What MITIM means to me

By Christiane Märker

May (or June) 2007

I’m a student from Berlin and I’m 24 years old (at the time when I was writing this article).

I watched „The man in the iron mask“ the first time in October 1998. Unfortunately I had missed it at the theatres (That’s still a trauma for me. LOL). But I had bought the VHS and I was alone at home and so I watched it.

I had just become a Leo Fan in summer 1998 and “Titanic” was my absolute favourite movie and I couldn’t imagine that there could be any film which could compete with “Titanic” concerning my favour. Well, I hadn’t watched MITIM yet.

So I watched MITIM the first time and what can I say? I liked it almost as much as “Titanic” (Later it became my favourite movie). But I had to cry so much. From the scene where Louis is kidnapped by the musketeers, I had to cry the whole time until the end. I had to cry so much that I couldn’t eat my pizza anymore. LOL. Why was I crying? Because I couldn’t bear that someone hurts my Leo. During the scene at the ballroom, when Philippe meets his mother and everyone seems to be happy, I was thinking ‘How can everyone be happy if my Leo (as Louis) is kidnapped?!’ Boohoo! And as from that scene the twins always were in trouble alternately, I couldn’t stop crying.

But when I first watched MITIM, I had still always seen Leo. This has changed later and I began to see the twins. First I had just compassion with Leo, but then I had compassion with Louis and Philippe. When I now watch MITIM, I don’t see Leo anymore, I only see the twins. I’m very touched, especially by Louis, who I think is a very tragic character. I believe that there’s something good in him and I think that Leo did an excellent job here. I have really fallen in love with Louis. I know that many people say that Leo wasn’t that good in MITIM (at least compared to his other performances). But I have to disagree. I think he was great (BTW, who the heck had the idea to give him the razzi for this movie?? One should slap these guys. LOL!) He made the twins human, he gave them a soul. Maybe he has given performances which were more technical polished (for example in “The Aviator”), but his performance in MITIM has touched my heart. And I’m especially thankful that he didn’t play Louis as total cold-hearted monster. We can see that Louis has feelings and is vulnerable (The scene where Louis and Philippe are together at Louis’ room after the unsuccessful exchange is simply great).

I’m always thinking about MITIM. It is much more than just a movie for me. I dream of it, I philosophize about it. One could even say that it is a part of my world view (Call me crazy if you want. LOL). And I’m always thinking about Louis. If he would be a real person, I would marry him. BTW, when I'm talking about Louis here, then I'm only talking about the character from the movie (and also from the books, because I think there are some similarities between the Louis in the books and how Leo has played him. See also my article "Some thoughts about the book"). I'm not talking about the historical person. These are two different things. Some characters of the movie are actually historical characters (Louis, D'Artagnan, the Queen, etc.). But even at the credits it is said that all characters from the movie are fictional. Okay, I think this statement is difficult because some of the characters aren't completly fictional. They have existed in history - you can't deny that. But it is true that MITIM actually isn't an authentic portrait of these historical characters. I would say that they have used these historical characters and have created their own characters with them. So I would say that these characters in the movie - including Louis - are half-fictional characters. For me it is always important to make this distinction between the historical characters and the half-fictional characters from the movie, so that no misunderstandings come into being.

Chrissi

In spring 2005 I visited Vaux-le-Vicomte where they had shot some scenes from MITIM. You can read my report here.