Leos Carax's Annette (2021)

It's easy to give a brief synopsis of Leos Carax's latest film Annette, which is in fact in English. Henry McHenry (Adam Driver) is a famous stand-up comedian with distinct echoes of Lenny Bruce*, whereas Ann Defrasnoux (Marion Cotillard) – the woman who'll shortly become his wife – is a famous opera singer. They have a child called Annette. As Henry loses his popularity he becomes jealous of Ann and takes to drink. To try to patch things up they go for a sailng holiday, but Henry gets drunk during a storm, tries to dance with Ann, and she falls overboard and drowns in the tussle. Henry saves Annette, they escape to shore, and there is no suspicion of foul play. Then Henry learns that Baby Annette can sing (wordlessly) and with the accompanist (Simon Helberg) they set about having her give huge performances to tumultuous reception. But then the accompanist tells Henry that he had an affair with Ann just before she formed a relationship with him and Annette might be his child: in a drunken rage Henry drowns him in the pool. But Annette has seen the murder, and in her final 'performance' all she can voice is 'Daddy...Daddy kills people.' So Henry is jailed.

There are many ellipses in the above paragraph, which in no way mentions the weirdness of the film, in which most of the dialogue is sung,  with the story and lyrics mainly written by Ron and Russell Mael of the band Sparks: the brothers appear in the film, as does Carax himself at the beginning. And Annette is in fact a puppet who only appears as a human being at the end, when she visits Henry in prison. Several snatches from (performed) television broadcasts are seen, including one Ann dreams in which his former girlfriends accuse him of abuse. As the paparazzi hound the couple around the world, the toll this takes on a relationship can be felt. Is this movie a take on appearance and reality and the brittleness of fame, a criticism of the cult of celebrity, or all three and more? Whatever the unanswerable question, this is an electrifying spectacle.

*Henry's onstage behaviour is self-destructive, partly autobiographical, uses strong language, and for those who've seen Bob Fosse's Lenny will recognise familiarites between Dustin Hoffman and Adam Driver.