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Venant tout juste de terminer sa collaboration sur la Statue de la Liberté, Gustave Eiffel est au sommet de sa carrière. Le gouvernement français veut qu’il crée quelque chose de spectaculaire pour l’Exposition Universelle de 1889 à Paris, mais Eiffel ne s’intéresse qu’au projet de métropolitain. Tout bascule lorsqu'il recroise son amour de jeunesse. Leur relation interdite l’inspire à changer l’horizon de Paris pour toujours.

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Commentaires.

• demencia Ce qui veut dire ?
• Anthony B Ouin ouin
• Laetitia1274 Gustave Effeil non et la Tour EFFEIL ?! je connais pas ou peut être en platre dans son jardin.Gustave Effel dont on parle ici; oui avec ses collaborateurs...
• Bruttenholm Merci.
• Naughty Dog non aucun rajeunissement numérique :)
• Bruttenholm J'avais lu qu'il y avait du rajeunissement numérique sur Duris pour les flash-backs, est-ce le cas ? (du coup la différence d'âge avec emma mackey serait moins problématique)
• Naughty Dog C'est bienJ'avais beau aimer les 2 precedents films de Bourboulon pour ce qu'ils étaient, ici il arrive a proposer une mise en scène classieuse au sein d'une fresque historique à la française : la lumière est belle, la reconstitution d'époque exemplaire (très beaux panoramas du Paris du XIXe), et la direction d'acteurs également(survolée par un Romain Duris enfilant son costume comme un gant)(bref sachant qu'il fera le diptyque des 3 Mousquetaires, entière confiance à ce niveau là)Eiffel c'est grosso modo 2 films en 1 : l'histoire de la création de la tour Eiffel a l'expo de 1889, la bataille que Gustave Eiffel a mené pour achever un projet décrié par la presse, ayant empli de doute la noblesse, et véritable merveille d'ingénierie bâtie par des ouvriers.Ensuite c'est l'histoire d'amour impossible entre Gustave et une bourgeoise mariée (qui se révèle aussi être son amour de jeunesse, rendu impossible de par leur différence de classe sociale)Le 1er film est réussi, et se révèle assez passionnant d'un point de vue historico-ludique (mention spéciale aux séquences usant de maquettes pour visualiser le défi que l'élaboration de la Dame de Fer représentait)Le 2nd est touchant de par le talent des comédiens, la direction globale (camera près des corps, du toucher et captant les regards, avec notamment une très belle scène de danse magnifiée par la musique de Desplat) et le fait que je sois amoureux d'Emma Mackey (dont c'est le 1er role au cinoche et dans sa langue natale)Malgré la différence d'age un brin curieuse au début, le duo Romain Duris-Emma Mackey fonctionne, et rehausse pas mal de scènes qui sont quand même écrites de manière assez attendues.On est pas dans In the Mood for Love ni Sur la Route de Madison, donc cette romance programmatique manque d'uppercut émotionnel et d'une écriture plus fine..mais ça marche quand même via les acteurs et la mise en scène souvent assez charnelle.Surtout mettre en symbiose cet amour avec la création de la tour est pertinent et offre un autre regard (donc un autre niveau de lecture).Dommage que le film soit pas un peu plus long pour peaufiner son écriture, mais c'est un bon film, ni plus, ni moins (et voir ce type de production chez nous fait un bien fou)3.5/5
