NOTRE-DAME ON FIRE
| 2022 – 110′ – Drama, Paris, Family 12+.
Written by: Jean-Jacques Annaud, Thomas Bidegain.
Directed by: Jean-Jacques Annaud.
Starring: Samuel Labarthe, Jean-Paul Bordes, Mickaël Chirinian, Jules Sadoughi, Jérémie Laheurte, Chloé Jouannet, Vassili Schneider, Ava Baya, Nathan Gruffy, Sébastien Lalanne.
Official Competition TAFFF 2022 (Opening Film – North American Premiere).
In English or in French with English subtitles.
An Under The Milky Way release. |
Jean-Jacques Annaud delivers a riveting, action-packed, truly spectacular cliff-hanger of a disaster movie — filmed for IMAX, no less — recounting the real-life, devastating blaze that engulfed Notre-Dame cathedral on April 15, 2019. Inventively intercutting original dramatic scenes of firefighters and emergency responders doing their thing, with digital effects, smartphone videos and archival news footage, Annaud offers up a dazzling, blow-by-blow recreation of that terrifying inferno. There are plenty of pyrotechnics and lots of production value, with real spires collapsing and molten lead gushing from the mouths of gargoyles. But it’s the courageous men and women risking their lives to battle that firestorm, against all apparent odds, who keep us on the edge of our seats and lodge that veritable lump in our throats. For a story whose outcome we all know only too well, it’s a real nail-biter!