Notre Dame an inspiration in film, music and books

Advertisement

Advertise with us

NEW YORK - The Notre-Dame de Paris, which sustained a devastating fire Monday, has inspired writers, painters and filmmakers for hundreds of years. Here are some notable examples:

Read this article for free:


By clicking the button above, an account will be created and you will begin to receive some of our recommended newsletters. You may opt out of any newsletter by visiting your Email and Communication Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of any email.

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $1.44 a week*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks. After 52 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/04/2019 (2756 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW YORK – The Notre-Dame de Paris, which sustained a devastating fire Monday, has inspired writers, painters and filmmakers for hundreds of years. Here are some notable examples:

PAINTING: Henri Matisse painted it often— in intimate blue, a distant green, a pinkish haze. It served as a melancholy backdrop for William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s “The Bohemian,” while the interior provided a golden, grandiose aura for Jacques-Louis David’s “The Coronation of Napoleon.”

BOOKS: Think of books about Notre Dame and you’ll inevitably begin with Victor Hugo’s “Notre-Dame of Paris” (otherwise known as “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”), his 1831 masterpiece. But Notre Dame also appears in works ranging from Balzac’s “The Wrong Side of Paris” to the “Babar” and “Madeline” children’s series.

FILE - In this Friday, June 3, 2016 file photo, a man paints the Notre Dame cathedral surrounded by the flooding Seine river in Paris, France. The Gothic structure, which sustained a devastating fire Monday, April 15, 2019, has inspired writers, painters and filmmakers for hundreds of years. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
FILE - In this Friday, June 3, 2016 file photo, a man paints the Notre Dame cathedral surrounded by the flooding Seine river in Paris, France. The Gothic structure, which sustained a devastating fire Monday, April 15, 2019, has inspired writers, painters and filmmakers for hundreds of years. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

MOVIES: It’s there, of course, in the adaptations of Hugo’s novel, whether the 1939 version starring Charles Laughton, the 1956 remake with Anthony Quinn or the 1996 Disney musical featuring the voices of Tom Hulce and Demi Moore among others. You’ll spot it, too, in the background as Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn converse in “Charade,” and as Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy cruise along the Seine in “Before Sunset,” as Hawke marvels at its surviving the Nazi occupation of World War II and Delpy responds, “But you have to think that Notre Dame will be gone one day.”

MUSIC: “Dark was the night when our tale was begun/On the docks near Notre Dame,” sing David Ogden Stiers, Paul Kandel and Tony Jay in the Disney film, the soundtrack composed by Alan Menken. In ABBA’s “One Last Summer,” it’s a sentimental detail (“In the tourist jam, round the Notre-Dame/Our last summer/Walking hand in hand”). It’s an object of awe in Garland Jefferies’ “Jump Jump” (“We pass Notre Dame/So much history/So much bigger than me”) and a brooding symbol in Roxy Music’s “Europe” (“And here by the Seine/Notre Dame casts/A long lonely shadow”).

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Oleksiak makes history with seventh Olympic medal

The Canadian Press 8 minute read Preview

Oleksiak makes history with seventh Olympic medal

The Canadian Press 8 minute read Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021

TOKYO - The Canadian women finished their impressive medal haul in the pool – including a record-setting performance from Penny Oleksiak – and Andre De Grasse finally got Canada's men on the board with his second consecutive Olympic bronze in the men's 100 metres.

After finishing third in the medley relay, Maggie Mac Neil draped a bronze medal brimming with significance around Oleksiak's neck as their teammates Kylie Masse and Sydney Pickrem celebrated on the podium.

"Most decorated," they chanted in unison with their arms around each other during post-ceremony interviews with reporters.

On the final day of swimming competition at the Tokyo Olympics, Toronto's Oleksiak took her place at the top among Canada's greatest Olympians. In helping the medley relay team win bronze, she earned her seventh career Olympic medal, and at just 21 became the most decorated Canadian Olympian of all time.