• demencia J' en suis sûr maintenant , la tour Eiffel est bien un symbole sexuel
• Antho B navrant
• Bruttenholm Dans l'interview de konbini elle dit bien qu'elle a travaillé avec Thomas Bidegain à la réécriture et elle dit texto qu'ils se sont entendus comme larrons en foire donc elle ne dit pas qu'on a réécrit le film dans son dos. La fin de l'interview est ensuite assez cryptique. A part qu'elle a été tenue à l'écart du tournage, difficile de connaître ses griefs exacts. Quelques mois avant cet entretien, en avril 2021, elle était mise en valeur très officiellement par la promo dans un grand entretien pour Première donc on ne peut pas dire que la production l'ait mise sous le tapis non plus. Par ailleurs, Martin Bourboulon la cite régulièrement en interview. On peut regretter que Caroline Bongrand n'ait pas été assez impliquée dans la production mais il faut aussi se rappeler que c'est cette équipe qui a réussi à monter ce film qui patinait depuis 25 ans.
• El-dadouquito En l’occurence oui, on lui a volé son boulot, l’entièreté du scenar a été re-ecrit dans son dos et sans son accord… pour en arriver au resultat qui sort sur grand ecran dans 3 semaines. Mais bon vu que personne n’en parle, ça n’a l’air d’alarmer personne qu’un tel métier se fasse souvent rouler dans la farine de la sorte. Et puis la question de la propriété intellectuelle mériterais d’etre pris avec un peu plus de sérieux par le milieu… mais bon, faisons comme si c'était normal apres tout.
• Bob D. Quelles affabulations ! Ce sont deux ingénieurs qui travaillaient pour Eiffel qui étaient en charge du projet qui en sont à l'initiative. Pourquoi de telles affirmations fausses alors que l'information est facilement accessible.
• Bruttenholm 'Faudrait déjà savoir ce qu'elle leur reproche... Elle est créditée partout, c'est pas comme si on lui avait volé son boulot. Scenario original de Caroline Bongrand, Adaptation et dialogues : Caroline Bongrand, Thomas Bidegain, Martin Bourboulon, Natalie Carter, Martin Brossollet et Collaboration au scénario : Tatiana de Rosnay https://www.pathefilms.com/...
• theartist Ce n’est pas son interprétation, Eiffel a bien acheté le brevet et n’est pas à l’origine de l’idée ou du projet. Il l’a mis en forme…
• Boris Liblin Un filme avec une belle promesse un filme d'époque en costume . Avec comme toile de fond un défi colossal. Malheureusement c'est histoire de Romance plate et sans saveur nous éloigne du sujet premier .
• Betty Bsn 😲🙄pas du tout du tout de votre avis . Très belle et grande réalisation bluffante de réalisme pour ce sujet traitant enfin d’Eiffel . Les acteurs sont très bons , la photo décors et costumes d’époque superbes , la musique de Desplat également comme d’habitude à la hauteur de cet événement et superproduction française très réussie !!!!
• Betty Bsn Pffff Non et heureusement car c’est votre interprétation !!!!
• Pandahydra Spoiler : la tour Eiffel est construite à la fin.
• Babsy Si j'ai bonne mémoire, Gustave Effeil n'a pas créer la Tour Effeil, il en a seulement acheter les plans pour presque rien, a récolter tous les lauriers en laissant les concepteurs des plans originaux sur la paille, c'était un sacré filou… Je me demande si le film sera fidèle de ce côté-là.
• Loomax Ça se passe à 2 époques différentes et il est plus facile de vieillir quelqu'un que de le rajeunir.

