Paula Hammond - Features EditorIt’s taken 40 years for Sparks to become an overnight success. And this year, sees the release of their first full-length musical—Annette.
Directed by Leos Carax (Holy Motors), Annette stars Adam Driver (Star Wars) and Marion Cotillard (Inception), along with Simon Helberg (The Big Bang Theory) and Belgian singer-songwriter Angèle, in her acting debut.
Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks provided the story and music for the film and, as would be expected, the result is a wild, creative ride.
The glamorous lives of a seemingly perfect celebrity couple–a provocative stand-up comedian and an internationally renowned opera singer–take an unexpected turn when their daughter Annette is born with a mysterious gift.
There’s no doubt that it takes a director with monumentally large cahoonas to pull-off a post-modern comic opera in which two of Hollywood’s biggest stars play second fiddle to a puppet. But pull it off Carax does. In lesser hands Annette could easily have become too silly, too melodramatic, too self-aware. But Carax takes the theatrical nature of the material runs with. The result is a strange and breathtakingly daring beast. Set that against the backdrop of Sparks’ ever upbeat, and never all-together serious material, the result is triumphant. With a small, self-effacing T.
It’s true that there are times when Annette seems overly trite—mawkish even—but the set-up is a means to an larger end. And, once the playful deconstruction of the creative arts has ended, Annette delivers a surprisingly sharp emotional shock.
Extras include a Q&A with Ron and Russell Mael (Sparks) and six exclusive arts cards (blu-ray only).
MUBI, the theatrical distributor and global curated film-streaming service, is pleased to announce that Leos Carax’s critically acclaimed Annette will be available on Blu-ray and DVD from 10th January 2022. It can be pre-ordered here.
