We’ve all looked at skyscrapers thrusting tall and proud into the unsuspecting sky and snorted to think of what was subconsciously driving the (inevitably male) architects. Right? Of course we have. Yet I cannot think of a single film before this one that takes our presumptions and seems to say, “Yes, heh heh, yesssss,” with a glint in its eye. I mean, sure, Kate Winslet’s snide aside in Titanic to White Star exec Bruce Ismay about Freud’s “ideas about the male preoccupation with size” is one thing. (That’s about a ginormous ship, not a ginormous building, of course, but same difference.) Eiffel is something else entirely. Also what it does is almost surely subconscious, too, which is sort of perfect. *snort*
This French romantic drama posits that engineer Gustave Eiffel (Romain Duris: All the Money in the World, Mood Indigo) had no interest in his company — which had just delivered the Statue of Liberty to New York City as a gift to America — building a massive tower for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris. A couple of designers in his employ had sketched out ideas for a 200-meter-tall concoction of steel girders — just surpassing the height of the newly built Washington Monument, then the tallest manmade structure on the planet — but Eiffel’s dream was to create a metro, a subway, for the city for the event instead. And then Gustave runs into an old flame, his first love, the One Who Got Away, Adrienne Bourgès (Emma Mackey: Death on the Nile, the Brontë writer in the upcoming Emily). The heart — and perhaps something else! — of this work-obsessed widower is reawakened. Suddenly, he loves the tower idea! Except now it must soar not 200 but 300 meters into the sky. LOL haha *snort*.
History spoiler: The first metro line in Paris wouldn’t open until the turn of the 20th century. Because Eiffel’s boner was demanding attention.
But I kid this comfortably unchallenging, perfectly nice movie. It’s fine! There’s some genuinely interesting engineering stuff to be found here: a scene set in one of the caissons, an underground work chamber essential to establishing the foundations of the tower, is appropriately terrifying. I truly like that Eiffel is depicted as a decent man who did not put his legacy or his ego above all (which appears to be fairly historically accurate) — he decrees that the work site will be ultra safe, that there will be no deaths as the tower is constructed, which would have been expected at the time, and this is borne out. Too often movies like this are about justifying a man being an asshole because Look What He Accomplished! Eiffel does not even try that. It’s a perfect role for Romain Duris, then, who is simply lovely, as he always is.
Emma Mackey is also lovely, if way too young for the role of a middle-aged man’s first love. (Mackey is 22 years younger than Duris. C’mon…) But never mind! Sweet gentle sexytimes. Engineering marvels. A villain to hiss: Adrienne’s bastard of a husband (Pierre Deladonchamps: Stranger by the Lake). It’s all very French.
more films like this:
• First Man [Prime US | Prime UK | Apple TV US | Apple TV UK]
• The Bridge on the River Kwai [Prime US | Prime UK | Apple TV]
Ha!
I figured you’d call out the producers for the too-young actress they cast as Eiffel’s old love.
What a missed opportunity! Louise Bourgoin, Adele Blanc-Sec herself, is alive and well, and as beautiful as ever.
And I’m sure you could post your own list of actresses who could have both fit the part, and made it sing.
I’m torn between being a big fan of Emma Mackey and being glad she’s getting roles, and being disgusted at the continued age-gap romantic casting of younger women with older men. That said, I’m glad to hear they buck at least one convention by portraying Eiffel as a decent man who did not put blinders on to the logistics and peril of achieving his Masterpiece. There’s not enough of that, in films or in the world.