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Notre-Dame on Fire

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Notre-Dame on Fire

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Summary

As Notre-Dame burns, a brave group of men and women try to save one of humanity's jewels from the flames. In French with subtitles.

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IMDB

Review

A star rating of 3 out of 5.

David Parkinson

"Everything is true, as implausible as it seems." The words of French writer Antoine de Rivarol presage this account of the events of 15 April 2019, when fire tore through the 850-year-old Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud and co-writer Thomas Bidegain hedge their bets when it comes to the cause of the blaze, but otherwise stick resolutely to the facts, as a catalogue of errors and misfortunes delays the reporting of the incident and the arrival of firefighters through the rush-hour streets. Despite a subplot following the tortuous cross-city journey of the carrier of the key to the relic safe, the human angle plays second fiddle to the pitiless assault on wood and masonry of the flames, which reached in excess of a thousand degrees celsius before one intrepid cohort of volunteers gained access to the belfry. Editor Reynald Bertrand expertly cuts between archive footage and scenes reconstructed in Sens, Bourges and Amiens cathedrals, as well as on a scale studio replica. It's meticulously done and utterly compelling, but the bid to use Simon Franglen's score to boost the thrill factor is rather ill-judged.

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6.4/10

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Credits

Crew

rolenameDirectorJean-Jacques Annaud

Details

Theatrical distributor

Pathe Productions Ltd

Languages

English | Italian | French | Spanish

Formats

Colour

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