Great Arc Review – A Visionary Architect Crushed by Prestige Politics | film

AAt first glance, Stephane Demoustier’s new drama about the construction of the Arch of Defense in Paris seems to belong to the last group of what we might call French brand heritage pictures, which includes the likes of Eiffel 2021 or The Widow of Clicquot 2023. But adapted from the 2016 novel La Grande Arche by Laurence Cossé, the film is less a story of cultural triumph than a testament to a failure, or at least a colossal failed work, that crushed the spirit of the Danish architect, Johan Otto. Von Spreckelsen (played here by Claes Bang).

In 1983, von Spreckelsen was the unexpected winner of an international competition to design the landmark building of the French capital’s western business district. It’s such a mysterious name that the embassy in Denmark doesn’t even know who he is, leaving President Mitterrand’s advisor Jean-Louis Sobellon (Xavier Dolan) to track him down while he’s fishing in a Danish lake. After being summoned to France, this fundamentalist refuses to deviate from the ideal dimensions of his “cube”, considering it the culmination of his life’s work. But he was immediately caught between the whims of Prime Minister Michel Vau and the cost-cutting tricks of technocrat Sobellon.

Von Spreckelsen hires Paul Andrew (Swan Arlaud’s Anatomy), designer of the futuristic Terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle Airport, as his site manager while insisting that the artistic credit remains his. Demoustier has this ancient piece, like Pablo Larraín’s number, in a 4:3 ratio and meticulously illustrates the architect’s battles, compromises and perceived betrayals; These include the glass façade, the cloud hanging under the canopy, and the Carrara marble for which Mitterrand received support. Even with the support of his wife Liv (Sidse Babbitt Knudsen) in his politics, von Spreckelsen begins to succumb to paranoia and anger in the face of interference.

While precise in the construction process, the Grand Bow is less precise for a man. Unlike von Spreckelsen, Demoustier is reticent about the guidelines of his subject—making the architect’s nagging stubbornness clear, but remaining ambiguous about the underlying emotional reasons, or von Spreckelsen’s selfishness (as the Carrara quarry owner says, even Michelangelo never invented anything). In anchoring this rather generic portrayal of tortured architectural genius, Pang goes with airy contempt rather than exciting creativity, leaving him a little distant from the heavyweight cast, which includes the ever-witty Arlaud. But the overwhelmingly pessimistic ending is interesting – a realistic expose of the artist’s supposed Gallic cult.