I watched ''The Man Who Laughs'' just yesterday, curious to see the character that bob Kane based to create the famous villain from the Batman series, The Joker.
This movie, originally a novel by Victor Hugo,takes place in England from the seventeenth century, when a young son from a nobleman is sold to the gypsies Compranchicos(illegal child buyers) that carved a permanent grin on his face. The boy, named Gwynplaine, is abandoned in the cold snowing winter, and while looking for a shelter, he finds a baby hold in the arms of her dead mother. He takes the baby with him and finds a nice play to stay with an old man called Ursus, that raises the baby,who he discover that is blind, and Gwynplaine. Many years later, Gwynplaine works as a clown together with the blind Dea, that was the little baby he saved. They are both in love with each other, but since Gwynplaine is always considered a joke by the people because of his grin, he thinks that Dea deserves someone better then him to marry. But when secrets about Gwynplaine's blood are known by the Queen's jester, his pacific life is going to change for good.
The story of the romance between Gwynplaine and Dea, remembers me a lot the story of the romance between Cyrano and Roxane( from ''Cyrano de Bergerac''), where Cyrano, too embarrassed by his large nose and ugly appearance, refuses to tell the beautiful Roxane about his feelings for her. Not only the ugly looks and the love for a beauty, but also the fact that both Cyrano and Gwynplaine are good people, makes these characters very similar in many ways to me.
This movie, originally a novel by Victor Hugo,takes place in England from the seventeenth century, when a young son from a nobleman is sold to the gypsies Compranchicos(illegal child buyers) that carved a permanent grin on his face. The boy, named Gwynplaine, is abandoned in the cold snowing winter, and while looking for a shelter, he finds a baby hold in the arms of her dead mother. He takes the baby with him and finds a nice play to stay with an old man called Ursus, that raises the baby,who he discover that is blind, and Gwynplaine. Many years later, Gwynplaine works as a clown together with the blind Dea, that was the little baby he saved. They are both in love with each other, but since Gwynplaine is always considered a joke by the people because of his grin, he thinks that Dea deserves someone better then him to marry. But when secrets about Gwynplaine's blood are known by the Queen's jester, his pacific life is going to change for good.
The story of the romance between Gwynplaine and Dea, remembers me a lot the story of the romance between Cyrano and Roxane( from ''Cyrano de Bergerac''), where Cyrano, too embarrassed by his large nose and ugly appearance, refuses to tell the beautiful Roxane about his feelings for her. Not only the ugly looks and the love for a beauty, but also the fact that both Cyrano and Gwynplaine are good people, makes these characters very similar in many ways to me.