Movie Info
Movie Info
- Director
- Martin Bourboulon
- Run Time
- 1 hour and 48 minutes
- Rating
- R
VP Content Ratings
- Violence
- 1/10
- Language
- 1/10
- Sex & Nudity
- 3/10
- Star Rating
Relevant Quotes
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?
French director Martin Bourboulon seems to have gone Hollywood in his period film about Gustave Eiffel and the building of the iconic Parisian landmark. The emphasis in “Freely inspired by a true story” should be on the “freely” because of the re-emergence of the engineer’s youthful love affair when he is building the tower.
The scenes of Gustave Eiffel (Romain Duris) designing and fighting for his tower, once he has been persuaded to switch from building a metro station, are riveting, so greatly enhanced by the special effects. Unfortunately we are diverted back to an encounter with Adrienne Bourgès (Emma Mackey), daughter of a wealthy provincial family. Eiffel was supervising the building of a bridge when the two were smitten with each other, but her parents had intervened by taking their daughter away and making Eiffel believe that Adrienne had agreed. Years later, now married, she encounters him again, but supposedly backs away because their affair would have created a scandal and ruined his plans to finish his tower.
Eiffel is widely respected for his bridge designs, as well as for creating the framework for keeping sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty withstand the elements. For his great contribution he is made an honorary American citizen. But his tower evokes criticism from some of the public– such celebrities as writer Guy de Maupassant and the son of Alexandre Dumas brand it as “useless and monstrous.” Even the Pope wades into the controversy because the tower would overshadow the Notre Dame Cathedral. Built for the 1889 World’s Fair, the tower is supposed to be dismantled afterward, but Eiffel shrewdly instructs his workers to use rivets rather than plain bolts. This story should have been enough to make an interesting movie, but apparently the filmmakers believe a bit of sex given up so that the man can succeed in the world is needed to bring in the public. Despite this unnecessary intrusion, the film provides us with a fascinating look at the building of an edifice known and beloved throughout the world.
No questions for this film.
