'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater Podcast now up and running! All podcasts also on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
An earlier version of this review appeared in Baron Dave's Live Journal.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Victor Hugo, 1831) took me more than a year to read. I hashed my way through the first several chapters, then set it aside. A year later, I picked up where I had left off, and somewhat to my surprise it was pretty good! Maybe I needed a year to mellow. Maybe the beginning was boring and all the characters were now introduced. I dunno. So I rented the 1939 movie starring Charles Laughton (consistently recommended as the most faithful and best version) and the 1996 Disney adaptation. While they're fresh in my mind, I'm going to review all three.
I feel a bit odd giving spoiler warnings for a 174 year old book, a 66 year old movie and a ten year old movie but there you have it. Spoilers!
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a novel about the contrast of opposites. A lowly cripple occupying the highest physical location and eventually the highest moral ground. The loud bells that can be heard by everyone in Paris except the deaf bellringer. The King of France vs. the King of the Beggars. A trial in the Court of Miracles (that dispenses a rough justice) vs. the state court (which literally can't hear the truth and dispenses arbitrary punishment). A very vertical book, where the high and mighty contrast with the low and powerless in physical space. Hugo makes ironic statements about the godly vs. the heathen. A very down book, and no one wins... except the architecture which continues on. Only man's work survives, not man himself.
The story starts out with the assembled at a play by Gringoire. This contrasts the ending with roughly the same people assembled at Notre Dame. At the play, hecklers in the rafters rain insults down on the crowd and the play. At Notre Dame, Quasimodo rains death. After the play, the action adjourns outside to the Feast of Fools, where a Pope of Fools is crowned: Quasimodo. I won't go into all the plot (because I don't remember details from a year ago) but we meet Chopin, King of Thunes (ie King of the Beggars). Gringoire and Quasimodo get help from La Esmeralda: She marries Gringoire to save him from being executed because he trespassed in the Court of Miracles; a chaste marriage, just to spare his life. Quasimodo, who had helped Frollo in his attempt to kidnap her, had taken the entire blame and was put on trial and unfairly punished, and La Esmeralda was the only one to give him water after his flogging. Claude Frollo is the Archdeacon in charge of Notre Dame; both movies have him as a magistrate not a man of the cloth, even though his vows of chastity are critical to the plot, presumably because they didn't want to offend the church. Frollo adopts the deformed four-year-old on Quasimodo Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter, when he is twenty, and the action in the book takes place 16 years later.
Throughout the book are long sweeping descriptions of the rooftops of Paris, the history of the city and its people, and of the meaning and use of Sanctuary and how it can be denied. Hugo often talks directly to the reader.
Esmeralda is a kind innocent, but she's an idiot. She's a 15/16 year old dark-skinned Gypsy. Her race has a very bad reputation, and she makes money by dancing. She (and her goat) are outcasts who only find a home with the beggars of Paris. She's kind to Gringoire the poet and Quasimodo, the ugly deaf cripple. She falls in love with the one guy who only wants to fuck her. Phoebus is a cad and a bounder who has a chance to save Esmeralda and doesn't. Frollo isn't evil at first, but can't handle his own sexuality. As she's about to get laid for the first time, a jealous Frollo stabs Pheobus and Esmeralda is accused of being a witch. (As is her goat.). Her virginity is a big deal, because according to the charm she wears as a necklace she can only find her mother if she's pure.
She gets threatened with torture and confesses to being a witch, and is locked up in the dungeon until her hanging. As she is brought to the gallows, Quasimodo rescues her and takes her up to the sanctuary of Notre Dame. A very vertical relocation. Unable to leave, she still only pines for Phoebus and ignores her rescuer. Her blindness contrasts with Quasimodo's deafness.
Quasimodo is also an innocent, but his deafness causes him to do injustice, just like the deaf magistrate. He doesn't realize that Parliament has revoked Sanctuary and the vagabonds are trying to thwart the authorities. He attacks the crowd trying to save Esmeralda, thereby ensuring her death. She gets spirited away by Frollo and Gringoire: architecture and literature, high and low, powerful and powerless, married to Esmeralda but chaste and married to the church but lustful. She is publicly hung as a witch, while Phoebus and his most recent conquest watch. Ironically, it is only because she wants to get laid and is being hanged that she finally meets her mother. (The mother is a whole subplot not in either movie, presumably to contrast her love for her child vs. Frollo's cold contempt for his adopted son.) Frollo, having sent Gringoire away with the goat, returns to Notre Dame. He watches Esmeralda hang and Quasimodo sees it too, and pushes him off the parapet, where he bounces off the gargoyles on the way down. (He doesn't get picked up and thrown, like in both movies.)
