The Great Arch

A captivating Claes Bang (‘The Square’) leads a superb ensemble cast in director Stéphane Demoustier’s darkly comic and thought-provoking new film, as an idealistic architect whose quest to build an ambitious landmark in Paris triggers unforeseen consequences.

1982. President François Mitterrand has launched an international competition to design the flagship project of his term: the Great Arch of La Défense, a building to match and complement the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. To the surprise of everyone, the commission is won by an unknown 53-year-old from Copenhagen, Otto von Spreckelsen. An outsider with only a few modernist churches to his name, the stunning submission – taking the form of a perfect white cube – becomes the talk of the capital.

Spreckelsen and his wife Liv (the marvellous Sidse Babett Knudsen) arrive in Paris to commence work, overseen by the project’s shrewd managing bureaucrat (Xavier Dolan). However, the purity of Spreckelsen’s design is quickly tested not only by budgetary constraints but the vicissitudes of politics, forcing the couple to consider whether the pursuit of perfection is worth the emotional and physical toll.

Inspired by remarkable true events, THE GREAT ARCH depicts a near-mythic story of both grand and lost illusions; a reminder that architecture, like cinema, is not just about one person’s vision, but also collective perception.