Eiffel (2021)

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‘Eiffel’ Review: Tony French Meller Concocts Trite Romance as the Inspiration for the Eiffel Tower

This polished period piece seems more interested in telling a made-up love story than in capturing the fascinating true story of Gustave Eiffel's triumph.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

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A handsome if occasionally harebrained addition to the “great man” genre — with the added implication that such heroic feats might not have occurred were it not for an equally impressive lady working behind the scenes — “ Eiffel ” offers the half-invented story of Gustave Eiffel, the civil engineer who built the most recognizable monument in the world.

From the opening seconds, the 2.66:1 CinemaScope aspect ratio is a clue that this project was not designed to capture the vertical progress of the Eiffel Tower’s construction (if that were the case, an upright iPhone screen might be better suited). Rather, director Martin Bourboulon ’s choice to shoot in the same ultra-wide format as “The Bridge on the River Kwai” signals that the movie will remain firmly rooted at ground level, focused on Eiffel the man ( Romain Duris , a modern French star with the right mix of surliness and sensitivity for the role) and the more melodramatic details of his personal life.

Not a biopic so much as a sketchy piece of historical fiction, “Eiffel” identifies itself as “librement inspiré de faits reels,” which roughly translates to “a made-up crock of hooey.” Then again, bait-and-switching dry factual events for a sudsy affair between lovers from separate classes worked well enough for “Titanic” — although that movie had the sinking of an ocean liner up its sleeve. As with James Cameron’s film, audiences already know the ending (though it was intended to come down after the 1889 World’s Fair, the Eiffel Tower still stands), but Bourboulon’s in no position to deliver such a spectacular climax.

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Since the filmmaker can’t afford to show much of late 19th-century Paris, much as we might like to see it, he focuses his dynamic energy (the characters and cameras are constantly moving) on delivering impressive views of the tower’s support struts coming together in an empty field, building to a stirring scene where the massive legs are first raised, then lowered to achieve the first level. Safer still, Bourboulon hatches a second-rate romance, rather than detailing the rich, real-life drama that swirled around Eiffel’s controversial endeavor. He’s set out to concoct a “Citizen Kane”-style Rosebud at the foundation of the 300-meter iron landmark. Since we’re dealing with how France’s most famous phallic symbol came to be erected, it stands to reason that the motive should be a woman.

To inspire such a feat, it can’t be just any old dame. By the late 1880s, when the tower was commissioned, Eiffel was a world-famous celebrity, having built bridges, railway stations and the skeleton that undergirds the Statue of Liberty. According to Jill Jonnes’ “Eiffel’s Tower” (a worthy read for those interested in the backstory), the young Eiffel struck out on several marriage prospects, eventually enlisting his mother’s help in finding a wife. “Really, what I need is a good housekeeper who won’t get on my nerves too much, who will be as faithful as possible, and who will give me fine children,” he wrote at the time.

That’s not at all how one might describe Adrienne Bourgès, the proto-feminist firecracker Bourboulon introduces as Eiffel’s love interest (embodied by relative newcomer Emma Mackey of Netflix series “Sex Education,” with her big eyes, strong jaw and architectural cheekbones). Much of the movie is told through flashback, memories that come flooding in while Eiffel sketches (or rather, endlessly traces designs of) his tower. And so, we meet Adrienne more than two decades after Eiffel did, upon the occasion of an awkward reunion — a dinner party where Eiffel, who’d earlier been seen dismissing a project of no utility to the public, suddenly announces his intention to build an iron tower twice the height of the recently completed Washington Monument.

According to Eiffel’s vision, the structure will be accessible to everybody — “no more class divisions,” he declares. This admirable goal might sound political, although in fact, the comment is meant as a rebuke to Adrienne, whose relatively well-to-do family wouldn’t let them marry all those years earlier. The fact that Eiffel doesn’t realize the true reason she jilted him lends the film its tragic dimension — that and the obstacle that she is now married to an old acquaintance of his, Antoine de Restac (Pierre Deladonchamps).

A tricky isosceles triangle forms a s Eiffel and Adrienne rekindle their earlier passions — although Adrienne soon realizes there’s another party competing for her lover’s attention: the famous dame de fer (or “iron lady”), the tower itself. Seeing as how her husband holds the sort of influence with the press, financiers and committee that could cancel the project, Adrienne ultimately decides to abandon the affair so that Eiffel can complete his creation. While poetic, this development implies that the tower’s detractors may not have been sincere in their opposition, but merely manipulated by Restac’s petty personal agenda (to save his marriage). In fact, the monument’s opponents — which included such prominent figures as author Guy de Maupassant and painter Ernest Meissonier — were aesthetically scandalized, decrying the industrial-looking blemish on the Paris skyline as “useless and monstrous” and an “odious column of bolted metal.” 

Alas, this revisionist idea deprives audiences of the fascinating historical conflict at the heart of the tower’s construction. A more honest telling ought to reflect a sad truth about human nature: More often than not, our species resists bold innovation, such that many beloved landmarks went up against harsh criticism when they were first announced. Consider the newly opened Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, which overcame a yearslong whisper campaign against its out-there design and off-the-charts cost, or such Paris fixtures as the Centre Pompidou (still considered an eyesore by some) and the unpopular new canopy of Les Halles, both of which — like the Eiffel Tower — clashed with the redesigned style of the city implemented just a few decades earlier by Baron Haussmann.

