The Humor of Quasimodo d’El Paris

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Richard Berry as Frollo Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Richard Berry as Frollo

Do you know the old saying Dying is easy, Comedy is hard? That is so very, very true because what makes people sad is very universal but comedy differs person to person country to country, culture to culture.

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Richard Berry as Frollo Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Richard Berry as Frollo

The French defiantly have their own style of humor. First off the like puns a.k.a witty use of their language. The French love their language. Now my command of French is terrible so I can’t say if they use any Puns in this movie. If you want a witty Pun loving French movie I would HIGHLY recommend Ridicule.

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda

The style of French humor that  Quasimodo d’El Paris uses the most it would be more cruel mockery directed at other people. Basically insulting people in over the tops ways. This style of perfectly suited for Hunchback since Quasimodo is an easy target. But the don’t just target him, after all Esmeralda can’t dance.

Richard Berry as Frollo Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Richard Berry as Frollo

There is also the just plain excessive exageration, which is also a form of humor in other cultures notably in Asian ones. Frollo has a weird sense of exaggeration since he so dead-pan but very over the top about it. I sort of love that style of humor but it a weird on to pin down. I really like the dead pan devilry of “Let’s party”

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Richard Berry as Frollo Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Richard Berry as Frollo

The humor of Quasimodo  d’El Paris is very French in style so it’s understandable why other people may not like it but it fit the characters and the style of parody.

Hypothetical Casting for Esmeralda; Gemma Arterton

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Gemma Arterton picture image

Gemma Arterton

Today let’s consider an actress who could be a good casting choice for  Esmeralda if the movie went with her book backstory of being at least half-French and that actress is Gemma Arterton. This was a suggestion made by Amanda, click here to see the suggestion.

Gemma Arterton as Princess Tamina in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time picture image

Gemma Arterton as Princess Tamina in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Gemma Arterton is a British actress probably most known  for playing Princess Tamina in Prince of Persia. In that movie she does look quite exotic and would even fit the mold of Esmeralda who is s full Romani. Arterton’s look without all the dressings of Tamina would still suit Esmeralda. She has dark eyes and darker hair, though hair is so easily changeable. She doesn’t have that pale English Rose look either as her skin seems to be more olive which also a plus for Esmeralda.

Gemma Arterton as Tess in Tess of the D'Urbervilles picture image

Gemma Arterton as Tess in Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Now I admit I haven’t seen Prince of Persia, I only saw a few clips but she seemed fine in that movie. It’s hard to judge that movie as it’s a panned video game adaptation but she seem fine. I have seen her in the 2008 BBC mini series of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, in which she plays the main character. Tess is tragic figure very similar to Esmeralda. I won’t go into too much detail but in way like Esmeralda, Tess is a simple but beautiful young woman who is punished for being lovely. That is a rather simplistic over-view of both characters. Anyway Arterton does a wonderful job as Tess, she come-off as bittersweet, tragic but still very naive which are great quality to bring to the role of Esmeralda.

Gemma Arterton picture image

Gemma Arterton

What do you think? Would Gemma Arterton be a good Esmeralda.

The Style and Costumes of Quasimodo d’El Paris

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Vincent Elbaz as Phoebus, Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda & Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo Quasimodo d'el Paris picture image

Vincent Elbaz as Phoebus, Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda & Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo

Esmeralda wears Red, Grrrrrr, now that’s out of our system we can move on.  Quasimodo d’El Paris uses a very old but readily easy to red color style, characters you are meant to sympathize with I.E like are all in warm colorful tones while the other less likable characters are in stark colors or black and white. This isn’t like a super hard and fast rule as with the example of Esmeralda/Agnes.

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda

As Agnes she wears white. I suppose you could simply make the conclusion that the rich people wear the stark colors and the poorer soul wear colors. While I’m on the subject of Esmeralda, the red doesn’t bother me as much in this movie’s case. For one reason she is not a Romani where that color has negative connotations. In this movie she is a Cuban and while I don’t know the Cuban’s stance of the color red I can say that  the red triangle in their flag stands for equality, fraternity and freedom, none of which are bad things. Second Esmeralda is a lot more free-spitted and doesn’t have that purity she had in the book. And lastly, if you watch this movie and I mean REALLY watch you can see other Cuban ladies wearing the same outfit. It’s like this red dress is standard issue in the Court of Miracles.

