Jérôme Seydoux wants to dust off Alexandre Dumas! After producing a diptych of The Three Musketeers (the first part of which hits cinemas on April 5) and launching pre-production on The Count of Monte Cristo (starring Pierre Niney), Jérôme Seydoux is putting the writer in the spotlight at his Fondation, located in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. "Alexandre Dumas à l'écran" is both an exhibition and a retrospective. On view from March 22 to July 13, 2023.
Bonus: from June 21 to July 13, the exhibition is free for all at the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé! All the more reason to see and revisit this retrospective, which plunges us into the world of Dumas.
Visitors to the three floors of the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux can discover documents, extracts, costumes, props and photographs from the hundreds of films adapted by this inexhaustible author. And since he's in the news, Les Trois Mousquetaires and its adaptations will occupy an entire floor of the exhibition. Whether Les Trois Mousquetaires or Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, Dumas' two best-known works, each has been the subject of some forty film adaptations, enough to give this exhibition plenty of content!
But that's not all: the films in question will also be screened at the Fondation, as ciné-concert for the silent films, and as classical screenings for the others. The program of screenings can be found on the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux website.
Our verdict
As soon as you enter the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux, the tone is set: visitors are greeted by the sounds of swords clashing and galloping, so you're immediately in the mood. This exhibition, devoted to adaptations of Alexandre Dumas, is extremely rich, which is what makes it so valuable. The pieces discovered within the walls of the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux are often unique, and since Jérôme Seydoux is the producer of the latest Les Trois Mousquetaires film, it is given pride of place. The first floor of the Fondation is entirely devoted to Dumas' major works, with posters of the best-known adaptations and a screen showing excerpts (see our photos). But above all, you'll discover the real costumes of the characters in Martin Bourboulon's film, which, for those who see the film as soon as it's released, will allow you to admire details not necessarily seen on screen, and which demonstrate the talent of the film's costume designers.
You can then choose to visit either the upstairs or the basement. There's no required order, but we recommend you visit the basement first, to save the best for last. You'll find posters of films adapted from Dumas, but they're not chosen at random; they allow us to see that the author has been adapted in virtually every country that makes movies. There are even Indian and Japanese Musketeers.
Last but not least, the first floor is undoubtedly the best part of the exhibition, as it is here that we find all the exhibits, documents, costumes and objects of all kinds gleaned from the filming of these adaptations. But it's not just the films that are on show: there are also editions of the novels, as well as comics and manga based on Dumas' work. We won't go into all the details to keep you surprised, but you will learn about the not-so-obvious links between certain films and the author. The one that surprised us most: Double Impact, the cult film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, is an adaptation of the short story Les Frères Corses.
We rediscover Dumas in a new light, and realize that he is one of the most adapted authors in the history of cinema, and that each new technological revolution has enabled this medium to take hold of the author once again, for ever more spectacular results. It would be a shame to miss out on such a wonderful exhibition, given that it's easy to get around and the entrance fee is a mere €5(€3 if you have a reduced rate ).
Dates and Opening Time
From March 22, 2023 to July 13, 2023
Location
The Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Foundation
73 Avenue des Gobelins
75013 Paris 13
Access
Metro: Place d'Italie, Les Gobelins
Prices
Free
Average duration
30 min
