DIRECTOR
Stéphane Demoustier
Borgo, The Girl with a Bracelet (La fille au bracelet)

STARS
Claes Bang, Michel Fau, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Xavier Dolan

And the award for the most misleading film representation goes to… The Great Arch!

To help ensure that you do not enter The Great Arch with a valid and very specific expectation and exit with disappointment feeling as though you were just subject to The Great Scam, allow me to make one crucial piece of information clear.

Despite its title and being featured on the poster, The Great Arch is not a film depicting the erection of the world-famous Parisian arch, Arc de Triomphe, built in the early 1800s. This titular arch refers to La Grande Arche de la Défense, a monument and building in Paris’ business district, and is therefore set much further ahead in time; between 1983 and 1987.

Still, The Great Arch is inspired by true events and is based on the 2016 novel La Grande Arche. Wonder washes over a group of people after French President François Mitterrand (Michel Fau) announces the lucky winner of a competition held to decide who will design this grand arch. The winner is not merely unknown to the French; he is not even French or living in France! He is Johan Otto von Spreckelsen (Claes Bang), a 53-year-old Danish architect teacher who has previously built only a few minor structures. With his supportive wife (Sidse Babett Knudsen) by his side as they relocate to the French capital, Otto must deal with one bureaucratic hurdle after another on his way to realising a dream that is proving to be elusive.

As someone who opts to view each film with very little prior knowledge and deliberately avoids trailers, I cannot deny the great disappointment and underwhelm that washed over me upon learning very early into this film it isn’t about ‘that great arch’! Consequently and very unfortunately for the serviceable true story to be told in The Great Arch, recovering from such a revelation was always going to be an uphill battle for this film.

Well, after expecting Goliath and being given David without knowing how it will end, to its credit, what is mostly a moderately interesting story at best does manage to keep itself relevant without ever being riveting courtesy of writing and acting that is quite simply good enough for long enough.

The script acts as a deep excavation into the everyday exchanging of discourses, logistical information and endless arguments between various characters that ultimately renovated Otto’s initial good luck and dream gig into a spiralling nightmare. The relentless verbal battles can get rather repetitive and be tiresome to sit through but the impact they have to Otto’s psyche and his core characteristics, and subsequently his life, which come to the fore during the final act, is when The Great Arch stands at its strongest.

The Great Arch is showing in selected cinemas across Australia from October 1st, 2026.

Moviedoc thanks Palace Films for the invitation to the screening of this film.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc

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