MovieChat Forums > Notre-Dame de Paris (1957) Discussion > Quasimodo in the catacombs

Quasimodo in the catacombs

posted 14 years ago by jonah_begone
8 replies | jump to latest

I saw this flick when I was eight. At the end, where Quasimodo crawled in the catacombs to lay down and die near Esmeralda, I cried my poor little heart out. (Then I broke off the plastic ropes tying the Hunchback to that revolving platform on my Aurora Hunchback model...) The idea of such a thing - a man willing himself to die of a broken heart - was so terrible the scene still had emotional impact when I saw this film again as a jaded adult.

Yes, it is a flawed film and Quinn does not approach Laughton's humanity in the role. But movies with scenes of that kind of power are few and far between.

[–] silverwhistle 14 years ago

Yes! This remains the only film version to use the ending at Montfaucon (from the book). But I think Quinn was far better than Laughton as Quasimodo: he was far closer to the book. The Laughton portrayal was highly sentimentalised, and the script of that version was a Hays Code-bowdlerised travesty.

[–] diddymuck 13 years ago

Quinn made Quasi an inarticulate oaf who would kill remorselessly. Quasimodo was a sensitive nature being who followed Frollo's orders to kidnap out of love for his benefactor. He had no idea why he was being tried or tortured. And he was known and ridiculed by the townsfolk in general, but took it with fun.

[–] silverwhistle 13 years ago

Quinn made Quasi an inarticulate oaf who would kill remorselessly.

Which is precisely what he does in the book during the attack on the cathedral. Quinn's Quasimodo remains, for me, the best cinematic portrayal: too many others sentimentalise him and/or make him less mentally challenged. Hugo makes it clear:

It is certain that the mind becomes atrophied in a defective body. Quasimodo was barely conscious of a soul cast in his own image, moving blindly within him. The impressions of objects underwent a considerable refraction before reaching his mind. His brain was a peculiar medium; the ideas which passed through it issued forth completely distorted. The reflection which resulted from this refraction was, necessarily, divergent and perverted.

Hence a thousand optical illusions, a thousand aberrations of judgment, a thousand deviations, in which his thought strayed, now mad, now idiotic.

The first effect of this fatal organization was to trouble the glance which he cast upon things. He received hardly any immediate perception of them. The external world seemed much farther away to him than it does to us.

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[–] thebilliejean 12 years ago

I love all versions, but this versions remain my favorite ( I saw it in French), I do accept the Disney version is fun.
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[–] silverwhistle 12 years ago

I love all versions, but this versions remain my favorite ( I saw it in French)

I agree that this is the best, especially in the French version. Alain Cuny is especially wonderful and heartbreaking as Claude.

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[–] thebilliejean 12 years ago

I agree, and I do think Gina Lollobrigida, would always remains as the best Esmeralda to date!
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[–] silverwhistle 12 years ago

I do think Gina Lollobrigida, would always remains as the best Esmeralda to date!

She's certainly the most beautiful, though she comes across as more intelligent. Esméralda in the book is so empty-headed and shallow, I could shake her.

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[–] thebilliejean 12 years ago

I know, I read the book [It's one of my favorites book], but Gina is the only one that can pass a gypsy.

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