Great-great-great-grandson of Gustave Eiffel, Savin Yeatman-Eiffel is also the vice-president of the association of the descendants of the engineer, which defends his memory and his works.
This director and screenwriter is well acquainted with the history of Eiffel, which his grandmother Jeanine, Gustave's great-granddaughter, often spoke to him about.
He had not been able to read the screenplay for "Eiffel" before the shooting, but he discovered Martin Bourboulon's film during a preview screening.
How did you react when you discovered “Eiffel”?
SAVIN YEATMAN-EIFFEL
.
I was initially a little surprised by certain biases of the film and the fact of seeing members of my family embodied on the screen
(Editor's note: Gustave Eiffel, but also Claire Eiffel and Adolphe Salles, the grandparents of Savin's grandmother)
.
But in the end, I let myself be carried away by the breath of the story and the power of the images.
The film should not be viewed as a
biopic
or a documentary: it is a spectacular feature film which, while drawing on historical elements, delivers a fictionalized version of the facts.
What did you think of the brushed portrait of Gustave Eiffel?
What particularly pleased me, it is precisely to see Gustave Eiffel embodied in flesh and blood. Romain Duris' interpretation is very convincing. The film highlights Gustave's energy very well, his taste for risk, his passion for his work. In fact, you cannot embark on such daring projects as the Eiffel Tower, the Maria Pia bridge in Porto or the Garabit viaduct in Cantal without being a team leader and a leader. You have to imagine that when the Eiffel Tower was built, the tallest monument in the world, the Washington Obelisk, inaugurated only three years earlier, measured only 169 m! Eiffel, he decided to build a tower twice as high, in record time, 2 years and 2 months, without electricity or robotics ... but only with a few steam cranes,plans carefully drawn up in pencil, the talent of its engineers and the strength of the arms of its 300 workers. Gustave Eiffel had a desire to surpass himself which has spanned his entire career.
To read also Lack of funding, succession of directors ... why the film "Eiffel" was a cursed project
“Eiffel” also reveals a complex and sensitive Gustave Eiffel…
Yes.
We understand that Eiffel had on his shoulders the weight of the pressure imposed by major projects and that of the tragedies in his life.
Gustave lost his wife very early on, when she was only 32 years old.
The Eiffel Tower does not need anyone to shine, but this film allows us to take an interest in man, to make Gustave's heart beat on the screen.