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda

It’s not just the characters that are set in the warmer tones, Notre Dame a.k.a the Cathedral of El Paris has a  more of an orange hue. The actual Notre Dame has a cooler taupe color while the movie’s Cathedral  is slightly warm in color. It’s not a dramatic difference of color but it’s notability in your mind.

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo

Quasimodo also wears warm colors, mostly orange but some times blue. The point is he wears colors. Likable characters and places get happy colors and not nice people get no colors. Though Frollo is traditionally suppose to be in black.

Richard Berry as Frollo Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Richard Berry as Frollo

Just a side note about Frollo, his facial hair. This is the first time Frollo gets a any type of facial hair.  Oddly this type of facial hair is called a “Soul Patch.” It’s funny because he’s a priest trying to save people’s soul. It does make him look more sinister too. Otherwise his overall look is closest to Sir Cedric Hardwaicke from 1939 version, which is the standard Frollo movie look.

 

The Setting of Quasimodo d’El Paris

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Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda

Unlike most every other version of Hunchback of Notre Dame, this one misses the Notre Dame. Instead we have El Paris and its by all accounts nameless cathedral. Now is it ultimately important that Notre Dame isn’t in the movie? I would say no, it’s not. Just because Notre Dame inspired the story it doesn’t change the fact that this movie is a parody but it is a little vexing that that cathedral really doesn’t have a name, Cathedral of El Paris really isn’t much of a name.

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Richard Berry as Frollo Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Richard Berry as Frollo

In this movie the Cathedral is little more than a backdrop, half the time you really forget the movie takes place in the church, It’s either Quasimodo’s bedroom or  Frollo’s pad/ creepy lair. Any sense of the Church’s majesty jut isn’t there.

Then there is El Paris itself or The Paris. If there is some joke I’m not getting because my knowledge Spanish and French is limited at best than I concede it, I don’t understand the joke. But there is little to understand about El Paris as it seems normal except that Cuban population seems to live in restaurant. Really, I’m more confused about where the city is located. I would guess somewhere in Europe but who knows. It just not located in Cuba.

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda

Setting is a big point in any Hunchback version and here in this more they could have made it bigger point of interest as it’s a parody but all they did was give Quasimodo a childish bedroom and Frollo some weird decorated rooms.

Quasimodo d’el Paris Post Postponed

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Sorry guys, due my own procrastination and being sick there will be no new post on Quasimodo  d’el Paris this week but I won’t leave you with nothing.

I was seeing if there was any new info on the Max Ryan version of Hunchback  when I saw on IMDB that the only cast for this movie is now Max Ryan as The Hunchback and Steven Berkoff as Advisor.

Does this mean that the ‘pivotal’ roles of the Giant and the Figment have been cut? Maybe, movies do get rewritten even as they are being made (though this Hunchback version is still in pre-production). Fun Fact Gone with the Wind was getting rewrite like everyday of filming and went through three directors.

Another possibility is that the cast they has listed are no longer attached to the project so the roles just aren’t listed and there will be The Giant and The Figment. I mean, Esmeralda and Frollo were never listed but at one point prior to the movie getting a listing on IMDB  there actors in negotiations for the parts, Monica Cruz and John Rhys-Davies.  I think this is the case because I for one and very curious about the Giant and the figment  and at the same time scared.

 

 

The Parents of Quasimodo d’El Paris; The Governor and his Wife

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So just a quick question, if El Paris is run by a governor does that make El Paris a state or is just the capital? Or is it governor in the British sense where is he head of a public institution?

Quasimodo d'el Paris picture image

Didier Flamand as The Governor and Axelle Abbadie as The Governor’s wife

Anyway the unnamed The Governor and his Wife are both the parents of Quasimodo and Agnes/Esmeralda. Biologically they are the parents of Quasimodo but traded him for pretty blonde Esmeralda and renamed her Agnes.

