Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre
Year:
2002
Running time:
107 mn
Nationality:
France
Language:
French
Genre:
Comedy, Adventure
Director:
Alain Chabat
Producer:
Katharina, Renn Productions, TF1 Films Production
Screenwriter/s:
Alain Chabat
Cast:
Monica Bellucci, Christian Clavier, Gérard Depardieu, Jamel Debbouze, Alain Chabat, Claude Rich, Gérard Darmon, and others
Summary of the film
Cleopatra, following a gamble with Julius Caesar, decides to build a palace in the desert in three months. She summons the architect Edifis, who asks for help from his friend, the druid Getafix, who holds the secret of the magic potion, and his friends Asterix and Obelix...
Set built in Morocco at Ourazazate completed by a Matte Painting revisiting Pharaonic architecture : pyramids, pylons, sphinxes, etc. (Screenshot by the author)
A fairly accurate reconstruction of the Giza Sphinx... completed with his nose (Screenshot by the author)
Queen Cleopatra arrives triumphantly at the construction site, atop her palanquin with its Baroque openwork decoration (Screenshot by the author)
Scene combining a wall décor based on a pharaonic painting and women's costumes with more contemporary design (Screenshot by the author)
Egyptomania narratives or motifs
Written and directed by Alain Chabat in 2002, Astérix and Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre is the best adaptation of the five live-action films based on the Astérix et Obélix comic books. This comedy is undoubtedly the cult masterpiece of the saga, thanks to the constant inventiveness of its gags and memorable lines: this success can be explained by the similarity between the extravagant humour of Alain Chabat (member of the French group of comedians Les Nuls) and that of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo in their 1962 album Astérix et Cléopâtre (which became an animated film, Astérix et Cléopâtre, in 1968).
It was producer Claude Berri who persuaded Alain Chabat to write an adaptation of the album based on Cleopatra's personality, her relationship with Julius Caesar and her Hollywood image, exemplified by Joseph Mankiewicz's film Cleopatra (1963), starring Elizabeth Taylor. While the script is fairly faithful to the comic strip, its author enhanced it with more personal gags and numerous allusions. This film, which brings together the best French comedians of the 2000s, was shot in Malta (Mediterranean Film Studios), Morocco (Atlas Studios, Fint Oasis, desert) and France (Studios d’Épinay, Fontainebleau Forest).
In Astérix and Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre, the sets, costumes and props skillfully combine the fun of anachronisms (rear-view mirrors, lifts, tourism) with the desire for an epic feel that always respects Albert Uderzo's drawings. Alain Chabat's hilarious version invites us to discover the multitude of references, both visual and literary, that punctuate the plot, which is dotted by cult dialogues and improvisations by Édouard Baer, Jamel Debbouze, Gérard Darmon, Dieudonné and others.
There is no lack of Egyptological references: text in the pyramid specially dedicated to Egyptologists, hieroglyphic painters (Omar Sy and Fred Testot), numerous visual details, Pharaonic architecture (photo 1), pyramid and sphinx of Giza (photo 2). Chief set designer Hoang Thanh At's took his inspiration from Uderzo's drawings, which were in turn inspired by those in the film Cleopatra (1963), and adapted to the 2.35/1 scope format. The result is a mixture of Egyptian motifs, sometimes copied (the fishing painting in the palace decoration: photo 4), sometimes redesigned, like the giant statue of the falcon god Horus in the throne room or the baroque palanquin (photo 3) during the Queen's visit to the construction site. But the aisle of sphinxes with ram and crocodile heads and the façade-pylon of the large set built at the Atlas studio in Ouarzazate (photo 1) were convincing enough to be used again, barely reworked, in various subsequent productions: Prisoners of the Sun (2013), Cleopatra Ya Alla (2013) and The Bible (2013). The aesthetic research carried out to modernise the pharaonic clothes, especially Cleopatra's extravagant dresses (photo 4), the wigs, the headdresses (with the inevitable nemes worn by civilians), crowns and jewellery were honoured with a Cesar award for costumes in 2003. Astérix and Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre is a brilliant adaptation of the comic strip, which thanks its success as much to Alain Goscinny's brilliant humour as to Alain Chabat's nonsensical jokes.
It was producer Claude Berri who persuaded Alain Chabat to write an adaptation of the album based on Cleopatra's personality, her relationship with Julius Caesar and her Hollywood image, exemplified by Joseph Mankiewicz's film Cleopatra (1963), starring Elizabeth Taylor. While the script is fairly faithful to the comic strip, its author enhanced it with more personal gags and numerous allusions. This film, which brings together the best French comedians of the 2000s, was shot in Malta (Mediterranean Film Studios), Morocco (Atlas Studios, Fint Oasis, desert) and France (Studios d’Épinay, Fontainebleau Forest).
In Astérix and Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre, the sets, costumes and props skillfully combine the fun of anachronisms (rear-view mirrors, lifts, tourism) with the desire for an epic feel that always respects Albert Uderzo's drawings. Alain Chabat's hilarious version invites us to discover the multitude of references, both visual and literary, that punctuate the plot, which is dotted by cult dialogues and improvisations by Édouard Baer, Jamel Debbouze, Gérard Darmon, Dieudonné and others.
There is no lack of Egyptological references: text in the pyramid specially dedicated to Egyptologists, hieroglyphic painters (Omar Sy and Fred Testot), numerous visual details, Pharaonic architecture (photo 1), pyramid and sphinx of Giza (photo 2). Chief set designer Hoang Thanh At's took his inspiration from Uderzo's drawings, which were in turn inspired by those in the film Cleopatra (1963), and adapted to the 2.35/1 scope format. The result is a mixture of Egyptian motifs, sometimes copied (the fishing painting in the palace decoration: photo 4), sometimes redesigned, like the giant statue of the falcon god Horus in the throne room or the baroque palanquin (photo 3) during the Queen's visit to the construction site. But the aisle of sphinxes with ram and crocodile heads and the façade-pylon of the large set built at the Atlas studio in Ouarzazate (photo 1) were convincing enough to be used again, barely reworked, in various subsequent productions: Prisoners of the Sun (2013), Cleopatra Ya Alla (2013) and The Bible (2013). The aesthetic research carried out to modernise the pharaonic clothes, especially Cleopatra's extravagant dresses (photo 4), the wigs, the headdresses (with the inevitable nemes worn by civilians), crowns and jewellery were honoured with a Cesar award for costumes in 2003. Astérix and Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre is a brilliant adaptation of the comic strip, which thanks its success as much to Alain Goscinny's brilliant humour as to Alain Chabat's nonsensical jokes.
Author: Jean-Luc Bovot
Other information
Wenzel, D. (2005). Kleopatra im Film. Eine Königin Ägyptens als Sinnbild für orientalische Kultur: 362-363. Gardez! Verlag: Remscheid.
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