Victor Hugo was only 29 when, in 1831, he published a novel that would become a worldwide literary classic, repeatedly looted by cinema. The novel is “Notre-Dame de Paris”, the tale of the hunchbacked bell-ringer of the French cathedral, Quasimodo, and his obsessive love for the beautiful gypsy Esmeralda. From November 27 in streaming on Netflix, we will be able to see this immortal story retold, though in a revised and original form. While Hugo’s novel unfolds in the Fifteenth Century, Quasimodo, the Soul of Paris is set in Paris on the eve of the July Revolution of 1830, and it narrates, reinterprets, and romantically reshapes the life of the man who is said to have inspired the book’s character: a mason torn between political turmoil and an impossible love, pursued by unscrupulous scientists who want to turn him into a guinea pig for cruel medical experiments.
To play Quasimodo in the film is Vincent Cassel, while Daphné Patakia portrays the young Esmeralda. Completing the cast are Benjamin Voisin, Karim Leklou, Noémie Lvovsky, and Sébastien Pouderoux, while behind the camera sits Jean-François Richet. With a budget of around 30 million, the film is one of Netflix’s most ambitious French productions, which aims to move away from the classic story drawn from the novel to become a historical thriller with human and political stakes.
Here is the official trailer for Quasimodo, the Soul of Paris.
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