The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

The Nîmes Committee and the TCU Office of International Services invite you to a free showing of William Dieterle’s 1939 film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. See how 2019 Paris differs immensely from 1939 Paris and commemorate the historic monument 80 years after Dieterle’s iconic film shocked the world.

Parking is located on West Bowie across the street from the building in the open lot.

A very special thank you to John Singleton and the Kinomonda Global Cinema Project for organizing!

MORE ABOUT THE FILM

80 years after Dieterle’s iconic film, cell phones, televisions and digital media ignited in an incendiary silence as one of the world’s most famous structures smoldered, burned, collapsed and smoldered again. Parisians, tourists, art students and virtually everyone familiar with the iconographic church watched in sadness and awe as something seemingly impossible happened—a monument to human history was reduced to ashes. Like the ancient libraries of Alexandria, something immeasurable and unattainable again was lost.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame takes us backward in time, to a moment in history when not only the Pope but anything affiliated with the church was infallible. Victor Hugo’s story is amazing in his ability to write in such a way that a story relevant at the turn of the 19th century would also be relevant 100 years earlier, or unfortunately, 100 years later.

The new Notre Dame will undoubtedly be shiny and beautiful. May the stories of the new Notre Dame resonate with beauty and hope.