Notre-Dame on Fire Movie Review: Documentary style breath-taking disaster movie

A still from the film

Notre-Dame on Fire
Cast: Samuel Labarthe, Jean-Paul Bordes, Mickaël Chirinian
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Rating: 4/5

‘Notre Dame is Burning' is a documentary style disaster movie that has you its grip all through. The very real incident, the fire in the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris in April 2019, that left the entire world shocked and devastated, has been recreated meticulously in a studio setting with all the majesty, tension, suspense and thrill that it deserves. It's all so organically accomplished that you would be hard-pressed to find a chink in co-writer/Director Jean-Jacques Annaud and scenarist Thomas Bidegain's armour.

The film exposes the entire system that was supposed to protect and preserve one of the most ancient and beautiful monuments (replete with priceless artifacts) of the world. While the film raises many questions as to the lack of modern hi-tech preservation, protection, pre-defined plan of intervention in case of disastrous emergencies such as this, it also creates a humdinger of an experience of the minute to minute unfolding of a multi-pronged effort to douse the fires of neglect and public anguish. It's a thrill-a-minute spectacle that Annaud recreates with all the heft and experience of a veteran filmmaker who sparingly uses technology to shore up his arsenal of adrenaline gushing events.

And it's done with smart old fashioned editing while combining real actual footage (even President Macron appears ) with staged/fiction without losing its realistic sheen. The film starts off with the alarm systems and the lack of response thereof and then moves swiftly to the fire and police response. It combines the archive footage from the night of the incident with shots created using huge sets replicating the original cathedral. The narrative follows the exact sequence of events as they unfolded that fateful night which ended at sunrise on April 16.

The firefighters' perilous combat against a seemingly uncontrollable fire may be the center-piece but the retrieval of the crown of thorns (said to be France's most expensive purchase that left it in a debt trap for 50 years) is its most thrilling sub-plot. It all feels very real and unfolds as a tragedy of monumental proportions. Jean-Jacques Annaud's assured helming with inventive use of archival footage, and a classy original score composed by Simon Franglen, accompanying it, lends heft to the unforgettable tragic disaster re-envisioned here. This is not only one of Annaud's best works, it is also a thoroughly enjoyable and completely engaging cinematic experience.