Perhaps Bourboulon found the initial resistance to the project and the dramatic change in public sentiment too bureaucratic for his purposes, focusing instead on the effective yet largely fictionalized romance. But what use is such invention? By the time the film’s corny penultimate shot arrives — a nod to the tower’s A-like form that makes it impossible to unsee the influence of Eiffel’s imaginary muse — it’s not at all clear how the job actually got done. At least one thing is certain: We should be grateful he didn’t fall for someone named Wanda.

Reviewed at COLCOA film festival, Los Angeles, Nov. 6, 2021. Running time: 108 MIN.

• Production: (France) A Blue Fox Entertainment (in U.S.), Pathé Films (in France) release of a VVZ Prod., Pathé Films production, in co-production with Scope Pictures, Constantin Film Produktion, M6 Films, in association with Sofica Sofitvcine 7, Cofimage 31, Cofinova 31, SG Image 2019, Indefilms 8. (World sales: Pathé Films, Paris.) Executive producer: Vanessa Van Zuylen.
• Crew: Director: Martin Bourboulon. Screenplay: Caroline Bongrand, Thomas Bidegain, Martin Bourboulon, Natalie Carter, Martin Brossolet. Camera: Matias Boucard. Editor: Virginie Bruant. Music: Alexandre Desplat.
• With: Romain Duris, Emma Mackey, Pierre Deladonchamps, Alexandre Steiger, Armande Boulanger, Bruno Raffaelli.

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An Exclusive First Look at the Eiffel Trailer

The new film, about the man who built Paris's most recognizable monument, opens in theaters June 3.

Everyone knows what the Eiffel Tower looks like, but what’s less clear is how one of the world’s most recognizable buildings came to be. In the new film Eiffel , director Martin Bourboulon ( Divorce French Style ) tells the story of engineer Gustave Eiffel and how the project he created for the 1889 Paris World Fair—one, it seems, that wasn’t even his first choice—became something more than he had ever anticipated.

Here, Town & Country is exclusively debuting the trailer for Eiffel , which is due to premiere in U.S. theaters June 3. The movie stars Romain Duris as Eiffel, Emma Mackey (of Sex Education ) as Adrienne Bourgès, a long-lost love of his, and features a cast including Pierre Deladonchamps and Armande Boulanger.

It’s a film based in history but made with storytelling at the forefront, and serves as a beautiful reminder that behind even the most important buildings in the world are human stories—about love and longing and the efforts to make ourselves seen.

“I am tremendously proud and honored to present this film in the United States,” Bourboulon tells T&C , “and so pleased to have the opportunity to tell you the hidden story of one of our most iconic monuments.”

Adam Rathe is Town & Country 's Deputy Features Director, covering arts and culture and a range of other subjects. 

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You might think that a movie about the construction of one of the most iconic structures in the world would be carefully put together. But that is not the case with the sumptuous, often frustrating “Eiffel,” the story of a man whose name is as joined to the Tower emblematic of Paris as the 133-year-old beams that are still sturdily riveted (not bolted) together.

There is no surprise in this story about whether Eiffel can overcome bureaucratic, engineering, and financial problems to get it built, with even the Pope objecting because it would overshadow the Notre Dame cathedral. The Eiffel Tower has been visited by more than 300 million tourists and is as indispensable an element in the establishing shot of any Parisian story as someone carrying a baguette home for dinner or bal-musette music on the soundtrack.

In the first moments of the film we go from Gustave Eiffel (a magnetic Romain Duris ) sketching the tower and envisioning a future ceremony celebrating its opening to three years earlier. In a misguided attempt to add some suspense to the story, the movie continues to hop back and forth in time, with scenes of a fictional thwarted love story between Eiffel and the daughter of a wealthy family named Adrienne (the enticingly sloe-eyed Emma Mackey ). As attractive as the couple is, those scenes do not have the dramatic impact they are intended to. Instead, they are a distraction from the more interesting story of the many obstacles the tower's construction had to overcome. A note just before the credits trying to tie the Tower to Adrienne more directly is overkill in large part because, see above, the love story is made up.

