It seems axiomatic to say that stories about architects are inherently monumental. People who design buildings contend with the future in ways that are different from how other artists work, simply because their creations are supposed to be useful, presumably forever. Novels like The Fountainhead and movies like The Brutalist and Megalopolis present men (always men) who look upon their task as being divine since it affects so many and requires the control of hundreds of people. In a way, the only other artistic vocation that approaches architecture in terms of marshaling human resources for a large work is film directing. 

The protagonist of the French-Danish co-production, The Great Arch, is Danish architect Johan Otto von Spreckelsen (Claes Bang), who in 1983 entered a contest to design a building in the western business district of Paris that would commemorate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution by tying the great monuments of the city together. When his design, a kind of hollowed out cube, is selected, there is consternation because there seems to be no information about von Spreckelsen available. Even the Danish Embassy doesn’t know who he is. However, since the building is the pet project of then President Francois Mitterrand, his aide, the insufferably obsequeous Jean-Louis Subilon (Xavier Dolan, acting way out of type), tracks the architect down and brings him to Paris, where he proves to be every bit as egotistical and protective of his art as any Ayn Rand character, even if all he’s designed up to that point is a few churches and his own home. The director, Stephane Demoustier, doubles down on the technical aspects of the architect’s demands, which repeatedly run up against the entrenched French bureaucracy. In the beginning he manages to cut through much of this red tape thanks to the support of Mitterrand (Michel Fau), the help of a rival French architect (Swann Arlaud) who deigns to be his project manager, and bullheadedly practical wife, Liv (Sidse Babett Knudsen); but once Mitterrand’s party loses the government, the new right-wing regime considers the project a waste of money and attempts to change the design significantly, a move that von Spreckelsen resists mightily but ineffectually.

The story is chock full of conflict but oddly lacking in dramatic tension except in those scenes where emotions run hot. And while the movie is based on a true story, the tragic outcome presented by the script may not have been so tragic in the scheme of things. There is a strange title card at the beginning of the movie that implies much of what we are about to see is made up, including some of the characters (even Liv is mostly a fabrication, apparently), thus adding up to a weird historical juxtaposition that might have been better served by a documentary. As it stands, I want to know more, because the fiction doesn’t sell the story as well as it should. 

In French, Danish and English. Opens July 17 in Tokyo at Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho (03-6259-8608), Shinjuku Musashinokan (03-3354-5670). 

The Great Arch home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2025 AGAT Films, Le Pacte