In the book, all the main characters die except Phoebus: Esmeralda is hung as a witch, Frollo gets pushed off Notre Dame, Quasimodo dies in Esmeralda's tomb; meanwhile, Pheobus recovers from his knife wound and watches Esmeralda die, even knowing he could save her. Various characters not in either movie also die a grisly death. In the 1939 movie, Pheobus and Frollo die. In the Disney version, Frollo is much more evil and dies a far more dramatic death. Both movies set up the concept of Sanctuary differently, which is not bad but is also not particularly accurate. Who is breaking into Notre Dame is vastly different in the movies. In the book and 1939 movie, the crowd understands that Sanctuary is about to be revoked and are trying to rescue Esmeralda. In the Disney version, Frollo is trying to get her for Nefarious Purposes, and fails because of Quasimodo's valiant defense of the church. Both movies have Esmeralda and Pheobus riding off together while Quasimodo stays in the upper reaches of Notre Dame, looking down, wondering if he's made of stone.
The novel is extremely sexist: The men are hormonal dolts who fall madly in love with a woman before they even speak to her. The women, with the exception of La Esmeralda, are far more level-headed (in this vertical novel) and brave. Perhaps that appealed to the conventions of the day, and certainly women think so yet, but it still feels insulting.
The 1939 adaption of The Hunchback of Notre Dame is directed by William Deiterle, who made a number of films as Wilhelm Dieterle in Germany and who is influenced by German Expressionism. His version reminded me a lot of Metropolis, all about the cusp of the old and new and the spark of revolution created by a dancing girl. Metropolis' tag line is "There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator" . In Hunchback, this is entirely true... the heart fails as mediator and there is no understanding. This movie has the same plot as the book, but it changes the fate of virtually all the main characters. And, fitting with the German Expressionism theme but NOT the theme of the book, changes the name of the goat from Djali to Aristotle. The first scene in the movie is not in the book, but the discussion of the printing press is a major exegesis by Hugo. The movie gets it wrong: The printing press is not the dividing line between the old and the new, it's the synergistic invention that changes the historical record from architecture to the written word. "The book will kill the edifice", writes Hugo in a book. Writing will last longer, since it has no substance to crumble. I give them credit for exploring the ramifications of the most groundbreaking invention of the last thousand years but I wish they'd gotten the context right. The discussion of Columbus was anachronistic and contrived.
Leftover notes: The most obvious reference to Metropolis is the mass of peasants (the Truands in the book) marching in a triangle, approaching Notre Dame. Oddly, Charles Laughton has the wrong eye being blind; the book makes it clear that the left eye has a wart over it. In the book, Louis XI doesn't leave his room high in the Bastille but in the movie he's as active as Gandalf. And Quasimodo is lame, so the leaping around is not in character. This version is superbly produced with a fine cast and I can see why people like it. But, alas, it doesn't capture the soul of the book.
The plot of the 1996 Disney animated The Hunchback of Notre Dame has some vague relationship to the book, but thematically this movie is much closer to the source material. The gargoyles, in the book as hecklers from on high (in the opening scene, in neither movie) and as Quasimodo's friends (his only companions in the lonely belltower of the church; "the cathedral was not only his society, it was his universe"), are animated and singing, but are clearly shown as an extension of Quasimodo. Latin is liberally sprinkled through the book, and that spirit is retained here. A realistic portrayal would have been darker, but I'd still have to give the Disney movie the edge in narration and revealing inner thoughts. Clopin is a good choice to act as narrator/puppet master. The movie opens on scenes that aren't in the book, but give the background that Hugo slips in later, inventing most but getting the basic idea that Quasimodo was adopted by Frollo. The animation (which is very good) allows for much more of Paris to be seen than in the 1939 movie, where they went to Paris but built the sets in Hollywood. The camera movement is much more indicative of vertical power, zipping up and down the streets and buildings, going so far as to contrast the High Court with the underground Court of Miracles.
In the 1939 movie, Frollo is not purely wicked, eventually admitting to killing Phoebus. In the 1996 version, Frollo is far more evil, and far more tormented; the scene where he's ravaged by inner demons is one of the more intense bits of animation history. In the book he is extremely tormented about Esmeralda, but keeps it to himself. Outwardly, he is a respected and generally good archdeacon.
