“Notre

The breathtaking film by filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud, “Notre-Dame is burning”, does not fail to reflect the spiritual nature of the fire of Notre-Dame de Paris in April 2019. In theaters this Wednesday, March 16, it retraces the exceptional intervention of the firefighters on the evening of the fire.

On the night of April 15 to 16, 2019, two beating hearts go up in smoke. The architectural jewel that is Notre-Dame de Paris and the spiritual radiance of a cathedral for millions of French people. During the dramatic fire, a spontaneous crowd gathered there to witness an unimaginable scene. A belt of passers-by literally surrounds the surroundings for meters, so that the Ile de la Cité becomes impassable. We mourn Notre-Dame on one side, we pray for her on the other, while the firefighters try to save what remains, such as the treasures of the cathedral, from the flames. The faithful address their songs to Notre-Dame, here a gospel choir, there traditional Catholic songs or a Hail Mary.

One of the failings of our society is to have lost the sense of the sacred.

In his filming logbook (Notre-Dame Brûle, filming logbook, by Jean-Jacques Annaud and Stéphane Boudsocq), the director reveals that “the religious he has already met are not surprised that it is he who is making this film”. Jean-Jacques Annaud is not a believer but carries in him, since childhood, an undeniable attraction for the religious one. Coming from an atheist and republican family, no one introduced him to any religion or to the existence of an afterlife. He remembers around the age of 12 “having felt a lack of it”. And to admit, “I probably needed spirituality”. He then became passionate about medieval architecture and sacred music. Since then, if he considers himself unable to recite the slightest prayer, he has “a deep respect for the faith of others”.

It is therefore with skepticism mixed with fascination that he gathers opposing opinions on the rescue of Notre-Dame which, according to him, is very rational, even if he lends it a miraculous character. “Many of those I speak to have absolute certainty that a supreme force transformed the event of April 15, 2019…” The statue of the Virgin located inside the cathedral, for example, was entirely spared, despite the serious damage around, just like the Holy Crown of Thorns. His rescue in extremis by the firefighters and at the height of the danger, very well reported in the film, is itself quite eloquent in this sense. “Basically, one of the failings of our society is to have lost the sense of the sacred,” he admits. Jean-Jacques Annaud has in any case taken care to insert, towards the end of the film, the image of this statue spared at the heart of the disaster.

The rescue of the crown of thorns

One of the plots of the film revolves around the rescue of the crown of thorns, as important as that of the cathedral in the eyes of the religious authorities. Saint Louis had acquired it around 1230, at a high price, since the sum represented half of the budget of the kingdom of France. It is obviously not because of this market value that the Crown of Christ finds its value, even if we must respect the efforts of History. So, this evening of April 15, the firefighters, through discussions with experts, suddenly become aware of the urgency of also saving this spiritual treasure. But there are two copies of the crown: the copy and the real one, of which few people are aware. Only a handful holds the code of the safe where the original is. The Crown is then in the chapel of Seven Sorrows, in the axis of the transept, under the rickety warheads of Notre-Dame, from which come out both lead and flames.

A magnificent scene also illustrates the director’s respect for the sacred, when the firefighters’ chaplain saves the chalice containing the consecrated hosts, the living body of Christ, in the tabernacle. Jean-Jacques Annaud knew how to give both in the sensational and in the spiritual, without overdoing it in either, with finesse and mastery of good taste. And he shows us, by dint of investigation and work, what really happened that terrible night, from the most beautiful to the most terrible.

Practice :

Our Lady Burnsby Jean-Jacques Annaud, with Samuel Labarthe, Jean-Paul Bordes and Mickaël Chirinian, 1h50, in theaters on March 16.

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WEB-GENERAL JEAN CLAUDE GALLET-AFP-000_1FO8D2

“Notre-Dame is burning”, an eminently spiritual film