MERGED --> Da Vinci Code - What's up??? + 'The Da Vinci Code' Fizzles at Cannes

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Wow, Tom Hanks was awful, awful.

The movie is watchable. Typical Hollywood blockbuster, with some really cheesy parts (basically all the flashbacks and anything with Silas in it).
 
anitram said:
And I'll be in France in...29 days now, so I'll get to spend time in the Louvre which I've wanted to do forever. :drool:

It's open on Monday & Wednesday nights till (I think) 9. Go in the evening. Far, far less people. Plus the sunset through the windows is a nice touch (in both directions).
 
Yahoo movies -US estimates should be out later today

The Da Vinci Code" has broken box office records in Roman Catholic Italy as tens of thousands of Italians ignored Vatican calls to boycott the film.

The movie adaptation of Dan Brown's bestseller earned 2 million euros ($2.6 million) on its opening night, nearly double the takings of Italy's previous top film, Oscar-winner Roberto Benigni's 1997 tragi-comic Holocaust drama "Life is Beautiful."

The film's distributor, Sony Corp .'s Columbia Pictures, will release worldwide sales data on Sunday.

"We had an exceptionally strong Friday with sell-out business reported in territories virtually all over the world," said Steve Elzer, the studio's senior vice president of media relations.

Italian news agencies reported record lines around the country to see the film of the novel that ignited Vatican ire by saying Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene and the Catholic Church hushed this up.

Millions worldwide are expected to flock to see the film on its opening weekend, shrugging off protests by Christian groups and tepid reviews at its Cannes film festival premier this week.

Many Christians across the world believe the theories in "The Da Vinci Code" are blasphemous, and the Vatican has led an offensive against the book and the film, calling for a boycott.

Members of the Catholic group Christian Militants picketed some cinemas in central Rome, close to the Vatican, chanting "Dan Brown remember you will also be judged by Christ."

Many Italians are fans, however, buying tens of thousands of the more than 40 million copies of the books sold worldwide.

Italy's tourist industry has also leapt on the Dan Brown boom. Special tours are running in Rome and to the church in Milan containing Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper," a painting central to "The Da Vinci Code" plot.

Florence, where the Renaissance master lived, is holding a series of exhibitions throughout the European summer focused on cracking the code of Da Vinci's paintings and designs.
 
Earnie Shavers said:


It's open on Monday & Wednesday nights till (I think) 9. Go in the evening. Far, far less people. Plus the sunset through the windows is a nice touch (in both directions).

Agreed. I went on Weds. night and was much less crowded. While there was a group around the Mona Lisa there wasn't a line to get to it when I went.
 
I saw the movie last night with 27 other people from my church, and of the total 28, all 28 loved it. After the movie we went back to the church for pizza and discussed it, ranging from Opus Dei, fact vs. fiction in the book/movie, why certain groups are reacting the way they are, and how we would react if it came out that Jesus did in fact get married and have kids. The overall consensus was that if this were the case, none of our faith would be shaken in the least bit.
 
big time box office:

[q]Friday, May 19th, 2006
EXCLUSIVE: Da Vinci Code Is 2nd Biggest Opening Weekend Of All Time Worldwide With $224 Million; No. 1 International Opening Weekend with $147 Mil; $77 Mil U.S. Opening Weekend; Sony Execs Attribute Huge Success To Teen Moviegoers Globally

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/first-bo-reports-on-da-vinci-code/

[/q]



when traveling in europe 2 weeks ago, i was amazed at how big the novel was, at how many stores had some kind of DVC tie-in. this is the very definition of a global phenomenon.

what gives? how about this:

[q]The reason is that "The Da Vinci Code" is, in the sweep of Christian history, a historical marker — encapsulating in one muddled movie an era in which many Christian believers have assimilated a whole lot of new and unorthodox ideas, as well as half-truths and conspiracy thinking, into their faith, while still seeing it as Christianity. Call it Da Vinci Christianity.

"I'm definitely a Christian — I would label myself a Gnostic Christian," said Cliff Jacobs, 52, deputy executive director at Queens Public Television, as he left a screening of "The Da Vinci Code" Thursday night. He was referring to early Christians known as Gnostics, many of whom rejected the divinity of Jesus, but who left behind gospels that resurfaced in the last 60 years.

"I don't need someone to interpret God for me," Mr. Jacobs said. "When I want to commune with others, I go to church."

Maria Bolden, 42, a customer service representative for a cable company, said after seeing the movie, "If marriage is such a sacred sacrament, why is it such a problem for Jesus to have married?"

It is not that everyone has swallowed whole the story's sexiest heresy — that Jesus married his favorite apostle, Mary Magdalene, and fathered a line of royal offspring who still live today in France. It is that "The Da Vinci Code" reinforces doubts that some modern Christians already have about the origins of the Bible and the authenticity of the Jesus story.

