OPINION | REVIEW: 'Annette'

Marriage story: Self-loathing comic Henry (Adam Driver) and ethereal opera diva Ann (Marion Cotillard) try to make a go of their relationship in the strange but affecting “Annette.”
Marriage story: Self-loathing comic Henry (Adam Driver) and ethereal opera diva Ann (Marion Cotillard) try to make a go of their relationship in the strange but affecting “Annette.”

Why would anyone -- other than a studio executive -- want to make a safe movie?

I understand why people want to watch safe movies. The greater part of what we call "art" means to reassure us that all is well, good triumphs in the end, and we're all smart and clever and cultured. But you'd think more of us would be open to variety in our movie diets, that we might appreciate offbeat and genuinely weird (as opposed to manneredly quirky) films more than we do.

Yet the general reaction to "Annette," a surreal rock opera directed by Frenchman Leos Carax (notorious "Holy Motors," scruffy and glorious "The Lovers on the Bridge") will be a collective shrug. A vocal minority will be mad at the movie (and maybe mad at the critics who pointed them to it) and an even smaller minority will accept it as an earnest attempt at reaching other human beings. A very small minority will love it, flaws and all.

It's at times like this that I'm glad I don't approach film reviewing as an exercise in consumer advocacy. "Annette" is made for a special audience, and if it isn't made for you you're likely to know before the end of the first musical number. You can call it self-indulgent, goofy and embarrassing, and you would not be wrong. But I wish there were more movies like it.

The movie opens in a meta-fictional manner, with a scene that borrows from Mel Brooks and Looney Tunes. We're in a Santa Monica recording studio, with brothers Russell and Ron Mael, otherwise known as Sparks, the cult band that was the subject of Edgar Wright's rousing documentary "The Sparks Brothers" earlier this year. They are working on a song, "So May We Begin," with Carax, who in 2017, provided vocals and accordion for their song "When You're a French Director," which contains the lyric:

When you're a French director

You're an auteur as well

What does that mean?

That every scene

Must be as obscure as hell

Carax and the Maels -- who collaborated with the director on the script, fulfilling a longtime ambition to make a movie (in "The Sparks Brothers" we learned they almost worked with Jacques Tati) -- mesh well as a team, with their apparently bouncy tracks often smuggling in some dark emotional content.

After the first verse they leave the studio, spilling out into the street still singing, followed by their backing vocalists. They're soon joined by the film's stars, Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, and supporting actor Simon Helberg and Carax's daughter Nastya. It's an uplifting and misdirecting prologue, as the film immediately lurches into something much stranger and more disturbing.

If you're looking for a precursor to "Annette" you might look back at any of the various versions of "A Star Is Born," for the movie's plot, about a misanthropic stand-up comedian named Henry McHenry (Driver), widely known as The Ape of God, in love with rising opera singer Ann Desfranoux (Cotillard). Both of their careers are ascendant at the beginning of the movie, though their styles couldn't be more different. Henry is contemptuous of his audience, Ann is gracious. He kills with his act; she saves with hers.

Ann's unnamed accompanist (Helberg) is also her ex-lover; he regrets that he wasn't more aggressive in his pursuit of her. But she is enthralled with Henry, even if he -- and the general public -- don't understand the attraction. A buzzy entertainment show brands them "The Beauty and the Bastard." But they marry, and have a child, the title character, represented by a singing wooden puppet.

Henry's stand-up routine becomes increasingly abrasive and alienating as Ann becomes even more popular and her fans more impassioned. She's alarmed when she sees a news report about six women who have come forth to accuse Henry of being abusive, and the embattled couple retreat to their yacht while speculation swirls about their troubled marriage. Carax brews up a visual effects storm to match the internal tempest.

Soon, baby Annette is giving concerts of her own, channeling her mother's voice in a stadium tour arranged by Henry with help from the accompanist, who has now graduated to full-fledged conductor. There's a final Hyper Bowl appearance and ... to say more would spoil things.

Sure, it's bonkers, probably for bonkers' sake, and it is long -- two hours and 19 minutes -- but "Annette" is authentic in its strangeness. Tonally, it's all over the place.

It's probably a failure, at least in the traditional ways we measure motion pictures. I can't imagine it finding a real audience, a cult that might sustain it for decades like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" or Ken Russell's "Tommy." But it is seriously intended, and Driver is especially committed to his role (Cotillard, probably on purpose, feels a little more vaguely sketched and soft focus). Some of the Maels' music is spectacular, and if "Annette" endures in the public imagination it will likely be on the strength of its soundtrack album.

It's a nice try -- and a big try. The failure isn't so much on the filmmakers as on the tastemakers who will approach it gingerly and write measured reviews like the one you've just read. But I can't in good conscience recommend a rock musical comprised largely of repetitive chants. The Maels are adorable, but their music remains an acquired taste.

As does Driver's singing voice.

But you could also argue this is a movie that needs to be seen by anyone interested in movies as something more than time-dissolving entertainment products. Not every experiment works, but that's how we push things forward.

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‘Annette’

83 Cast: Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg, Devyn McDowell, Russell Mael, Ron Mael

Director: Leos Carax

Rating: R, for sexual content including some nudity, and for language

Running time: 2 hours, 19 minutes

Playing theatrically

Yacht rock: Ann (Marion Cotillard) and Henry (Adam Driver) hash out their marital problems in front of a rear-projection typhoon in Leos Carax’s “Annette.”
Yacht rock: Ann (Marion Cotillard) and Henry (Adam Driver) hash out their marital problems in front of a rear-projection typhoon in Leos Carax’s “Annette.”

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