The Great Arch
Stéphane Demoustier’s The Great Arch is, on the surface, a film about the making of the eponymous building in La Défense, Paris. But what begins as an account of one of the most spectacular architectural projects in modern France quickly reveals itself to be a reverent character study – far more invested in its central figure than in the marble and mathematics of the Arch itself. Unfortunately, it’s a portrait so worshipful that it forgets to ask the harder questions of the man it seeks to illuminate.
Otto von Spreckelsen (Claes Bang), the 53-year-old Danish architect unexpectedly chosen to design La Grande Arche de la Défense by François Mitterrand (Michel Fau) in 1982, is presented with the sort of mythic aura reserved for misunderstood geniuses. A man of vision and deep principle, von Spreckelsen glides through opposition and bureaucracy with the poise of a sculptor among bureaucrats. But while the film clearly intends to inspire awe, it often feels as if it’s simply fawning.
Mitterrand himself seems spellbound by the architect’s every utterance, nodding and laughing along like an enraptured disciple. Experienced voices in the room – engineers, planners, ministers – raise valid concerns, only to be swiftly swept aside by the president’s unwavering endorsement of his chosen visionary. The result is a bafflingly one-sided power fantasy.
The compelling counterpoint to this lies in von Spreckelsen’s relationship with Jean-Louis Subilon (Xavier Dolan), the youthful official tasked with keeping the project financially and legally grounded. Dolan brings a wiry, nervous energy to the screen, and the character’s friction with Otto offers moments of genuine drama. Likewise, Paul Andreu (Swann Arland) – the project manager mired in the practicalities Otto would rather ignore – provides a more subtle, simmering frustration. Otto’s “victories” over these two are always depicted as triumphs of artistic integrity over practical concerns, but they feel more like moments of dangerous detachment from reality.
1980s Paris is recreated with a mix of hotel rooms, modernist offices and busy streets, but the film is at its best outside the city – particularly when the camera traces the Italian marble quarries where the building material is sourced: vast, ancient, sublime. These moments, when The Great Arch steps back from its muse and simply looks, are when it comes closest to greatness.
Christina Yang
The Great Arch does not have a release date yet.
Read more reviews from our Cannes Film Festival coverage here.
For further information about the event visit the Cannes Film Festival website here.
Watch the trailer for The Great Arch here:
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