The doubts did not originate with "The Da Vinci Code." Instead, the book plays off of popular interest in new discoveries like the Gnostic gospels, in feminist spirituality, and in the pagan roots of Christian traditions (for example, Easter as originally a fertility rite — why else the eggs and the bunnies?).

"The Da Vinci Code" also bolsters popular conspiracy theories about the Roman Catholic Church's power and propensity for cover-ups, an assumption that the church itself reinforced with its lack of transparency in handling cases of sexual abuse by priests.

"The Catholic Church has hidden a lot of things — proof about the actual life of Jesus, about who wrote the Bible," said Ricardo Henriquez, 25, the associate director of a senior center in the Bronx, as he waited for the Da Vinci screening to begin. "All these people — the famous Luke, Mark and John — how did they know so much about Jesus' life? If there was a Bible, who created it and how many times has it been changed?"

Mr. Henriquez, by the way, is a Catholic who was baptized and confirmed in the church, went to Sunday school for six years, and still attends Mass twice a month.

Polls have shown that one in five adults in the United States has read "The Da Vinci Code," and many more are familiar with its themes. George Barna, a pollster in California, says 25 percent of those who had read the book said it helped them achieve personal growth or understanding. "Few people said that reading the book had actually changed any of their beliefs," he said. "That was only 5 percent. Most people said that it essentially reinforced what they believed coming into the book."

What they believe is what Mr. Barna calls "pick and choose theology." It's a trend that Christian conservatives find scary and maddening, but that liberals tend to embrace as "big tent" inclusiveness.

"Americans by and large consider themselves to be Christian, but when you try to drill down to figure out what they believe, you find that among those who call themselves Christian, 59 percent don't believe in Satan, 42 percent believe Jesus sinned during his time on Earth, and only 11 percent believe the Bible is the source of absolute moral truth," said Mr. Barna, a conservative evangelical who regards these as troubling indicators.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/weekinreview/21goodstein.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[/q]
 
U2democrat said:
I saw the movie last night with 27 other people from my church, and of the total 28, all 28 loved it. After the movie we went back to the church for pizza and discussed it, ranging from Opus Dei, fact vs. fiction in the book/movie, why certain groups are reacting the way they are, and how we would react if it came out that Jesus did in fact get married and have kids. The overall consensus was that if this were the case, none of our faith would be shaken in the least bit.

This seems to be the approach taken by most evangelicals - use the movie as a teaching tool. Compare the story to Scripture and validate consistencies, and highlight the inconsistencies.
 
what i think is great about DVC (and i'm not a fan of the hack suspense novel that acts as filler as we move from one invariably interesting theory to a nother) is that it has come at a time when we have seen the discovery of ancient evidence of real Christian debate and division in the early church, the Gnostic Gospels and the the Gospel of Judas. many strong, practicing Christians now undestand what many of us have understood for so long even without an overfamiliarity with the Gospels -- a basic understanding of history and even a faint grounding in literary theory will tell you that even those who knew Jesus offered radically different interpretations of what he meant. thus, faith shifts. a bit. certainty diminishes. crucially, curiosity grows. it's much more important to focus on what Jesus meant and might have meant rather than what he was recorded as actually saying.

literal interpretations of an inerrant Scripture seem a little ridiculous -- this is not to say that Scripture is errant, or that the Gospels should be discarded. it is to say that focusing on the meaning of what Jesus said, rather than sniping over wordplay, is what matters.
 
I have zero interest in seeing this flick, except for the fact that Audrey Tautou is in it.

Hubba hubba.

Anyone see "Amelie" or "He Love Me, He Loves Me Not"?

I hope my idealized image of her isn't ruined by this dumb movie.
 
I was crossing my fingers, well, the film IS a hit. Whether it can still be making steady business 2 weeks from now is anybody's question, but the way Hollywood is these days, the opening weekend determines success or failure, so it's a success.

Thoughts on the film itself--Boring? I kept waiting for it to be boring, but it was very well-paced and Howard's best film. Opie has finally graduated from kindergarten. I agree some directors could have done better to coax a better performance out of Hanks (he was actually pretty good but he DESTROYED the end of the Rosslyn Chapel sequence...after the beautiful moment when Sopie is reunited with her grandmother he KILLS the mood with an atrociously delevered set of lines about faith....about as much emotion as last year's bird nest....luckily the following scene, which improves the last pages of the book by having Langdon running to the tombsite at the Louvre like a bridegroom running to meet his bride, was very moving, and Howard's decision to have Langdon a skeptic even after he leaves Rosslyn serves very well here, it makes his "conversion" at the end all the more powerful. And bravo for Hans Zimmer's score....it'd like a triumphant march Magdalene at the end...if you follow the plot of the fiction.) As for the flashbacks..I didn't think them cheesy at all. How could you have told the story and gone the whole hog without them?

