Sooner or Later, Something Good Had to Come Out of The Da Vinci Code

...and now it has--Anthony Lane has reviewed the film:
Help arrives in the shape of Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), a police cryptographer. She turns out to be the granddaughter of the deceased, and a dab hand at reversing down Paris streets in a car the size of a pissoir. This is useful, since she and Langdon are soon on the run, convinced that Fache is about to nail the professor on a murder charge—the blaming of Americans, on any pretext, being a much loved Gallic sport. Our hero, needing somebody to trust, does the same dumb thing that every fleeing innocent has done since Robert Donat in “The Thirty-nine Steps.” He and Sophie visit a cheery old duffer in the countryside and spill every possible bean. In this case, the duffer is Sir Leigh Teabing (Ian McKellen), who lectures them on the Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicaea, in 325 A.D. We get a flashback to the council in question, and I must say that, though I have recited the Nicene Creed throughout my adult life, I never realized that it was originally formulated in the middle of a Beastie Boys concert.
Read and love, my friends.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The BBC programme 'Have I got news for you' used this quote from the Times Online. Be lovely if it was true - but it does read like a wind-up.

The latest dissenting voice comes the Alliance of French Female Cryptographers, which is concerned about the stereotyping Tautou’s portrayal of Sophie Neveu, the seductive cryptographer heroine, might promote. “What’s important is that people realise not all female cryptographers are enchanting, or even sexy,” it says. “Some of us are thoroughly plain, bordering on dowdy, and couldn’t smile in a cutesy, pixie-ish manner if we tried.”
May 23, 2006 6:25 PM
Anonymous said…
one of the cast couldn't see the problem of The Da Vinci Code's display of Christianity, he argued "well atleast it proves Jesus wasn't a gay." what a way to calm the church
May 23, 2006 6:38 PM
Anonymous said…
Thank you for linking to that. I surely did need that laugh!
May 24, 2006 2:50 AM
Shahar said…
You should, of course, read Red Fish's review as well (it's in hebrew) on http://www.fisheye.co.il/story_3310

Shahar
May 25, 2006 12:09 PM

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