Gustave Eiffel has
just been honored in the United States for building (the frame of) the Statue of Liberty and now the French heights want him to build something clever and large for the World's Fair in Paris in 1889. But the accomplished engineer / architect would rather sit under his cork oak, in this case: build a subway.
He refuses to draw a boastful building that will only be demolished when the exhibition is over.
The reluctant hero, then.
Again.
Could we not, for once, see a protagonist lighting all the cylinders at once: Jajamensann!
I would like to release the plow and put on my revolver belt again!
Or like here: immediately get me started on this impossible mission.
Well, when
a beautiful lady steps into the story, the Eiffel suddenly catches fire in the butt and the rest is history.
Or well, it's a little more.
The Eiffel meets the upper-class girl Adrienne already at her first major construction, the bridge over the river Garonne in 1857, but their hot love story comes to an abrupt end.
When they bump into each other again many years later, the flame flares up again, but Adrienne is married by now, which leads to an overdose of scenes with meaningful and sighing glances.
The rickety romance could well have been without, it is the tower and the handsome lavish environments that give the construction stability.
The star Romain
Duris ("Lost Heart of My Heart" and much more) does the title role with the same heartfelt emphasis that he usually endows his characters with.
When Romain speaks, one listens and it is thanks to him that a bit of life comes to life in a biopic that otherwise, with its homage to the tower and its creators, seems to have been commissioned by the French state.
Is it some kind of anniversary approaching?
It probably smells like an afterthought about Eiffel's strong democratic pathos and contemporary values when it comes to workers' safety.
On the other hand, only one in every hundred workers involved in the mammoth project is said to have died, so he may have been a role model anyway.
"Eiffel" is
in any case a nice, safe and slightly dry story taken from reality.
A bit like a moving version of my childhood serial album in the series "Illustrated classics" where you got a short and easy-to-understand summaries of famous types' lives and exploits, from the Apache chief Geronimo to Captain Cook.
In the same way, the relatively recent director Martin Bourboulon (and three screenwriters) have created a streamlined idol portrait that still houses so many fascinating technical details from the tower's construction that it can be shown at the Fun Hour for the country's architecture and engineering students.