I've been to Notre Dame, and both movies capture the facade and surroundings well. The Disney movie is much, much better at showing the Paris of 1482 with its cruelty and the abuse of power. The Deiterle movie is grittier, but the singing and dancing Disney version captures the culture better, even to the point of correctly referring to "La Esmeralda". For all of its Disnefication, the basic duality of the book is better preserved.
Both movies are good: The Dieterle version mainly for adults and the Disney version mainly for kids. Still, read the book. It's hard for modern readers, but pays off.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia with a radio show, a Live Journal demi-blog, a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E , and you can hear the last two Shockwave broadcasts in Real Audio (scroll down to Shockwave). Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
--////
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Teling our stories (advocate.com)
Twenty-five readers opened up their lives in the October 11 issue of The Advocate, but these men and women also have stories to share as we mark National Coming Out Day.
Jeffrey Epstein: Trés Joely (out.com)
An Ellen alum arrives on Wisteria Lane to be one Housewife's boss from hell.
Lydia Marcus: Interview with Sandra Bernhard (afterellen.com)
AE: Why do you think that there are lots of guys doing cultural comedic criticism--there's Jon Stewart and Bill Maher and Dennis Miller, but I can't think of many women who do what you do, in terms of what's happening in the country. Do you think that only guys can get away with stuff?
Christopher Stone: Tab Hunter's Untold Story: The former movie star's new memoir talks about his struggle to remain closeted in the 1950s (afterelton.com)
He was the Brad Pitt of the 1950s--and then some.
Roger Ebert: In Her Shoes (3 1/2 stars)
"In Her Shoes" starts out with the materials of an ordinary movie and becomes a rather special one. The emotional payoff at the end is earned, not because we see it coming as the inevitable outcome of the plot, but because it arrives out of the blue and yet, once we think about it, makes perfect sense. It tells us something fundamental and important about a character, it allows her to share that something with those she loves, and it does it in a way we could not possibly anticipate. Like a good poem, it blindsides us with the turn it takes right at the end.
Felice Prager: The World According to Señor Poje´ (irascibleprofessor.com)
What I said was, "Which part of 'NO' don't you understand?" but what my son said he heard was, "I'd just love to have a tarantula living in my house." I've considered having his hearing checked, but instead, I was deciding which piece of furniture was the highest off the ground so that when Señor Poje´ opened the latch on his tarantula cage and came looking for the mean lady who wouldn't give him a home, I could be high enough off the ground to jump to my death rather than being eaten alive by an irate arachnid.
Reader Suggestion
Link
Hubert's Poetry Corner
"SECRETs SPOKEn, secrets broken"
HAS GEORGE W BEEN FAKING IT ALL THESE YEARS WITH LAURA - AND THE REST OF AMERICA?
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
About as fall-like as it gets here.
Was re-arraigning things in the freezer out in the garage yesterday & stupidly set a foil-wrapped piece of meat for spaghetti on top of the unit.
This morning the garage was full of teeny tiny little pieces of aluminum confetti thanks to the 'Big-Ass' raccoon family finding the piece of meat and having a wonderful time with it.
Inducted Into Women's Hall of Fame
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Inspired by Alan Shepard, the first American to journey into space, a 14-year-old from suburban Chicago wrote a letter to NASA in 1961 asking what she needed to do to become an astronaut. She got a curt reply: Girls are not being recruited by the nation's space program.
"It had never crossed my mind up until that point that there might be doors closed to me simply because I was a girl," recalled the letter writer, better known today as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, as she was enshrined Saturday in the National Women's Hall of Fame, along with nine other inductees.
Honored with her were Maya Lin, who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.; Dr. Rita Rossi Colwell, who became the first female director of the National Science Foundation in 1998; and Betty Bumpers, a crusader for childhood immunizations who was Clinton's predecessor as Arkansas' first lady.
Six women honored posthumously this year included pilot Blanche Stuart Scott, a barnstormer in the early days of aviation; Ruth Fulton Benedict, an anthropologist whose 1934 book, "Patterns of Culture," became an American classic; and Florence Ellinwood Allen, who in 1934 became the first female judge appointed by a president to a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
May Still Perform at Tenn. School
Ludacris
Ludacris might perform a homecoming concert at East Tennessee State University after all, despite the city's refusal to let him perform at Freedom Hall.
The university is trying to hold the concert at the school's Mini Dome instead.
The school's homecoming committee booked Ludacris after raising the student activity fee from $4 per semester to $20 last school year to accommodate such events. Students were polled about performers they would like to see in concert, and Ludacris was the first on the resulting list who agreed to appear.
City officials cited security concerns in denying the Ludicris performance.