Read
Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021

Third fire hits troubled Manitoba Housing apartment block

Malak Abas 4 minute read Preview

Third fire hits troubled Manitoba Housing apartment block

Malak Abas 4 minute read Yesterday at 3:19 PM EST

Residents of a North End Manitoba Housing apartment block with a long history of trouble say they’re shaken after the building was hit with its third fire in eight months Friday night.

An apartment complex at 145 Powers St. was evacuated by firefighters after a fire broke out at around 7:45 p.m.

When longtime resident Sharon Markwell heard the fire alarm go off, she chalked it up to a false alarm — kids will get into the building and pull the fire alarm around once or twice a month, she said — until smoke began billowing into the hallway of her fifth-floor apartment.

“Once I realized that I could smell smoke very, very strongly, and the smoke was seeping into my room, into my apartment, I said to myself, ‘This is no false alarm. This is the real thing,’” Markwell, 64, told the Free Press Sunday.

Read
Yesterday at 3:19 PM EST

Letters, Nov. 2

6 minute read 2:00 AM EST

Post-election reflection

The civic election offered both predictable and surprising results. The re-election of Mayor Scott Gillingham and the defeat of Transcona councillor Russ Wyatt were anticipated.

What was surprising was that, in addition to Wyatt, three other incumbents lost their bids for re-election. Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan), Ross Eadie (Mynarski) and Shawn Dobson (St. James) all went down to defeat, and it is clear to me their replacements will bring stronger voices to city hall.

A total of nine new councillors is a seismic shift in Winnipeg civic politics, not seen since the establishment of the 15-member council some 35 years ago. What is most interesting is the political leanings of the new councillors and how they will work with Mayor Gillingham.

Another embarrassing loss: Arniel

Mike McIntyre 7 minute read Preview

Another embarrassing loss: Arniel

Mike McIntyre 7 minute read Yesterday at 6:15 PM EST

RALEIGH — No sticks were smashed. No walls punched. And nary a naughty word was uttered.

Instead, the Winnipeg Jets filed off the ice here at Lenovo Center on Sunday afternoon much like they’d just played the preceding game against the Carolina Hurricanes — with no emotion, no passion, no urgency.

You’d have thought yet another loss, this one in truly humiliating fashion and a ninth consecutive overall, might have triggered something.

Anything.

Read
Yesterday at 6:15 PM EST

Salt Lake, Sapporo head race to 2030 Olympics, and maybe '34

Stephen Wade, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

Salt Lake, Sapporo head race to 2030 Olympics, and maybe '34

Stephen Wade, The Associated Press 6 minute read Monday, May. 2, 2022

Fraser Bullock, who leads Salt Lake City's bid to return the Winter Olympics to Utah, sounds very confident about success.

“I believe we'll host a future Game(s). It's a question of when,” he said last week in a local television interview.

But will it be in 2030, the first opening on the IOC calendar? Or might the International Olympic Committee make a double award and also name the 2034 host? When it had two strong candidates 4 1/2 years ago for the Summer Games, the IOC selected Paris for the 2024 Olympics and Los Angeles for 2028.

The IOC isn't saying. An announcement is expected early next year, with media reports in Salt Lake City suggesting a decision in May 2023.

Read
Monday, May. 2, 2022

The ‘Gang of Nine’ and business as usual at city hall

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

The ‘Gang of Nine’ and business as usual at city hall

Editorial 4 minute read 2:00 AM EST

In the early 1990s, after the province reduced the number of municipal wards in Winnipeg to 15, critics spoke at length of how a theoretical “Gang of Eight” could control all decision making at city hall. In subsequent years, there were various incarnations of a Gang of Eight, although it was never conclusively shown that eight members of city council could consistently stay on the same page long enough to dominate civic affairs.

That is an apt tale to consider now, as Winnipeg city hall welcomes nine rookie councillors, the largest number of non-incumbents elected in more than 30 years.

Theoretically, this new group of councillors could band together and push through various reforms. It’s a highly intriguing scenario for anyone who has watched the city, on occasion, shun riskier strategies in favor of status quo politics.

However, as was the case in the early 1990s, the chances of that happening begin to fall apart once you consider the work of building and sustaining a coalition of rookie councillors who come from a broad array of backgrounds.

Read
2:00 AM EST