To put it mildly, they are terrible parents and terrible people. The movie makes it seem that The Governor is just dumb, like on the level with Phoebus and his Wife is the horrible one. The wife, and I hate that is what I have to call her, she is the one that wants to get rid of her own child because of the deformities caused by her husband. Yeah, the parents created Quasimodo’s maladies. The Governor dropped Quasimodo on his face as an infant and threw against a wall as child. These were not done of purpose, they result of Clopin’s curse, the drop was an accident and the throwing was for protection The Governor just aimed badly.   The Governor however did make the deformity occur and his wife being the awful shallow person got rid of him.

Despite his lack of smarts, The Governor does seem to care for Quasimodo, informing Clopin of Quasimodo’s strict diet where he only eats meat but prefer fat. The Wife is vain and she doesn’t get on well with either Agnes or Quaismodo and in the end she is punished for her lack of feelings and die shy Frollo’s hand because he is insane.

In the scheme of being a Hunchback of Notre Dame adaptation these characters are new aspect. Aside from Gudule, who is present in the movie and Frollo’s role as Quasimodo’s guardian there are no parents in the story, aside from Fleur de Lys’ mother. Quasimodo’s parents are not mention in the book and present in the Disney version but all we really know is that he was abandoned and swapped with Esmeralda. To date this is the only movie version to handle this detail. It is unknown if Quasimodo was abandon by French parents and found by the Gypsies or if he was actually a Gypsy. This version imagines Quasimodo’s birth parents albeit in a simple cruel manner. There is nothing deep to them and their motivation for getting rid of him was that he was unlucky and ugly two aspects that they inflicted on the child.

It is refreshing to see a version of Quasimodo’s parents  but they are so very, very unlikable and not even in a very fun way. I did like the way the Wife said that Esmeralda’s name was Agnes.

Gringoire of Quasimodo d’El Paris; He’s a Ninny

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Patrick Braoudé as Pierre-Grégoire Quasimodo d'el Paris picture image

Patrick Braoudé as Pierre-Grégoire

One question we need to REALLY ask with regards to ANY Hunchback adaptation is “Are certain characters really necessary to over-all version of the story that the movie is TRYING  to tell?”  With Quasimodo d’El Paris the main focus is making the movie  a modern comedy while still trying to be accurate.  This means the movie NEEDED Gringoire as he is both in the original story and one of the lighter characters but does the movie do much with him? Nope.

Gringoire starts the movie as the ignored entrainment at Agnes’ birthday party. He then get’s drunk and him and Agnes wonder around and run into the Cuban. The Court of Miracle scene occurs and they are married and that is pretty much it for Gringoire. He kind lurks around Clopin after that and acts the coward and a bit of a dummy.

He is not fully a side character or used for decent comedy, every one is being silly in some way so what different if he says cowardly/goofy/weird things once in a while. Esmeralda could have let him die and it wouldn’t have changed much in the narrative.  So was he necessary for this version? Not Really but I wished he had done more, I feel like their was wasted potential because point for point when he was doing more in the movie he was a decent version of the character just super underutilized in the 2nd and 3rd acts.

 

 

Clopin Trouillefou of Quasimodo d’El Paris; Malediction

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Dominique Pinon as Clopin Trouillefou, Quasimodo d'el Paris picture image

Dominique Pinon as Clopin Trouillefou,

Let’s just get this out of the way, Clopin says malediction instead of Frollo, can no version ever get it right? I kid.

Clopin in this version, like in other versions, is the leader of the Court of Miracles and the leader of the outcasts, in this case the Cubans. He doesn’t do all that much but he is a big catalyst for the story. He is one who “curses” Quasimodo and made him ugly AND he is the one who arranges the swap of Esmeralda and Quasimodo for their terrible parents. Otherwise he doesn’t do that much. He wanted to attack the cathedral to save Esmeralda but thought better of  it because Quasimodo was both very  strong and was acting a lot of impulse but throwing stuff of the cathedral fairly unprovoked.

That being said, Clopin is shown to be smarter than all the characters and saner, though that doesn’t take much in this movie. All in all, he is likable, I just wish he got to do more.