Though he was not the sole designer of the Tower, Eiffel and the true story of its construction are plenty interesting enough to fill a movie, especially one as sumptuously designed as this one, with fine work from cinematographer Matias Boucard . The scenes of designing and building the Tower are genuinely powerful, and even if we know it will be built, it is worthwhile to be reminded what made it consequential before it was the site of innumerable Instagram posts. Eiffel, already well established for his bridges, was even granted honorary American citizenship for his work on France’s gift to the United States, the Statue of Liberty. The sculptor was Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, but it was Eiffel and the staff of his engineering company who created the interior structure that kept her standing and kept her torch held high. He was initially not interested in building a tower that was originally intended as a temporary structure for the entrance to the 1889 world’s fair. “I want to build a Metro, not a monument,” he says. And there were many other people who were not interested in his building it. The story deserves better than a character yelling “It’s madness!” at Eiffel. 

Of course he finally decides to do it, with a vision of an edifice taller than the Washington Monument, “France’s revenge on history.” He insists it must be open to everyone, regardless of class or wealth. He is eloquent and inspiring when appearing before financiers: “I am merely a man with an idea grander than myself. I ask only that you let me breathe life into it.” And again, when he speaks to the exhausted and underpaid workers, with his version of a St. Crispin’s Day speech, telling them that it is their tower, not just his. The scenes of the construction itself are very well staged, and because we have seen Eiffel explain the ingenious watertight metal caissons and injected compressed air he used to secure the tower, we are glad to see how they work.

But that keeps being interrupted by the less interesting scenes of the romance, with the over-familiar storyline of disapproving parents who think he is not good enough for their daughter and the less familiar-and-should-remain-so musical chairs birthday party game. Duris and Mackey set off some sparks, especially during a dance with steps matching the back-and-forth of their conversation, but while we do not find out until late in the film what prevented them from being together, their story does not add sufficient drama to make the wait worthwhile. "Eiffel" tries to be a Francophone version of “ Shakespeare in Love .” Yet while that historical film also took great liberties with a romantic storyline, its love story informed the main character as he shaped his play and underscored the underlying themes of the film. "Eiffel" is only a flimsy fantasy retcon in comparison.

Now playing in theaters.

Nell Minow is the Contributing Editor at RogerEbert.com.

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Film credits.

Eiffel (2022)

Rated R for some sexuality/nudity.

108 minutes

Romain Duris as Gustave Eiffel

Emma Mackey as Adrienne Bourgès

Pierre Deladonchamps as Antoine Restac

Armande Boulanger as Claire Eiffel

Andranic Manet as Adolphe Salles

Alexandre Steiger as Jean Compagnon

Philippe Hérisson as Edouard Lockroy

Jérémie Petrus as Edmond

• Martin Bourboulon
• Caroline Bongrand
• Thomas Bidegain
• Nathalie Carter
• Martin Brossollet

Cinematographer

• Matias Boucard
• Virginie Bruant
• Valérie Deseine
• Alexandre Desplat

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The Eiffel Tower in Film

Few famous monuments have had a more impressive movie career than the Eiffel Tower. As a film about its construction hits cinemas, Peter de Villiers looks back at the iconic structure’s big screen appearances.

Tall, luminous and gorgeous from every angle, the Eiffel Tower is the perfect movie star. Small wonder, then, that France’s most recognisable structure has popped up in films for decades. And what a ride it’s been – from acting as a jungle gym for the world’s most famous spy and being rescued by a superhero, to inspiring both a founding father of the French New Wave and a rodent with rare culinary skills. During that time, the Eiffel Tower has been an excellent co-star – doing its job without ever hogging the limelight.

