In 2003, Dan Brown blew up the global literary industry with a phenomenon that sold almost 80 million copies worldwide and was translated into 44 languages. It developed a conspiracy theory rooted in religious esotericism that defends that Jesus did not die on the cross, but rather married Mary Magdalene and had blood descendants that survive to this day: the Merovingians., settled in France. This theme has inspired the craziest plots of products like ‘Preacher’, the wild Prime Video series based on the comics from the creator of ‘The Boys’, but in Brown’s novel it served as the basis for a Addictive international espionage, murder and mystery thriller that calls into question the entire history of the Catholic Church and its Vatican leaders.
It was only a matter of time before The Da Vinci Code made the transition from print to the big screen. In 2006, director Ron Howard immersed us in the intriguing world of secret codes and hidden messages in the works of Leonardo Da Vinci with a film adaptation starring Tom Hanks as Professor Robert Langdonan expert in religious symbols charged with trying to unravel the mystery.
The story begins in the Louvre museum when a corpse appears at the feet of Mona Lisa with a strange coded message. Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou…yes, the one from ‘Amélie’), a French police cryptographer and granddaughter of the victim, joins Langdon in investigating her, and together they discover that The key to unraveling the enigma lies in the paintings and writings of Leonardo da Vinci.The Priory of Sion, the Holy Grail and Opus Dei will be key in a global conspiracy that will take them from Paris to the Holy See via various points in Europe.
Given this argument, it is not surprising that the film revived the controversy generated by the release of the novel and exponentially multiplied it in the media. The Catholic Church obviously felt uncomfortable with the conspiratorial interpretation of a Christian story that was denounced as false and that had been deceiving hundreds of millions of people for millennia. There were protests and boycott attempts at the doors of the cinemas that hosted the first screenings of the film, but this had the opposite effect by awakening even more curiosity in potential viewers. The result? More than 750 million dollars worldwide collection.
Three years later came ‘Angels and Demons’ (2009), also directed by Howard. Chronologically, the novel on which it is based takes place before ‘The Da Vinci Code’, but for its theatrical release its adaptation was converted into a sequel. Both films ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Angels and Demons’ will leave the Netflix movie catalog at the end of the month and the last day to see them is June 30, 2024The one that will remain on the platform, at least for now, is the third installment of the trilogy (and the weakest of the three): ‘Inferno’, from 2016.
Fran Chico is an expert in cinema and series, specialized in cultural dissemination and film criticism. He is a recognized critic on Rotten Tomatoes and Filmaffinity. Although his favorite genre is horror, the same thing tells you about the new blockbuster from Marvel’s MCU and about an auteur film to claim from the festival circuit. There is no series from Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video or Disney+ that escapes its radar, delving into the catalog of each platform to recommend and analyze its best content.
Fran has been writing for Fotogramas for over a year, but his beginnings date back almost two decades in film forums and blogs such as Planeta Claqueta or Moviementarios. He was the founder and member of the board of directors of the digital publication of film reviews and analysis Revista Mutaciones and a member of the Association of Film Informers of Spain (AICE), the organization that awards the Feroz Awards, as well as a voter for the Blogos de Oro for independent cinema. After completing the Master’s Degree in Film Criticism at the Madrid Film School (ECAM) taught by Caimán Cuadernos de Cine, he has collaborated and/or covered film festivals such as San Sebastián, Sitges and Filmadrid for more than 10 years as a member of the specialized press, interviewing along the way relevant directors, actors and actresses from the national industry such as Penélope Cruz, Carlos Saura, Ana de Armas, José Luis Cuerda or José Sacristán and international ones such as James Wan, Edgar Wright or Dario Argento.
His knowledge and experience have led him to become a film video blogger for Fnac Spain and director and presenter of the podcast Holocausto Zinéfago, with more than 150 programmes broadcast and available in which cinema and humour are mixed from a unique and original point of view.
