a review of 巴黎圣母院
巴黎圣母院 - 评论
HOOPTOBER 4.0 NIGHT THIRTY-TWO: Reading through the Wikipedia entry on this one, and it was amazing to learn that it was the sole film screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1939 due to the outbreak of WWII. Seeing a movie made over 80 years ago speak not just to the year it was made in such a clear way, but also to our own times is an absolutely energizing thing. Doesn't quite make the jump to "horror" until we hit the last third, as Quasimodo's one-man siege defense bears striking similarities to the climaxes of both Whale's FRANKENSTEIN and Cooper's KING KONG. But at the same time, the movie also depicts a more subtle kind of horror about systemic racism, economic inequality and institutional corruption, with Quasimodo working as both an avatar and unlikely avenger of these social ills.