Ludacris
Rain in Maine
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart's on again-off again trip to a pumpkin festival in Nova Scotia was off again Sunday thanks to rain in Maine that kept her on the plane.
The domestic diva couldn't get off the ground because her flight was grounded at the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport due to heavy rain.
The business tycoon and convicted felon was expected to arrive in the tiny community of Windsor on Sunday morning to take part in the annual Pumpkin Regatta and a Children's Wish Foundation parade.
Stewart's film crew arrived in Nova Scotia the day before the race to decorate the monstrous, hollowed-out gourd.
Martha Stewart
Returns Portion of Fee
Little Richard
Little Richard, the self-proclaimed architect of rock 'n' roll, built some goodwill in his hometown Saturday when he donated to the city almost half of his concert fee to settle concerns over who is paying the tab for his show.
The concert, announced last week by Macon Mayor Jack Ellis, riled business owners who said the event was called too late for them to help pay the singer's $75,000 fees.
Little Richard told the almost 5,000 people attending the concert free of charge that he will return to the city a $30,000 portion of his fees.
"It's not a whole lot of money, but it's from the heart," he said.
Little Richard
Symposium In Salem
Harry Potter
Hundreds of Harry Potter fanatics have turned this historic seaport, best known for its witches and their trials, into a makeshift college campus fit for a young wizard.
In hotel ballrooms, professors from real-world universities led panel discussions with titles such as "Bucolic Bullionism: Economics in the Wizarding World," "Christianity and Harry Potter" and "Introduction to Spell Writing."
On the city's common, students braved rain showers on Saturday for a muddy game of Quidditch - minus the floating broomsticks.
The five-day "Witching Hour," a serious-minded symposium on all things Potter, suggests that adults may get as much from J.K. Rowling's series of novels as the children who line up at midnight whenever a new book hits stores. It runs through Monday.
Harry Potter
Governor Apologizes
Tim Pawlenty
Gov. Tim Pawlenty apologized for an embarrassing slip of the tongue during the Minnesota Wild's season opener Wednesday night as he led the crowd in a cheer.
The script called for him to say: "It's time to drop the puck. So everybody say it with me - 'Let's play hockey!'"
It was the governor's tripping over the word "puck" that provoked the snickers. Instead of telling people to drop the puck, he used a very similar-sounding word that made him sound more like Tony Soprano than his usual smooth-talking self.
The gaffe got so much attention from the rowdy hosts of KQRS-FM, the Twin Cities' top-rated music station, that Pawlenty called in to explain himself, said spokesman Brian McClung.
Tim Pawlenty
Academy of Sex and Relationships
London
Move over, Eros. Developers announced plans Friday to open a multimillion dollar sexual "theme park" near London's Piccadilly Circus, home to the much-photographed statue of the Greek god of love.
Backers say the London Academy of Sex and Relationships, due to open next spring, will not be a sleazy sex museum, but an educational multimedia attraction that will teach visitors to become better lovers and provide valuable information about disease and sexual problems.
Located within the Trocadero entertainment center - just around the corner from Soho, London's red-light district - the $8.3 million project will feature unspecified "high tech and interactive exhibits."
The privately funded project has support from sexual health organizations including the Sexual Dysfunction Association and AIDS charity The Terrence Higgins Trust.
London
Performs With Broken Finger
Nathan Lane
Actor Nathan Lane got an unwanted accessory days before the much-anticipated Broadway revival of "The Odd Couple" began for previews: a broken finger swathed in a huge white bandage.
Lane, who teams again with "The Producers" co-star Matthew Broderick in the comedy, accidentally slammed his right index finger in a door and required 14 stitches, Time magazine reported. Lane said he would take off the splint and bandage for the performance.
"I'm not going to wear this in the show," Lane said, quipping: "Have you met my finger puppet Melvin?"
Nathan Lane
Village Bombed In Anti-War TV Commercial
Smurfs
The people of Belgium have been left reeling by a public service commercial featuring the Smurfs, in which the blue-skinned cartoon characters' village is annihilated by warplanes.
The 25-second commercial is the work of UNICEF, and is to be broadcast on TV across Belgium next week as a public fundraiser. It is intended as the keystone of a drive, by UNICEF's Belgian arm, to raise about $145,000 for the rehabilitation of former child soldiers in Burundi.
UNICEF and IMPS, the family company that controls all rights to the Smurfs, have stipulated that it is not to be broadcast before 9 p.m.
The ad pulls no punches. It opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand-in-hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds flutter past and rabbits gambol around their familiar village of mushroom- shaped houses until, without warning, bombs begin to rain from the sky.
Smurfs
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
