Annette is a musical romantic drama from earlier this year. It was directed by Leos Carax and stars Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard as a fictional celebrity couple. He plays Henry McHenry, a tortured alcoholic and stand-up comedian, and she plays Anne Desfranoux, an opera super-star. The film follows them after their relationship has begun and they eventually have a baby together, the titular Annette. Neither of the film’s leads are its stars, nor is Carax. The true stars of this film are the Mael brothers, otherwise known as Sparks, who wrote the screenplay and produced and wrote the music as well.
I am a recent fan of Sparks, only hearing about them last year and later felt initiated into their fan base with Edgar Wright’s wonderful documentary The Sparks Brothers. This was one of my most anticipated films of the year, if only for the music alone, and in that aspect it didn’t disappoint in the slightest.
I love Sparks’ music and watching the result of them writing a full-fledged opera left me speechless during many moments in the film. Every song has their signature repetition and constant building up to grandiose levels and they are all incredible songs! Adam Driver’s singing took a little bit of getting used to but his performance sold it well enough and it got less and less noticeable as the film went on. It was definitely confusing how the way the character’s interacted because they sing their feelings exclusively. No conversations or dialogue, just repetition of one or two lines. They repeat lines like “We Love Each Other So Much” or “She’s Out of This World” over and over with progressively more exciting production and musical work. While this could definitely be off-putting for some people, I found it enthralling and wonderfully unique. I definitely would like to watch a classic opera to see if it was as striking as this.
The plot of the film starts out strong with an excellent precursory musical number featuring Sparks and Leos Carax. Watching Henry and Anne’s relationship blossom through various music-video-esque scenes was really beautiful. It is genuinely quite difficult to describe how the plot is conveyed. The editing is dreamlike and feels like another world, very much contained in its characters and logic. This fantastical perspective is heightened almost too much when they eventually have Annette, as she is a puppet, and it goes unaddressed until the very end. I am going to get into mild spoilers now so if you’d like to watch the film I would really recommend this if it sounds interesting. The cinematography was very solid, although nothing stunning, but the editing makes up for this greatly. I love the way this film is edited, it is extraordinary and captures its characters thoughts and emotions perfectly. I love the scenes on the bike, it created a very meditative environment for the characters.
As the film progresses, Henry’s instability increases and he gets more and more distant falling further into depression and alcoholism. His downfall is played masterfully by Adam Driver, in perhaps his career best performance, and he seems destined to be nominated for best actor at the Oscars this year. He has wonderful chemistry with Marion Cotillard and the scenes of them being in love are my favorite parts of the film. She is also wonderful.
After a musical number where six women come forward with sexual allegations against Henry, which could be a dream sequence or real life(it’s never fully explained), the family goes out on their yacht. In a dramatic musical number during the storm Anne tries to retrieve him and bring him inside, but he insists on staying on the deck, where he drunkenly throws Anne overboard. The ship sinks and he manages to rescue Annette on a lifeboat. Upon landing on an island, he first hears her voice as she mourns her mother by singing. He is haunted by her voice. Eventually, after he hears her singing a second time proving it to be true, he exploits Annette’s talent for personal and financial gain. He hires Anne’s old piano accompanist, played by Simon Helberg, who forms an understanding and loving father-daughter relationship with Annette. One that Henry is jealous of.
Henry’s jealousy and alcoholism is the source of all of the issues in the film. He is drunk when he kills Anne, and the film is painfully vague about his intention of killing her. It is never clear if it was simply a drunken mishap or a drunken murder. His alcoholism is heightened after the “Six Women Have Come Forward” number, which makes me believe that these accusations are true and Anne knows this as well. He knows she knows. After the murder he still drinks profusely but his jealousy is his ultimate downfall. He is jealous of Annette’s talent and resents her singing voice because of Anne. He is haunted by her voice. He is jealous of the accompanist’s past relationship with Anne but also jealous of warmer father-daughter relationship he has with Annette. This is what leads him to drown the accompanist. But Annette heard the struggle and reveals it to the public in her final performance, at the superbowl. This was an absurd, spectacular scene.
The only time Annette is played by an actual actor is at the very end, when she goes to see him in jail. This showing how she was just a puppet through Henry’s eyes. This idea of deconstructing child celebrity and analyzing how they’re viewed as puppets by their supposed protectors, is certainly interesting and definitely works in relation to Henry’s exploitation of Annette. At the end of the film however, when Annette becomes a real girl, she says that Anne also used her as a puppet as well and I fail to see the legitimacy of this. Anne seems to be a doting parent, busy perhaps but she is shown to love Annette with all her heart. I just wish they expanded a little bit on Annette and Anne’s relationship. And while featuring the idea of childhood celebrity is definitely interesting and sparks conversation(pun intended) the film does not expand on this or say anything interesting about it. It just blindly uses it as a theme, similar to how the film explores toxic masculinity and alcoholism through Henry. These are really interesting ideas but they aren’t expanded on, just used as a dramatic crutches for the plot of the film.
Overall Annette really stuck out to me and I’ll remember it for quite a while. I have been listening to the soundtrack a lot, primarily “May We Start” and “We Love Each Other so Much”. I can completely understand why someone wouldn’t enjoy this and having Annette be a puppet really did take me out of the film’s story, but I still liked it a lot. It was bizarre, it was funny, it was dark and it was unexpected. This is a film that I will definitely watch again and I give it a 7 out of 10.
The Review Mirror 