Having opened in France last March and yesterday in England and Ireland, Jean-Jacques Annaud‘s Notre-Dame on Fire is apparently (emphasis on the “a” word) going to open at AMC IMAX theatres in New York and Los Angeles before long. Maybe, I should say.
The well-reviewed French-language docudrama is listed on the AMC website without opening dates or showtimes. If it were playing today I would see it right away, no hesitation. I’m an agnostic Hindu LSD guy, but Notre Dame is my cathedral. I’ve been eyeballing it upclose for 45 years or so. I’ve been to mass twice there.
Oh, and by the way? The fact that investigators have never revealed what caused the fire tells you it was embers from a workman’s cigarette. Of course it was, but the Macron government doesn’t want to alienate the French proletariat.
From Phil de Semlyen’s 7.22.22 Time Out review:
“Jean-Jacques Annaud’s dramatization of the 2019 Notre-Dame fire holds a vice-like grip as it records the 12 hours or so of the blaze in forensic detail. Considering we all know how it ended — spoiler: the cathedral didn’t fall into the Seine — it’s a seriously impressive feat.
“The fire’s cause is kept vague. It’s yet to be established in real life, though Annaud hedges his bets by showing us both a workman’s rogue ciggie and an electrical short. But when the flames start to consume the upper reaches of the cathedral, melting scaffolding and pouring molten lead through the mouths of its gargoyles and on the city below, the 2,200 degree blaze takes an almost demonic presence at the heart of the drama. It’s a formidable villain.
“From there, Notre-Dame on Fire zeroes in on the often haphazard, but ultimately heroic response to the unfolding disaster. The Paris traffic, sluggish response times (early photos of the fire on social media are initially dismissed as fakes), locked doors, and the struggle to get firefighting equipment up medieval spiral staircases all ramp up the tension.
“But Notre-Dame on Fire is really good at conveying an iconic building’s place in a nation’s soul, and the grief that its potential loss can provoke. Most of its symbolism is well-earned and resonant.”