"Notre-Dame de Paris" tells the story of Esmeralda, a beautiful Roma woman, whose beauty seduces countless men in the city of Paris. When a judge, out of jealousy, stabs the leader of the armed guards because Esmeralda falls in love with the man, she is sentenced to death and hides in the great cathedral under the protection of Quasimodo, who lives next to the bell and suffers from a disformed body.
The longer I watched the movie, the more I got the feeling that this is a piece of literature that is nearly designated to be played on a stage instead of being forced into a movie. You find many classical elements of a theatre play, even the set design sometimes reminds of one. Otherwise this is of course a very famous piece of literature that delievers all the ups and downs you would expect, which makes for a decent plot. The end in this case wasn't explained very good, it is rather unclear why Quasimodo should stop listening to Esmeralda completely, even when she states that the men only want to save her. But otherwise there's not much to criticize here.
All in all this is a classic adaption of a famous novel. I can imagine that in its time, it was a huge effort to film this, nowadays you're not really sitting on the edge of your chair but it still is a well-produced and well-played adaption of Hugo's script.
The longer I watched the movie, the more I got the feeling that this is a piece of literature that is nearly designated to be played on a stage instead of being forced into a movie. You find many classical elements of a theatre play, even the set design sometimes reminds of one. Otherwise this is of course a very famous piece of literature that delievers all the ups and downs you would expect, which makes for a decent plot. The end in this case wasn't explained very good, it is rather unclear why Quasimodo should stop listening to Esmeralda completely, even when she states that the men only want to save her. But otherwise there's not much to criticize here.
All in all this is a classic adaption of a famous novel. I can imagine that in its time, it was a huge effort to film this, nowadays you're not really sitting on the edge of your chair but it still is a well-produced and well-played adaption of Hugo's script.