Notre-Dame on Fire Review: A clever ‘mockumentary’ that lacks suspense | Films | Entertainment
When the sun rises on April 16, 2019, the Catholic cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris has survived the raging inferno that hours earlier seemed certain to destroy it.
But, while most of the drama played out in real time on the news, we never saw what was going on inside the famous 800-year-old building.
While lacking in suspense or human drama, director Jean-Jacques Annaud’s clever blend of archive footage and slickly staged reconstructions offer a fascinating account of behind-the-scenes disasters.
The evening of April 15 begins with a nervous chap starting his first day of work at the cathedral after a “couple of hours” of training. His job? Monitoring the fire alarms.
When the security room becomes a confusion of blinking lights, the poor man is scoffing a baguette in the canteen. When he finally hears the alarm, he contacts the bloke tasked with climbing the huge spiral staircases to check the roof.
He is elderly, has chronic asthma and is tired of chasing false alarms. Also, he does not have all the keys. When the news finally reaches the fire brigade, the inferno has already taken The Forest, a section of highly flammable oak rafters.
Paris is gridlocked and some idiot has not told the firefighters that they have narrowed a key route to perform roadworks.
Meanwhile, a priest is having kittens over a box of relics. The only person who has the key to the strongbox containing the Crown of Thorns is a manager attending a reception at the Palace Of Versailles – who has taken it with him. When he finally arrives, he has forgotten the security code.
The rescue operation gets back on track when a group of firefighters volunteer to risk their lives with a last-ditch “suicide mission.”
As the heroic score swells, the detached documentary feel gives way to something a bit more Hollywood.
For the faithful, the miraculous final twist was evidence of the existence of the divine. If this plot really was written by God, He is a dab hand at black comedy.
Notre-Dame on Fire is in cinemas now (certificate 12A).
