Last night at Variétés Cinema, Nice Première was invited by Father Vincent Paul Toccoli to watch the film adaptation of Dan Brown’s bestseller, The Da Vinci Code.
The screening was fully booked with a distinguished guest in the person of Monsignor Louis Sankalé, the Bishop of Nice, who will continue his cinematic journey in the coming days, heading to the Cannes Film Festival where the Diocese of Nice is represented.
It was our host who took the floor, and with the eloquence that everyone seems to recognize in him, he invited the hundreds of pairs of eyes to discover the latest major American production which will serve as a basis for a debate following the screening.
The lights dimmed, one might say at last, and after a flurry of excerpts, Ron Howard’s movie credits rolled, launching its first scenes to a room plunged into total silence.
It has begun.
Already an hour and a half into the plot trying to find its place in a script that sometimes borders on ridicule — unintentional. Certainly, Tom Hanks is, as expected, comfortable in a role that suits him far better than his two local co-stars.
Jean Reno and Audrey Tautou certainly do a professionally impeccable job but it’s quite difficult in some scenes to find them in sync with the characters they portray.
In short, there’s one hour left; the movie might just start.
A few twists later, we reach “the revelation scene” which had the merit of making a large part of the audience laugh, though it was not necessarily meant for that.
And so the film goes on until the final tableau, whose cinematography is very successful, a meager cherry on a small cake.
The lights come back on and the THX sound makes way for the participants’ analysis of this screening. Sylvia Hill (Theologian), Marc C. (Knight of Malta), Paul Olivier (Opus Dei) and the organizer, Father Toccoli.
“This movie is a real farce,” declares Sylvia Hill, noting that “several Mary Magdalenes seem to have existed around Jesus.”
Father Toccoli himself gave three responses to these images. The film seemed well made to him, based on a lack of religious culture and on a bizarre existence of the Priory of Sion.
“To think that Jesus had to be married to be a man is a serious mistake,” Paul Olivier, representing the Opus Dei, finds that this movie is riddled with errors and does not contribute much that is well-founded.
Unfortunately, it’s already midnight and the debate has to end while many whispered questions from here and there are on everyone’s lips.
We await your reactions after… watching the movie!
