notoriety for the general public and author, Annette also subscribes – as we will see – to other parameters prized by festivals: a denunciation, through cinematographic musical comedy, of the egotism of people in the “spectacle society” , like Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (Palme d'Or 1980) or the — less flamboyant and more conventional — La La Land (Lion d'Or 2016) by Damien Chazelle. Even, without the music, the miraculous Birdman (2014) by Iñarritu.
Allegory, meta fable, sung melodrama, Annette opens with the grace of her double God: the sound and the face of her demiurge-author Leos Carax. The sound, or rather a barely audible breath modulating in a trembling voice In the moonlight, evokes the first recording of humanity made a century before the birth of Carax by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, before a electric sizzle takes us back to the studio where the Sparks are getting ready to sing — the ellipse is worthy of that of 2001 when the spinning bone in the air gives way to a space shuttle. In the booth and on screen, the filmmaker himself directs the session. It signifies the beginning, as at the beginning of his captivating Holy Motors (2012) where he depicted this dreamer holding a key at his fingertip to unlock the film for his audience; at his side, it is not the result of chance, stands his daughter Nastya Golubeva-Carax. When the top is launched, the music creates the story, leaves the studio, the actor-characters join the troupe and the story begins at the end of a chorus-sequence shot. Rather promising and galvanizing; it is then that things go wrong - or at least that the promises are not kept.
Not totally sung, nor enchanting
A sort of neo Lenny Bruce bullying his audience during his one-man shows, Henry McHenry has just met the singer Ann Desfranoux. They begin an intense love affair that comes to seal the birth of their daughter Annette, a child as if "coming from elsewhere". But Henry's loss of success and his jealousy create dissension in the couple. After a tragedy, the father undertakes to exploit Annette's talent throughout the world, a baby with the voice of his mother...
The musical is trendy, okay — it's a cycle. A poster with an arty real, cult composers of which the musicians are fans and interpreters with statuettes undoubtedly allows to hope to win the timpani, if not to distinguish oneself. Because on the register of the “different” child finding music as an outlet, the rock operas Tommy (1975) or The Wall (1982) came before. Their added value compared to Annette? These films are adaptations of pre-existing material, designed for the record and/or the stage. Surprisingly, Carax's film seems to contain fewer gestures or purely cinematographic intentions justifying the specificity of its medium of choice. Of course, the filmmaker indulges in some of his favorite inclinations (superimpositions, rare but virtuoso sequence shots); he especially accentuates the “theatricality” of his film. We are not only talking about its spinning of performance venues in the strict sense, where its protagonists naturally occur, but of the ancillary environments which are transformed into authentic sets (the boat and the shipwreck island are thus treated as decorations and transparency opera, the court is held in a theater etc.) In short, everything becomes a space for live performance and demonstration to the public. Everything is representation, including the #MeToo-style press conference — posed a bit like an added piece — or the interludes of a modern chorypheus embodied in the voice of a gossip columnist (for once, that's a good idea).
Beyond this observation à la Guy Debord, what does Annette tell us? That the artist can turn out to be embittered, tormented and a parasite of his entourage, thief of beauty on occasion, in the service of his own ambitions or frustrations. It is tempting to draw a parallel between Annette's living Henry and the living director through his muses, especially with Carax who accumulated them: Denis Lavant, Mireille Perrier, Juliette Binoche, Katerina Golubeva... It is also disturbing to to note the physical similarity of Adam Driver/Henry with Carax at the end of the film, Ann's widower, to remember that Carax tragically lost his partner Katerina Golubeva, and to read that Annette is dedicated to their daughter Nastya, mentioned more high. Difficult to approach this intimate parallelism without slipping into the maze of obscene indiscretion...
We spoke at the beginning of “boxes checked” by this film to compete in Cannes. Annette is therefore, like Les Palmes Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (1964) and Dancer in The Dark (2000), a melodrama where the end has as many qualities as the beginning – which, here, catches up with its soft bellies. We should, moreover, say the ends, because a collective conclusion is added to the end of the credits. The difference, with Demy or von Trier, is that we also look at the periphery of the characters instead of chaining perfume ads and that we dare to feel without fear beyond the last five minutes. It's less vain, but it was another time...
★★☆☆☆Annette by Leos Carax (Fr., 2h20) with Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg…
