Annette Review

“So may we start?” the cast and crew of Annette (2021) sing during the opening musical number as they march out of a recording studio and onto the street. They are excited and perhaps a bit nervous as they sing about what the viewer should expect. The main actors are sent on their way so the story can begin. Annette is a film that smashes cinematic and theatrical space together to create something truly unique. This is not a recording of a stage show. Edgar Wright is correct in saying that this is a “cinematic opera”.

Directed by Leos Carax, with all the songs written by Sparks brothers Ron and Russell Mael, Annette follows the romantic relationship between stand-up comedian Henry McHenry (Adam Driver) and opera singer Ann Desfranoux (Marion Cotillard). They could not be more different, yet they are deeply in love. When they have a daughter named Annette (Devyn McDowell), who also has a gift she can use on stage, things begin to change…

The film is not afraid to get topical (there’s even a #MeToo musical number) but these topics are glossed over in service of grander ambitions. It is not particularly clear what these grand ambitions are. The viewer will spend the most time with Henry, but the film feels strangely ambivalent towards him. Henry is crass and self-destructive, and Adam Driver gives his usual coiled intensity to the role, but it feels like the viewer is supposed to identify with him anyway as the things he does become more unforgivable. Ann’s character is treated by an ambivalence that is less obvious. The film treats her with a sympathetic eye as she worries about her strained relationship. Marion Cotillard plays the role with grace and gets to put her singing chops on display. It is not Ann as a character that is repudiated but more what her character represents. There is a flat ethereality that Ann displays on stage and that the public believes in wholeheartedly that the film criticizes in a more subtle way. In the second half of the film Annette comes to outwardly repudiate Henry but also repudiates Ann implicitly. She is their child so she retains aspects of both of them but is clear that she, and the times in general, have moved on.

Annette is operatic but it does not deal with myths, or at least not with older myths. Henry and Ann’s relationship is given a mythic status by the public but in a way that is unique to our modern times. The film is a cinematic opera so it is not concerned with hiding some of the artifice that comes with performing on a stage. There are times when the film uses undisguised rear projection to name one way that the film does not hide its artifice. The most glaring way that the film does not hide its artifice is the fact that Annette is physically a puppet. Leos Carax fully commits to the cinematic opera premise which creates some truly peculiar imagery.

The artifice can make the film look like empty spectacle at times which is good for when it wants to comment on celebrity culture but can be bad for emotional investment overall. Undisguised artifice can result in critical distance for the viewer. The viewer’s capacity to be amazed by all the elements of the film coming together in an effective way is diminished when they are more aware of these elements.

Overall, Annette works as a film, but viewer mileage may vary more than usual because of the undisguised artifice mentioned previously. The performances are great all around, the songs written by the Sparks brothers are catchy despite the ironic detachment of the lyrics and Carax once again delivers another singular work. This film should be seen on the strength of the fact that there is nothing like it recently on offer.