However, in director Martin Bourboulon’s film, Eiffel , the monument takes centre stage. Set in 1880s Belle Époque Paris, we follow Gustave Eiffel (Romain Duris) as he embarks upon the mammoth task of building what would become one of the world’s best-loved landmarks. The film also explores the role played by Adrienne Bourges (Emma Mackey), whose relationship with Eiffel shaped the skyline of Paris. As we delve into the Tower’s history, it’s the perfect time to look back at the monument’s cinematic past. Whether it’s being destroyed, acting as a platform for musical numbers or offering a porthole to another world, La Tour Eiffel remains a towering presence on screen.

The Lavender Hill Mob was released in 1951

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

So, here’s the plan. Hijack a consignment of gold bullion in London, melt it down and turn it into small Eiffel Tower paperweights so you can smuggle it off to Paris. The only snag for the mob in this Ealing Comedy starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway is that when they catch up with their loot at a kiosk at the Eiffel Tower, six of the souvenirs have accidentally been sold to British schoolgirls. And there’s more bad news – one of the girls plans to give her mini Eiffel Tower to her friend, who happens to be a policeman. While the Eiffel Tower holds its own (both in miniature and full-size form) in the movie, it has some of its thunder stolen by an up and coming actress who would go on to have a rather decent career. Look out for a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo from Audrey Hepburn in this classic crime caper. Tower rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Funny Face (1957)

Few films salivate over Paris quite like Stanley Donen’s 1957 musical, whose cast literally sings the praises of the City of Light. Audrey Hepburn plays Jo Stockton, a New York bookshop assistant who has just the right look to be the new face of fashion magazine Quality. Problem is, she won’t play ball with publisher Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) and photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire). Then she finds out the next shoot will be in Paris. The excitement the trio feel at being in the French capital is summed up with the jaunty number Bonjour Paris, where the characters run through their plans for the trip in a sequence that stitches together more must-see sights than a tourist office video. After a full day, all three agree there’s “something’s missing, there’s one more place to go”… Cue a gorgeous shot of the Eiffel Tower fronted by fountains as the trio take a lift to the top of the monument and enjoy panoramic vistas from the viewing platform. Tower rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Great Race (1965)

Whether it’s aliens in Mars Attacks!, puppets in Team America or an asteroid in Armageddon, Hollywood loves blowing the Eiffel Tower to smithereens. Perhaps the most unexpected – and certainly the most comical – destruction arrives at the end of The Great Race, Blake Edwards’ sweeping action adventure that sees the dashing Great Leslie (Tony Curtis) challenge the dastardly Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon) to a car race from New York to Paris. After a hectic journey which includes saloon brawls, polar bears and sinking boats, Leslie is leading as the competitors tear through Paris but, to prove to beautiful photojournalist Maggie DuBois (Natalie Wood) that he cares more about her than winning, our hero stops short of the finish line at the Eiffel Tower and lets Fate win. Incensed by this, Fate insists they race back to New York – all part of a plot to blow up Leslie’s car with a cannon. He misses, hitting the Eiffel Tower, which buckles and comes down in instalments in a comedy pratfall that would have made Jacques Tati proud. Tower rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The 400 Blows (1959)

François Truffaut’s debut feature film has perhaps the most famous title sequence in French movie history – one in which the Eiffel Tower plays a crucial role. The story about neglected youngster Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), who has to deal with self-absorbed parents and brutal police officers, starts with a travelling shot through the streets of Paris. The Eiffel Tower peeks out above rooftops at an angle suggesting it’s the point of view of a child sitting in the back seat of a car. Street by street, the camera moves ever closer to the structure, keeping its gaze locked on the tower. Eventually, we’re right under La Tour Eiffel, briefly staring up at its majesty before the car speeds away with France’s most reassuring symbol disappearing into the distance. It’s the most perfect of openings for a heartbreaking coming-of-age tale about a boy for whom a normal, happy life is out of reach. Tower rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Superman II (1980)

