A globally acclaimed opera singer and a stand-up comedian have their first child, and their lives are completely changed. Served as perfect curtain-raiser for the recent 74th Cannes Film Festival.
Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard - both absolutely terrific – star as celebrated stand-up comedian Henry McHenry, and world-famous opera singer Ann Defrasnoux. In the guise of a musical, we follow their initial passionate, overwhelming love for one another, before moving to the next step and having a daughter, their beloved Annette, who is represented by a creepy doll that might have dropped in from a horror film.
But things begin to go wrong. Henry is accused by six women of historic abuse and his career starts to stutter while Ann's continues to fly. The musical format proves a natural fit for Leos Carax's love of the visual fantasies created by the cinema's most basic means of illusion. A dreamy, delicate dance between farce and fantasia, ‘Annette’ is a magnificently ludicrous rock opera with an experimental approach to its emotional extremes. The musical format proves a natural fit for Carax's love of the visual fantasies in this ambitious, if not peculiar, return since his ‘Holy Motors’ (2012).
Our thanks to MUBI for this screening.