 

Hypothetical Casting for Fleur de Lys; Sarah Bolger

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Sarah Bolger picture image

Sarah Bolger

I love getting suggestions for these Hypothetical Casting posts especially for the minor characters. This one comes from Amanda as seen on my post for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Phoebus.  This one is for Sarah Bolger as Fleur de Lys.

Sarah Bolger as Mary Tudor, The Tudors picture image

Sarah Bolger as Mary Tudor, The Tudors

Bolger is an Irish actress who most known for her roles as Mary Tudor on The Tudors and Aurora on Once Upon a Time. Of these two shows, I have seen one and clips of the other. The one I have seen was The Tudors and though I could be wrong, I think her role as Mary Tudor speaks more to her capacity to play Fleur de Lys. Mary much like Fleur de Lys is under appreciated and has a cruel side, though Fleur de Lys is on a smaller scale than Mary Tudor. When I was watching The Tudors I recalled that I wonderd how Mary could go from a seemingly nice person to someone who wanted to burn people.  In any case Bolger has the acting skill to pull of a sympathetic yet menacing Fleur de Lys.

Sarah Bolger as Aurora, Once Upon a Time picture image

Sarah Bolger as Aurora, Once Upon a Time

Now for looks, Bolger doesn’t have that standard trait that is associate with Fleur de Lys, she isn’t blonde, GASP. Hair color is not a deciding factors for an actor after all there are wigs and hair dye. Besides the point there is no working rule that Fleur de Lys needs to be a blonde, it’s just a nice visual foil to Esmeralda, but since there have been blonde or near Blonde Esmerlada who to say what hair-color Fleur should. Beside Bolger has played a formerly blonde character turn Auburn with Aurora.  Aside from the ever huge issue that is hair color, Bolger has a very good look for Fleur de Lys as Amanda said in the comments “she is very pretty and have this manipulative-cute look.”  I really don’t think I could have said that better.

Sarah Bolger picture image

Sarah Bolger

But what do you think? Would Sarah Bolger make a good Fleur de Lys? Also would people be interested in posts on Once Upon a Time episodes? I have thought about it in the past.

 

 

 

Phoebus of Quasimodo d’El Paris; A self-proclaimed Chameleon

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Vincent Elbaz as Phoebus, Quasimodo d'el Paris picture image

Vincent Elbaz as Phoebus

If I can be real here for a second, there isn’t a lot to say about Phoebus, which is interesting in a sense. I say it’s interesting because is that character who is in a sense a chameleon, he can be whatever the movie needs him to be, hero, villain, minion extra.  I would in the scope of this movie Phoebus is more of the minion but not to the bad guys, he’s just a cop which does make him a  straignt  by-the-book version of Phoebus. Th sonly thing that makes him a little different is he is a moron.

Vincent Elbaz as Phoebus, Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda & Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo Quasimodo d'el Paris picture image

Vincent Elbaz as Phoebus, Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda & Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo

Now Phoebus wasn’t smart in the book but this Phoebus is a totally dumb-ass. For example he thinks cemetery is the  serial-killer’s handiwork.  He also can’t recognize Agnes as Esmeralda. It’s not even a Clark Kent type of thing, she isn’t hiding it she simply acting happier with her hair down and a new dress.  Even when he subdues Quasimodo from kidnapping Esmeralda, he takes a very dumb route of throwing everything off hi person, i.e. his shirt. It’s a good thing Quasimodo was kind of dumb too or else we wouldn’t have got the “pillory” scene that leads into Phoebus’ stabbing later, or a big section of the plot.

Vincent Elbaz as Phoebus, Quasimodo d'el Paris picture image

Vincent Elbaz as Phoebus

Phoebus does make an interesting point which is a bit akin to the book. He says he is a chameleon, in that he acts like a slob when around slobs and a snob when he around rich people. That is true to Phoebus in the book and also, he prefers the slobs which could also be why he prefers Esmeralda to Agnes even though they are the same person in this case.

Phoebus also dies in this movie but no from his stabbing. Frollo pushes him off the church. Making it the first time this happens to a Phoebus. All in all this Phoebus is only interesting in his stupidity though it’s funny when he jokingly says he is shy and a prude, he is not.