You really can’t take Lois Lane anywhere. In what is a common theme across the first two Superman movies, the Daily Planet’s best reporter, played by Margot Kidder, continually gets herself into trouble and is rescued by Superman (Christopher Reeve). And it doesn’t take long for Lois to do something stupidly dangerous after arriving in Paris in Richard Lester’s campy sequel. With terrorists taking over the Eiffel Tower and threatening to detonate a nuclear bomb, the journalist covers the story by hanging onto the bottom of a lift containing the device. She’s soon plummeting to her death, with Superman arriving in the nick of time – swooping in over Paris and catching the free-falling lift. With the residents of Paris still in mortal danger, the Man of Steel flies the lift straight through the top of the Eiffel Tower and into outer space where it explodes – leaving Lois standing on the Tower of Iron contemplating her next damsel-in-distress move. Tower rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Rémy looks out over Paris © Alamy

A View to a Kill (1987)

While the 14th Bond film came in for a lot of criticism when it was released in the late 1980s – not least because Roger Moore was 57 at the time of filming and needed a stunt double to run up stairs – A View to a Kill has a lot going for it: a great villain played by Christopher Walken; a memorable henchwoman in Grace Jones’ May Day and a fabulous chase scene on and around the Eiffel Tower. After killing a local private detective at the Jules Verne restaurant on the tower, May Day scarpers up the monument with Bond in fast (well fast-ish) pursuit. As 007 closes in, the assassin jumps off the top of the tower and parachutes to the bottom. Not to be outdone, Bond rides down atop of one of the lifts and hijacks a taxi to continue the chase. Tower rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Moulin Rouge! (2001)

The focus of Baz Luhrmann’s jukebox romantic drama might be the cabaret hall at the foot of Montmartre which gave us the can-can, but the Eiffel Tower – a fellow Belle Époque structure – does pop up in a pivotal scene. As the love between young writer Christian (Ewan McGregor) and star Moulin Rouge performer Satine (Nicole Kidman) starts to bloom, their romance is conveyed in a lavish reworking of Elton John classic “Your Song”. In what is an increasingly fantastical sequence, Christian’s voice lights up the Eiffel Tower before the couple twirl into the clouds and hunker under a pink umbrella while glitter rains down on them. With the moon smiling from on high, Christian hangs from the monument as he croons to Satine. It’s magical stuff all right. Tower rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ratatouille (2007)

Pixar’s love letter to Paris and its gastronomy has so many magical scenes, it’s difficult to narrow it down to just one. A strong contender, though, is the moment Rémy (Patton Oswalt) – a rat with a highly developed sense of taste and smell – realises the sewer he’s been hiding out in belongs to the greatest culinary destination on Earth. After being told to leave his gloomy surroundings and look around by the ghost of his hero, chef Auguste Gusteau (Brad Garrett), Rémy scurries up inside an apartment building and ends up on the roof. There, stretching out in front of him is the City of Light with the Eiffel Tower shimmering in the distance. “All this time I’ve been underneath Paris?” says Rémy, with the elation every foodie feels as they prepare to eat their way around the French capital. Tower rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Lost in Paris

Lost in Paris (2016)

Belgian filmmaking duo Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon use the French capital as their playground in the oddball Lost in Paris , their expertly crafted physical comedy routines reaching a climax at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Gordon plays Fiona, a Canadian in Paris looking for her lost aunt Martha (Emmanuelle Riva). During a bumbling search she crosses paths with homeless man Dom (Abel) who agrees to help her track down the missing pensioner. They eventually land up on the Eiffel Tower where the accident-prone Fiona almost tumbles to her death when the ladder she is climbing comes loose. They find Martha sleeping in a satellite dish and the trio take in spectacular views of Paris in what is a moving end to a mad adventure. Tower rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Men in Black: International (2019)

The Eiffel Tower may look harmless but, in the latest Men in Black film, it’s home to a wormhole that could lead to the destruction of the planet. Stepping up to stop parasitic race The Hive from piling into Paris are agents Hight T (Liam Neeson) and H (Chris Hemsworth) who, after interrupting a wedding proposal on the tower, do battle with the bad guys as the city sparkles below. Just when you think things are safe, Agents H and M (Tessa Thompson) need to travel back to the Eiffel Tower to stop another Hive surging and ensure the only heaving, bug-eyed creatures on the monument are tourists who decided to use the stairs and not the lift. Tower rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Romain Duris plays Gustave Eiffel © Antonin Menichetti

Eiffel Star Romain Duris on Playing Gustave Eiffel

As a proud Parisian, Romain Duris jumped at the chance to play Gustave Eiffel, the man who created the city’s most famous landmark. “Ever since I was a kid and even today, when I walk by the Eiffel Tower I am fascinated,” he explains. “To me, the monument has always been magical. And I was very drawn to the theme of the engineer-artist who finds refuge in his work and sees it through to completion as though it were a declaration of love.”

