The Da Vinci Code
Year:
2006
Running time:
147 mn
Nationality:
USA
Language:
English
Genre:
Action, Mystery, Thriller
Director:
Ron Howard
Producer:
Columbia Pictures, Imagine Entertainment
Screenwriter/s:
Akiva Goldsman
Cast:
Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Paul Bettany, Jürgen Prochnow, and others
Summary of the film
Thanks to his gift for decoding cryptic messages, a symbologist from Harvard University, Robert Langdon, helps a French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, solve the murder of her grandfather, Jacques Saunière, who was a curator at the Louvre Museum and also the head of the Priory of Sion, a fraternal organization, which protected a disturbing secret for the Christian Church. Robert and Sophie are pursued by people who want to keep the secrets of the Vatican hidden, and their only way to disentangle the true from the false is found in the study of history and the arts. Indeed, the only clues that can lift the veil on the mystery have been left here and there by artists (like Leonardo da Vinci). Their investigation leads them to explore some mysteries of Christianity, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Grail.
Robert Langdon showing a statue of Isis and Horus during a lecture in Paris (Screenshot by author)
Egyptomania narratives or motifs
At the beginning of the film, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) gives a lecture on cryptology in Paris. He presents refocused images of works of art to the audience and asks students what they see in them. The picture they think they have seen is completely distorted if we zoom in on the analysis, says Langdon.
By zooming out, the professor shows that it is easy to make mistakes. As an example, he shows a photo of a statue of a child held by a mother. The students see a Madonna and Child. Langdon zooms out and announces that it is, in reality, a representation of Isis feeding Horus. The rest of his oral presentation is accompanied by a rapidly changing slideshow of pictures from various times and cultures, some of which belong to the Egyptian civilization (these are impossible to identify, due to the zoomed-in camera angle on the actor's face, which reveal only tiny parts of the works of art shown behind him).
As we can see, and as was pointed out in the entry on the novel on which the film is based, the content incorporated in the film in relation to ancient Egypt is much less relevant than what Dan Brown included in the novel.
By zooming out, the professor shows that it is easy to make mistakes. As an example, he shows a photo of a statue of a child held by a mother. The students see a Madonna and Child. Langdon zooms out and announces that it is, in reality, a representation of Isis feeding Horus. The rest of his oral presentation is accompanied by a rapidly changing slideshow of pictures from various times and cultures, some of which belong to the Egyptian civilization (these are impossible to identify, due to the zoomed-in camera angle on the actor's face, which reveal only tiny parts of the works of art shown behind him).
As we can see, and as was pointed out in the entry on the novel on which the film is based, the content incorporated in the film in relation to ancient Egypt is much less relevant than what Dan Brown included in the novel.
Author: Thomas Gamelin
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