Caroline Champetier

Annette is not wholly successful, but that’s all right because it’s wholly mesmerizing. It begins with the cast and crew introducing themselves and the film to follow in procession. The film is a collaboration between scriptwriters Ron and Russell Mael (the band Sparks) and director Leon Carax. This opening number is meant to throw you off. It’s a bumpy ride. Annette is also unforgettable as journey more than destination.

Annette is an eccentric, hallucinatory rock opera about love, passion and celebrity, set in Los Angeles. It begins as a voiceover cautions viewers not to “sing, laugh, clap, cry, yawn, boo or fart,” adding “breathing will not be tolerated during the show so, please, take a deep last breath right now.”

Part fantasy, part cheeky treatise on modern life, Annette is very much a film of extremes, one that struggles to reconcile its differences. Director Leos Carax deservedly won the Director’s prize at Cannes– this is certainly an athletic effort on his part – but Annette remains a frustrating experiment in form and content.

From the first moments of the ambitious, sometimes stubbornly weird, sometimes magical film Annette, from director Leos Carax and writer/composers Ron and Russell Mael, known together as Sparks, you already know you’re in for something different and original. Carax talks directly to the audience, breaking the fourth wall, then the entire cast and crew get together and walk through the night streets singing ‘So May We Start?’.