Making it easier for Duris to get under the skin of Eiffel (who also built the framework for the Statue of Liberty) was the scale of the production, from the lush period costumes to the construction of a life-sized reproduction of the Eiffel Tower. “Eiffel is incredibly spectacular,” he promises. “I realised this as I wandered around the set where foundations of the tower had been reconstructed full scale. And everything is heightened exponentially on-screen. It lends even more strength to your acting.”

Eiffel is now in cinemas in the UK and available to stream online. 

From France Today magazine

Lead photo credit : Romain Duris as Gustave Eiffel, in a scene from Eiffel

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New French film paints Eiffel Tower engineer as hopeless romantic

Period drama Eiffel portrays the anger the building of the tower provoked in 1880s

Gustave Eiffel, who gave France its famous tower, has long been portrayed as a man of nuts and bolts, a brilliant structural engineer and the architect of iron.

A new film that opened in France on Wednesday paints a rather different, softer picture of Eiffel as a hopeless romantic whose eponymous monument was as much a landmark to love as a triumph of engineering.

Eiffel , starring Romain Duris, is a period drama that suggests the tower’s A form was a constructed tribute to Eiffel’s first great amour , Adrienne Bourgès, played by Emma Mackey of the Netflix series Sex Education.

The film, directed by Martin Bourboulon, claims to be “freely inspired” by the historical facts and accurately shows how Eiffel was an unpopular figure in late 19th century Paris when his plans for the 10,100-tonne iron tower, intended to be a symbol of French industrial savoir-faire for the 1889 Universal Exhibition, were unveiled.

The engineer had been reluctant to take on the project; he and architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc – of Notre Dame Cathedral spire fame – had just finished building an iron and steel skeleton for the Statue of Liberty in New York and Eiffel was more interested in working on the Paris Métro system.

Historians have never established exactly what changed his mind. The film suggests he did so after bumping into Bourgès, who he had wanted to marry years earlier, rekindling their relationship despite the fact both were married and she to a politician who it suggests holds sway over Eiffel’s tower plans.

Eiffel received mostly positive reviews when it was first premiered in Australia earlier this year. One critic suggested the obsession driving the construction of “Paris’s grand folly” had rubbed off on the director, Martin Bourboulon, who signed off on the film only after four years, describing it as “a well-modulated melodrama … perfectly warm and undemanding”.

Another critic said Bourboulon had brought the story of the tower to life “while embellishing and entangling it with a love story which is, not to put too fine a point on it, a complete load of bollards from beginning to end”.

Eiffel dramatically portrays the anger the building of the tower provoked. In February 1887, when the foundations for the 312-metre structure which would rise from the banks of the Seine had only just been excavated, an angry collective including writers Guy de Maupassant and Alexandre Dumas the younger wrote: “We writers, painters, sculptors, architects, passionate fans of the beauty, until now intact, of Paris , hereby protest with all our force and our indignation, in the name of French taste … against the construction in the very heart of our capital of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower.”

It was intended to be dismantled after 20 years, but stood for 40 years as the world’s tallest building until the Chrysler Building in New York was finished in 1930, and in recent times attracted up to 7 million visitors a year pre-Covid.

The film, the biggest French production of 2020, has reportedly gone through a number of iterations from its first pitch meeting in 1997. French director Luc Besson is said to have originally wanted to make it with Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani in 2000. Its French producers are hoping the film will be a “French Titanic” mirroring the success of the 1997 historical blockbuster starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, which won 11 Oscars.

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