All Sopie did in the book was stand around and ask a lot of questions, so how the film could have inspired an emotional performance from her was beyond question. And yes, I've seen Amelie, at least. This was a completely different film and plot. Unlike Hanks, I think she did pretty good, cpnsidering. And at Rosslyn she was luminous. The dipping her foot in water thing was hilarious..that wasn't in the book.

ON a side note, when Hanks delivers the line that the critics all jeered at, both times for me, I take it a good sign for the film's success that absolutely nobody laughed.

As to Gnostic Gospels etc. I have always wondered at who wrote Matthew and Mark and John, as typical Galilee peasants they were no doubt illeterate. Only Luke (or Lucanus), the well-born Greek phyician raised in a high-ranking Roman family, with Roman citizenship, probably actually wrote his Gospel, and it all the marks of authenticity, it is the most emotional of the Gospels, sounding very much like it had been written by a doctor. As such Luke doubt less had an interest in Jesus as a man, with human emotions. The account of Gethsemane that has him suffering in prayer is found only in this Gospel, etc. I can see him traveling around Galiee on a leisurely tour in the decades after Jesus's death, collecting first hand acciunts even from Mary, etc. Maybe, if there IS a Gospel of Magdealen, he probably wrote that too. The people cosest to Jesus dictating accounts. I'm sure that's how the Gospels were written.

As to Nicea...I'd never really thought about it and many people haven't. Did a "softer., more feminene" side of Chritianity exist? I'm sure it did. The disciples count be everywhere at once....
 
Dreadsox said:
The History Channel was AWESOME this weekend.

Indeed it was.. I was hooked on the shows.

Saw the movie this weekend also. The theater I went to (only one in town) is normally packed. It wasn't even half full on opening weekend. Don't know how the bad reviews will effect the movie's gross in the end... Tom Hanks missed the mark by a longshot for me. I like Tom in some types of roles, but I just didn't see near enough angst, desperation & vulnerability in him (& actually the movie as a whole). I just kept looking at his hair. :giggle: I actually liked performances by Ian McKellen and Audrey Tautou. Without McKellen, the movie would've been a total snoozefest. :wink:
 
Fascinating, maybe Dan Brown will have her saying some far out stuff in the sequel :wink:

Just don't put Tom Hanks in it, I love Tom but he is so wrong for that movie

Reuters-The Mona Lisa's smile may always remain a mystery, but it is now possible to hear what her voice would have sounded like, thanks to a Japanese acoustics expert.

Dr Matsumi Suzuki, who generally uses his skills to help with criminal investigations, measured the face and hands of Leonardo da Vinci's famous 16th century portrait to estimate her height and create a model of her skull.

"Once we have that, we can create a voice very similar to that of the person concerned," Suzuki told Reuters in an interview at his Tokyo office last week. "We have recreated the voices of a lot of famous people that were very close to the real thing and have been used in film dubbing."

The chart of any individual's voice, known as a voice print, is unique to that person and Suzuki says he believes he has achieved 90 percent accuracy in recreating the quality of the enigmatic woman's speaking tone.

"I am the Mona Lisa. My true identity is shrouded in mystery," the portrait proclaims on a Web site at

http://promotion.msn.co.jp/davinci/voice.htm

"In Mona Lisa's case, the lower part of her face is quite wide and her chin is pointed," Suzuki explained. "The extra volume means a relatively low voice, while the pointed chin adds mid-pitch tones," he added.

The scientists brought in an Italian woman to add the necessary intonation to the voice.

"We then had to think about what to have her say," Suzuki said. "We tried having her speak Japanese, but it didn't suit her image."

Experts disagree over who was represented in the portrait, with some saying the smiling woman is Leonardo himself, or his mother.

The team also attempted to recreate Leonardo's own voice in a project timed to coincide with the release of the film "The Da Vinci Code." Suzuki said he was less confident about its accuracy because he had to work from self-portraits where the artist wore a beard, concealing the shape of his face.

Suzuki's work has made contributions to criminal investigations -- in one case after he successfully aged a person's voice by a decade. A recording of the voice was broadcast on television, leading to the apprehension of a suspect.
 
I have no motivation to go and see it. I'll wait for cable or DVD.
I thought the first film was a snooze fest.

I enjoyed reading Holy Blood, Holy Grail moons ago, I've been sort of turned off by Dan Brown just on principle for some reason. Maybe I feel like he's incredibly overrated and just refuse to contribute to the 'hype'.

I'd be really interested in a film version of Eco's Foucault's Pendulum.

Of course, that is as long as Ron Howard doesn't get his hands on it.
 
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