Eiffel: Film Review
Following in the footsteps of Ammonite, we have another movie depicting a fictional romance involving a real-life person – this time its civil engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company famously designed and constructed the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The film begins in March 1889 when Eiffel (Romain Duris) has completed his tower and opened it to the public. It then jumps back in time to 1886 and charts the commission, design and problematic construction of the tower over the next few years. During this timeframe, Eiffel is introduced to Adrienne de Restac (Emma Mackey), the wife of his journalist acquaintance Antoine de Restac (Pierre Deladonchamps) – but it is very clear that they’ve met each other before and there is a wealth of history there. Thanks to a series of flashbacks to the 1860s, when Eiffel met Adrienne Bourgès in Bourdeaux, we learn what happened between the engineer and the imagined love of his life.
It’s a shame this piece of historical fiction, directed by Martin Bourboulon, chooses to focus on the romance side of the story when the truth is more fascinating. I was far more interested and captivated by the scenes showing how the tower was made (I knew nothing about that) as well as the controversy surrounding its construction. Eiffel had many obstacles to face – financial difficulties, striking workers, public criticism – and I would have liked to know even more about that than his made-up romance with Adrienne.
There is nothing particularly wrong with the romance side of the story – I was keen to learn what happened between Eiffel and Adrienne between the 1860s and 1890s – but I think I would have preferred a straight-up biopic about Eiffel than this revisionist take. However, it is what it is and the romance is totally fine – if a little corny at the end.
This French film does not have the budget to showcase the tower’s construction in all its glory, which is a shame, but it still does well within its constraints. It mainly focuses on reaching level 1, when all the four legs join together, and we don’t really see it as it gets taller and taller.
Duris gives Eiffel this serious and permanently stressed edge but there is sensitivity underneath, while Sex Education’s Mackey, speaking her native French, is alluring and seductive as the younger love interest.
Eiffel is a contrived and slightly cheesy piece of historical fiction that excels when it’s telling the truth.
In cinemas from Friday 12th August