Oh Really? Or, Let's have a look at Alexandre Dumas

[selenak]

You might or might not have heard about the
controversy regarding the casting of Gérard Depardieu as Alexandre Dumas (père), he of the Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Christo. The crucial point being that Dumas was the grandson of an Haitian slave, self identified as "un nègre", and Depardieu, of course, is white. Now, the article I linked quotes the director stating defensively: "“It would have been an historic error to have chosen a mixed-blood actor ... He had blue eyes like Depardieu.”

Well. Thankfully, Alexandre Dumas lived well into the age of photography. In lieu of a post to which I, as a person of white privilege, do not feel qualified, I offer a pic spam showing the elder Dumas as depicted by various 19th century cameras. And one portrait by painting. I think it makes my point far better than anything else could.

















And lastly, the painting.

Comments

Cynicism

[jesuswasbatman]

Time until somebody claims Depardieu is metaphorically black because he had a tough urban upbringing?

Re: Cynicism

[selenak]

Three seconds, if they haven't already. *is cynical as well*

[damned_colonial]

(here via network)

Gah, I missed this fail, but yeah, wtf? My old edition of The Three Musketeers had an engraving of him in the front, that looked very much like the pics you have here (I think it was based on photos 4 and 5 above).

[selenak]

I knew what he looked like from having read a biography years ago, but really, it took me less than a minute to google these pictures. How stupid does the production team think the public is?

[jesuswasbatman]

I don't know if you saw the photos in some of the reports, but it looks like they actually blacked him up. Which brings things down to a whole new level of utter idiocy.

[rydra_wong]

The BBC and the Times are both reporting that Depardieu's skin was "darkened" for the role.

So, yeah, the film-makers are arguing that Dumas looked white so they had to cast a white actor -- and then black him up. To look like Dumas. Who totally looked white, no really.

[jesuswasbatman]

The actual claim was that they couldn't find a dark-skinned actor with blue eyes. To which the obvious answers are "How hard were you looking?" and "Have you ever heard of contact lenses?".

[scrollgirl]

Oh jeez, yes. Why, why, why would they choose to use black-face rather than give a dark-skinned actor (many of whom you can find with green or hazel eyes) blue contact lenses.

[rydra_wong]

Well, lord knows historical films have never been known to get a character's eye colour wrong.

*growl*

[gelasius]

Note to self: Never read the comments (in the timesonline article, that is). I believe we call most of that Missing The Point Entirely. You know what's worse? I didn't know that Dumas identified as nègre (having never actually read/studied his books or given it much thought) and this movie? This movie right here, had they cast an actor of African descent, would have enlightened me, and much more positively than yet another Film Industry Fail story. So thank you for sharing that, at least.

Re: *growl*

[selenak]

The timesonline article comments are headdesk inducing, yes. Re: Dumas, I knew because I had read both a novel and a biography about him, but I know that, outside of France at least, I'm in a distinct minority there. (The family history is actually quite fascinating and telling for the time: French nobleman comes to Haiti, has sex with slave Marie-Cesette Dumas and produces four children, actually uses said slave and children to finance his journey back to France, has belated attack of conscience, retrieves the youngest of the four children and lets it be educated in France, grown up child quarrels with father - no kidding - and, using mother's name, becomes general in the French army, has fallout with Napoleon, dies, but not before producing Alexandre the future writer who was thus mostly raised by his white mother but was very proud of his father and grandmother both.) When Dumas' remains were transferred to the Panthéon in 2002 (!) to rest with other French literary luminaries like Victor Hugo or Emile Zola, Chirac in his speech did mention racism: "Fils de mulâtre, sang mêlé de bleu et de noir, Alexandre DUMAS doit alors affronter les regards d’une société française qui, pour ne plus être une société d’Ancien Régime, demeure encore une société de castes. Elle lui fera grief de tout : son teint bistre, ses cheveux crépus, à quoi trop de caricaturistes de l’époque voudront le réduire, sa folle prodigalité."