Eiffel

I was lucky enough to see this film in Sydney for the French Film Festival. It captures not only a wonderful engineering feat, but also the thrilling life and times of the Eiffel Tower's creator. A man who was unrelenting in his desire to create a legacy, regardless of the pressure on him.

I can only hope that this film gets a cinematic release that it deserves in Europe and elsewhere.

First and foremost a overly sappy romantic drama that checks all the usual clichés. Apart from the 3rd act, the eiffel tower construction takes a back seat to this romance story. And this 3rd act is wich stood out the most, for the overall good execution and telling the story of the eiffel tower construction. But overall it's a basic, well made, romance movie with a few hints of originality sprinkled throughout.

6/10: little basic, but not that bad tbh.

The acting was good, as were the photography and the sets which suitably evoked the Paris of the 1880s and the tower construction.

I felt it a shortcoming that the film seemed to reduce the massive engineering design work to little more than Eiffel drawing sketches of his planned tower. In those pre-computer times, there would have had to be teams of people doing calculations (probably with slide rules), but while this aspect did not need to be laboured, it would have been good to at least give it some acknowledgement by having Eiffel walk through the office.

As already noted in the comments, the background love story sometimes intrudes on the film narrative. There also seems a jump in the tower construction to finalisation, despite questions having been raised about the ongoing support of the council and funding.

Overall, an enjoyable film, even if not in the 'great' category.

The movie "Eiffel" is more interesting from a historical point of view of the building of the tower than the fictional romance between its builder and Adrienne. But I must admit that the authors managed to create a credible plot by mixing the history of the professional career of Mr. Eiffel with a fictional romance where destiny plays a big role. Overall, this movie turned out to be a typical melancholy drama.

I can't imagine if you leave out a parallel drama - Eiffel's love story - what would the ratings have been? If Titanic got a 7.9 and it's about a love story on a sinking ship, what's with all the 1's?

I found that the cinematography was good, acting believable, and the tower's history interesting.

So I'll give it an 8.