Most of this film is pretty good, merging the two strands of the building of possibly the world's most famous monument, with the tangled love-life of the chief engineer (whether the latter has any basis in fact, I have no idea, but that doesn't affect how I rate the film).
The former strand is the more interesting; there's a wonderful scene centring around the attachment of the first cross-piece, which give the audience vertigo.
But.
There are many loose ends not tied up. Eiffel loses most of his financial backers, for example, and it's never quite explained how he manages to carry on anyway. The tide of popular opinion is against the tower in its early stages, and it's never explained how the public is won round.
Then there's the ending. We go from a crisis meeting at a point when the tower has yet to reach its second level - only to see the tower fully completed two scenes later. At which the film just ends.
A promising subject badly handled.
The former strand is the more interesting; there's a wonderful scene centring around the attachment of the first cross-piece, which give the audience vertigo.
But.
There are many loose ends not tied up. Eiffel loses most of his financial backers, for example, and it's never quite explained how he manages to carry on anyway. The tide of popular opinion is against the tower in its early stages, and it's never explained how the public is won round.
Then there's the ending. We go from a crisis meeting at a point when the tower has yet to reach its second level - only to see the tower fully completed two scenes later. At which the film just ends.
A promising subject badly handled.