THE DA VINCI CODE COCKTAIL – FACT, MYTH, FICTION & RELIGION

Fuelled by controversy both within its covers and in the courts, The Da Vinci Code arrives on our screens with its intoxicating mix of fact, myth, fiction and religion, crowned by the honour of opening the Cannes film festival. Andrew L. Urban explores the duality behind the phenomenon, and the filmmakers discuss the core elements that drive this religion flavoured adventure thriller.

There’s nothing new about Jesus surviving the crucifixion, nor that he married Mary and had children – but even today there are many Christians (and others) who abide by the old stories and who regard these as explosive concepts. Consequently the notion that there are descendants of Jesus walking among us (perhaps in the South of France like at the Cannes film festival, where the film has its world premiere) is at least preposterous, at worst blasphemous to some.

Striking as this subject does at the foundation stone of Christianity, The Da Vinci Code’s most effective sales pitch is that it dares mix these already volatile elements with the tools of fiction, adding myths and the irresistible element of organised secrecy – a sort of inverted conspiracy.

By blending fact and fiction like this, the work takes on a duality: on the one hand, the author and the filmmakers can claim that this is just entertainment. It’s not history or scholarship (although much research went into it) but a thriller, with fictional characters. On the other hand, they are nudge-nudge wink-winking that actually, there is indeed something to all this hokum. Just look how credible is Ian McKellen as Sir Leigh Teabing, “the sphinx of the story,” says writer Akiva Goldsman, “he is full of mysteries and serves as an engine, both in the book and the movie. Much of what happens is due to this puppet master.”

Of course, film biographies mix fact and fiction all the time, or at best bend the truth, create composite characters and generally spivvy up the story for dramatic purposes. Expect nothing less from The Da Vinci Code, which even recruits a towering artist of the Renaissance, Leonardo Da Vinci, as one its secret operatives.

THE FILMMAKERS’ NOTES:
Ron Howard’s wife was reading the book with her book group when he mentioned that he might direct a film version. He says: “People are interested in it for different reasons and are personally impacted by it in a variety of ways.”

But the main reason he was eager to direct The Da Vinci Code has to do with his love of the adventure thriller genre. “This story has all the style and traditional suspense elements that make a movie work as an entertaining narrative,” says Howard. “It takes the viewer along with the confidence that it’s headed in a particular direction but then surprises you in so many ways. That’s why the story Dan Brown created so captivated his readers. It feels familiar as a mystery and as a thriller but then, wow, there’s this fascinating turn of events.”

Having previously collaborated with screenwriter Akiva Goldsman on A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man, Howard felt Goldsman was the natural choice to adapt Dan Brown’s book. “It was a pretty daunting task,” says Howard. “By the time we’d all decided to make it into a movie, the book had gone from being a big hit to being this historic success story. I’d already been working very closely with Akiva and he and I had some fairly deep conversations about the novel, because it’s more than just believing it would make a good movie story. In choosing to take it to the screen you also have to ask yourself a lot of the questions that the book poses to the reader. I’ve never really been involved in a film project like this, one that not only generates feeling and emotion and is entertaining, but also really stimulates great conversation.”