Notre-Dame in Flammen

Es ist gelungen. Notre-Dame in Flammen erfreut angenehm mit zivilisierter filmischer Handhabung, bei der keine der Charaktere im Film "die Hauptheldin" ist und jeder nur seine Rolle in einem prozeduralen Netzwerk von Handlungen und Reaktionen im Rahmen einem realen Ereignis erfüllt. Und es ist vor allem sehr beeindruckend gefilmt. Die Spezialeffekte sind auf einem solchen Niveau, dass ihre Integration nahtlos mit den verwendeten realen Aufnahmen verschmilzt und der Übergang zwischen ihnen praktisch unbemerkt bleibt. Das sieht man selten. (10.09.2022)

Der Brand von Notre-Dame ist zweifellos einer der Meilensteine der französischen Geschichte der letzten Jahre. Vor drei Jahren brannte nicht nur eine Kathedrale ab, sondern auch eines der Symbole von Paris, Frankreich und vielleicht sogar Europa. Annaud, der bald seinen 80. Geburtstag feiert, hat sich dieser (im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes) heiklen Geschichte angenommen und einen Film mit Spiel- und Archivpassagen gedreht, der dieses unselige Ereignis recht getreu wiedergibt, ohne jedoch in eine unnötige Erzählung zu verfallen. Alles dreht sich um die Kathedrale, den verheerenden Brand, die Entschlossenheit der Feuerwehrleute und ihren Wettlauf mit der Zeit. Anfangs störte mich das eingefügte Archivmaterial ein wenig, und es gab ein paar "seltsame" Szenen, die nicht in den Film gehörten, aber es ist dennoch ein solides Drama mit einem starken dokumentarischen Charakter und mehr als einer spannenden Szene. (24.04.2022)

Top-notch work with the blending of archival and staged footage, and a fierce montage most of the time, which exhausts you all the more in the right way as it thickens the action and puts new obstacles that take away the most precious thing: time. Annaud more or less ignores poetic insertions and, apart from the necessary emphasis on the immeasurable significance of Notre-Dame (religious through the relics present, national through the president present or architectural, which is explained by the guides in the introduction), he opts for an almost documentary realistic form, without any clichés, last-minute rescues, or heroic self-sacrifice. The firefighters represent a rather anonymous and dedicated workforce facing the biggest challenge of their careers, and Annaud manages to make sure the audience fully understands the importance of their mission. At several moments I was tense as a string, and perhaps it's just a pity about the finale, when the intensity lets up at the expense of a sensitive multiperspective experience. A top-notch catastrophe movie, the likes of which are hardly ever made anymore, with an experienced filmmaker who knows how to observe events objectively, not to force the audience into certain emotions and interpretations. The fifth star is not very far. 85 % (21.04.2022)

A reenactment of the 2019 national disaster where Notre-Dame, a symbol of Paris, burned down. Jean Jacques Annaud is an experienced director, though it must be admitted that his best years were two decades ago, but this he chose a rather attractive subject matter that begged for a film treatment, even if he took his own way of doing it, and that didn't sit well with me. There's no main character, so there's nobody to root for, and the film lacks any emotion because of it, which is a pretty major problem. It's shot in a modest way, it looks quite made-for-TV at times, but that didn't detract significantly. The beginning of the disaster itself is handled decently and there is definitely a high level of negligence on the part of the workers. Something like this could definitely have been avoided with the right attitude. The running time could have been shorter, watching firefighters put out a fire for an hour gets a little tiresome, especially when there's no one there to yell. It should probably be seen, but I can't say that I enjoyed watching it. 5/10 (04.09.2022)

What did I take away from the film? Yeah, it took a lot of work to put the fire out. That's all the movie gave me. The result is very inconsistent, because on the one hand I appreciate the footage of the real event, and I equally liked the insight into the internal practices of the firefighters, the demonstration of their real equipment, machines and robots, as well as the ashes flying all around and the lead flowing from the gargoyles. But on the other hand, qualitatively it's a bit of a TV movie. After a while the plot loses a pace, your interest linearly declines and in the end the film actually left me quite cold and didn't evoke any significant emotions. If the film was 30 minutes shorter and and more like a documentary, the result would have been noticeably better. This way feels unnecessarily long, but in the end I definitely can't say that it changed my life or perspective on the event. For fans of similar events and firefighters I guess it's a must, but otherwise I don't see why I would recommend Notre-Dame on Fire to anyone... (11.01.2023)