Dumas (film)

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Dumas
L'Autre Dumas.jpg
Film poster
L'Autre Dumas
Directed by Safy Nebbou
Screenplay by
  • Gilles Taurand
  • Safy Nebbou
Based onthe play Signé Dumas
by Cyril Gély and Eric Rouquette
Produced by
  • Frank Le Wita
  • Marc de Bayser
Starring
Cinematography Stéphane Fontaine
Edited byBernard Sasia
Music byHugues Tabar-Nouval
Distributed by UGC Distribution
Release date
  • 10 February 2010 (2010-02-10)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Budget€9.6 million [1]
Box office$1.6 million [1]

Dumas (original title: L'Autre Dumas) is a 2010 French film directed by Safy Nebbou about 19th-century French author Alexandre Dumas.

Contents

Plot

In February 1848, Alexandre Dumas (Gérard Depardieu) is at the height of his fame. He has withdrawn for a few days into the immense Château de Monte-Cristo near Le Port-Marly, that he is building. There he works with his collaborator, Auguste Maquet (Benoît Poelvoorde). If the books bear Dumas' name, the tiring work undertaken by Maquet is colossal. Nevertheless, for ten years, Maquet has remained in the great man's shadow and never challenged his supremacy. When a quarrel breaks out between the two men, after Maquet passes himself off as Dumas in order to seduce Charlotte (Mélanie Thierry), a crucial question presents itself: what is the exact part each man has in the work's success? Who is the father of d'Artagnan, and of Monte Cristo ? In short, who is really the author? Their formerly peaceful relationship is now in doubt and topples over into confrontation. And not far away, in Paris, a revolution is building which will seal the fate of another relationship—that of Louis-Philippe— with the people of France.

Cast

Reception

The Council of Black Associations of France criticized the decision to cast the white actor Gérard Depardieu to play the part of Dumas, who "was the grandson of a Haitian slave and often referred to himself as a negro". [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 "L'Autre Dumas". JP's Box-Office.
  2. Kirby, Emma Jane (19 February 2010). "Dumas film with white actor Depardieu sparks race row". BBC News . Retrieved 19 August 2011.