The Man in the Iron Mask

[history_spork]

This year's last spork features Randall Wallace's Man in the Iron Mask. Since this is History Spork, not Literature Spork, we haven't paid that much attention to the raping of Dumas' novel (as much as there's left of it in this movie) - there was enough other stuff to keep us busy...

( A Brother, a Captain, a King )Next time, it'll be Kevin

Comments

[the_reda]

/Pffft, let them eat cake/

Does Louis XIV actually say this in the movie?

Please tell me he did not...

[history_spork]

No, don't worry, that was our own way to sum up what he says here - the actual dialoge is something along the lines of:

"Sire, the people in Paris are rioting because they're hungry."

"How could they? Paris is the most beautiful city in the world, so they must be happy."

This made us decide to go all Marie Antoinette at him (not that the poor thing ever said it either...)

[the_reda]

... I would NOT put it past Hollywood.

It is a great phrase, though, even if she did not say it it does quiet correctly represent the altitude of the French nobility at that time ;-)

[donnaimmaculata]

Thank you for that. What a wonderful New Year's Eve present.

Strangely, what always annoyed me about the film a lot (well, I say "always"; I only watched it once) was Jeremy Irons' Aramis being totally Athos-y and John Malkovich's Athos totally Aramis-y. For some reason that drives me mad. (But I think it's an inspired bit of casting how Jeremy is sent out Jerusalem serveral years later to serve under another king in an Iron Mask *cough* Kingdom of Heaven *cough*)

And isn't it nice how "historical" US movies are so very in favour of monarchy? Especially absolute monarchy? The Romanovs in "Anastasia" under whose reign Russia was a happy and flourishing country, and now Louis XIV bringing his people food, prosperity and peace. It's obvious: America secretly craves a king.

[the_reda]

/America secretly craves a king./
They are on their way alright.
Rule passing from father to son.. sounds like monarchy alright to me.

[donnaimmaculata]

Not to forget: The ruling monarch is bringing the people peace, too! And not only his own people. What generosity.

[unovis]

So true about that particular bit of casting; I thought the same thing when I first saw this. When will there be a decent Athos in film?

[whatsfunny]

This film was pretty scary... Pity you had to gon through it ;D

Musketeers: Damn, we're too old for this shit. Oooh, a letter from D'Artagnan. Pity we can't read it because it's in French!

LOL xD

[novin_ha]

Funny to meet you here XD

[history_spork]

*g*

Don't worry, this one was mostly fun to do - at least most of the actors obvioudly didn't take it seriously either! ;)

[novin_ha]

This was great - I was annoyed about the Queen's betrayal of Mazarin's memory the most, I guess XD

Oh! And, do you know of a site where I could find reliable sources about XVII century France? My library does not like me much and I can't seem to find what I need on-line - is there some site I could rely on? ::researches for a Doctor Who fanfic::

(don't trouble yourselves, just asking in case you have it in bookmarks or something ;)

Thank you again! Your spork is something I am always happy to see :D

[history_spork]

Thank you - we're happy you liked the sporking! :)

Re: online sources, nothing specific comes to mind right now, unless you're asking for primary sources, which is probably not what you mean. However, for the research you mentioned, you should be fine with wikipedia - for the "big" topics, their information ususally is pretty reliable.

[novin_ha]

I guess I'll have to settle for my library then - wiki doesn't seem to have enough about Richelieu's niece, and I need that. And preferably a plan of Paris in Cardinal's times ;)

::dusts off the third library card::

[thephoenixforce]

You might want to search on Google Books too; they have a lot of public domain resources and older books.

[history_spork]

Thank you! ;)

We've giggled our way through T&I at the movie theatre - it's gonna be shooting fish in a barrel!