I saw several films by Carax (my favourite being "Les amants du Pont Neuf", wonderful!) and I know his peculiar style. Yet this "Annette" sounds like a wrong film. And I use the word "sounds" by choice, because the problem, I believe, is in the soundtrack: too boring, not enough songs and too many recitative parts. I appreciate the effort, the originality, but in my opinion the result is not convincing.
"Annette" feels like two films. It's kind of a satire that doesn't really take itselfs seriously at any point; it is until that final scene that the other film is revealed. Sparks always are ambiguos, but it seems Carax grounded this story there at the end, and it really came so shocking that it almost broke me in tears.
It's another marriage made in heaven for Sparks, who meet the director in their uncomfortable and provoking essence. Tho the soundtrack itself and the original idea for Annette gets a lot more meanings in this Carax film, in which he seems to usely cheaply some elements (the overlap of imagens, the costume of dead Ann, the breaking into singing without rules, having one of the best songs of the soundtrack in a scene where a character goes to the toilet) but in a provocative way.
I think in a way, the film dares for people to react that strongly to it, like getting angered and even leaving the theather, and it's really a shame that that is something I really can't experience genuinely.
Critics: hE sInGs InTo HeR vAgInA dUrInG oRaL sEx!!!
Me: Yeah, because people randomly breaking into song in other musicals is totally realistic.
Annette is like an album that has awesome cover art and no good tunes.
Seriously, a modern opera without any decent songs? Not for me, thanks.
I give it an A for Ambition (and also for Adam Driver, who looked and acted amazing), but the rest of the film flounders like a gorgeous yacht in a storm of awkward.
One of the weirdest and most unique films I’ve ever seen. Definitely a trip, hard to call it an enjoyable one but certainly one I look back on with a sense of respect.
Oh yeah Adam Driver shows his bare butt and a wooden baby is carried into the super bowl halftime show by a flock of drones. Trippy.
The film has one of the best openings I have seen this year but despite a standout performance from Driver, I quickly lost interest in this overlong and muddled musical. There are still flashes of brilliance throughout but this isn’t the masterpiece some are calling it.
This is the weirdest horror movie I've ever seen. It's like if David Lynch teamed up with Danny Elfman to make the worst fever dream with the shallowest song lyrics possible. The baby would terrify even Chucky.
After a night of thinking about 'Annette' I realise I hate this movie? Not because it's really bad (it is) but because it has such wasted potential. It's like being served the foam scum that floats on top of a really nice soup, inside a very intricately decorated bowl, while a bunch of strangers sing 'Happy Birthday to You' in the style of Wesley Willis. They didn't bother collecting any of the depth or flavour that obviously laid within their grasp when we know it wouldn't have taken much more effort to do so.
wtf did I just watch :man_facepalming_tone1:
At this point in my "career" I have reviewed almost 1100 films. I look high and low for good movies. I appreciate it when someone takes a chance and makes something that is unlike others that came before it. I was ready for this movie.
If I had to summarize what is wrong with this movie in a sentence I would say that other than the curiosity of seeing two great actors in a musical there is absolutely nothing compelling about the movie. It's (barely) a musical but there is nothing about the music that you'll remember after the movie ends. If anything it was more of a distraction - Driver wasn't given anything of substance to sing until the end of the movie. Cotillard can obviously sing but it wasn't pleasant to watch her do it in this film. So when you couple a story that's been done a lot with some really mediocre music you end up something that was new yet not very good. I think there was a better movie in there - it may have worked better as a dark comedy.
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I still can’t believe I enjoyed “Annette” despite my loathe for musicals and the trailers smelling like poop. The most trivial plot gets elevated by an excellent direction and imaginative mise en scene. The tone is a little uncertain, with farcical moments alternated with dramatic outbursts in a way that can either engage or completely turn off its audience. It gets a little dull at times, but the ending alone was enough to let me leave the theater with a good feeling.
The songs are indeed the weakest link in the chain - most of the time it sounded like they had the actors improvise a random melody while reading the script. The arrangements on the back are pretty cool; it’s the melodies at the core to be the problem. Even if the aim was to make a Broadway musical spoof, it doesn’t mean that you are authorized to slack off on the songwriting (just think of South Park, for example).
By the way, good luck on Leos Carax making fun of American entertainment in his first film with a Hollywood cast.
I don't like Adam Driver, and when people in movies start singing out of context. So I was out when that woman started to sing in the car. I really enjoyed the beginning with the band. Maybe it got better, but I never saw it the scene in the car.
Ouch! High production values, another storyline about celebrity train wrecks (fame is an awful thing for anyone without a soul, and Henry certainly "ate something bitter as a baby"), and pretty pitiful music. This lampoons musicals, but I wish the music had been better, and the lyrics…oh my, the lyrics are inane and repetitious. You'll reach for the right-arrow key to skip ahead. I kept hoping for the next scene to be better, but it just got worse. Yet it's so well-directed and shot gorgeously. But after that content, I need a shower.
Can the person who wrote the songs write entire songs, or just choruses on repeat? Because it feels very much like only the latter at 30 minutes in.
Edit: At the 1 hour mark, this is like a pantomime. Just one big cinema pantomime. We just need someone to yell “BEHIND YOU! BEHIND YOU!” And two people in a horse costume.
Did someone manage to record a fever dream in 4K HDR or something? I felt like I was hallucinating for 75% of this movie. Like Kaufman and Lynch made a musical, a wild and unhinged musical.
I'm not sure what that was or what it was trying to say (other than the obvious kids are used as puppets by the parents in failing relationships. Annette is played by a marionette...MariANNETTE, yeah I get it Leos :rolling_eyes:)
Kudos to Adam Driver, Simon Helberg and Marion Cotillard for giving 100% commitment regardless of the content though, they really gave it their all and it shows.
What a baffling experience. I'm still not sure if it's totally serious, a parody of musicals, a commentary? I'm at a loss for words.
I loved it. I can see why people that expected a traditional Hollywood musical like La La Land would hate it, though. This is a mix of Charlie Kaufman, David Lynch and Les Miserables. Regarding the music, there's a reason Sparks is a cult band.
No with a capital N-O! Number one contender for World's Worst Movie.
I tried…I really did… but I hated every singe second of the 20 minutes I made it through. Terrible music and the comedy was so bad that not even Michael Scott would have been as bad in his worse day.
If you were ever going to give a film a try, make it this one.
It moves you through the story like a boat on a steady stream. You can take your time to enjoy the music and the acting, and reflect on developments and character choices in the plot with out it ever feeling like it's dragging.
It's a lovely, engaging experience, and be sure to stay for the after credits :)
I’m surprised to read so many positive reviews about this one.
I really tried, but this movie does not work for me at all. I like some of sparks music and usually I’m all in for the weirdness, but even on my second try I could not get anything out of this movie. Not the music, not the performances. Sorry!
Weird doesn’t begin to describe this movie. Had to skip through an hr into it
OH NO! OH DEAR! :unamused::joy:
Leos Carax reimagines rock opera stripping the staging into a film that assumes its condition as artificial, as a lie told, assuming its falsehood. There is much irony in the vision of romanticism ("We love each other so much"), and the anticipation in the representation of the tragedy of the characters is remarkable. A sense of imagination that fails where "Holy Motors" triumphed, limiting itself rather than expanding into filmmaking. A musical that breaks the rules to reinvent them.
Shout by FranBlockedParent2021-11-24T15:23:13Z
im inclined to calling this film a masterpiece. or at least the most memorable movie ive watched recently.