Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunchback of Notre Dame, the version I will be using is owned by Disney. I am only responsible for the reactions the characters all have to what they watch. This will be the first 'Watching the movie' fic I have done/seen for the Hunchback. I hope you enjoy it and please review so I know what I can change/add to make it better. (Thank you to gamelover41592, who was the only one to point out that I had posted the wrong chapter. YOU THE GREATEST!)
"The bells" –Talking (outside the movie)
'Of Notre Dame' –Thoughts (outside the movie)
"Topsy-Turvy" –Talking (inside Movie)
(Everybody's acting crazy) –Non-Character actions (scene change, camera zoom, etc.)
"The Feast of Fools" –Singing (inside Movie)
Chapter 1: The Bell Ringer
(As the Walt Disney Pictures logo fades off the screen, the chorus heard in the background mixes with the bells of Notre Dame Cathedral ringing. A long zoom in through the city until we reach Clopin singing to a group of children watching his puppets)
Clopin: "Morning in Paris, the city awakes to the bells of Notre Dame"
The people observing the movie jump in surprise at hearing Clopin's voice booming. His friends in the Gypsies looked at him in question, to which he just shrugs.
"Ah, on s'en fout? (1) it must be the movie, as the man says," he then holds a finger up to his mouth and says, "Now shush, I want to watch."
Clopin: "The fisherman fishes, the baker man bakes to the bells of Notre Dame. To the big bells as loud as the thunder,"
A large bell booms through the room, sounding like an oncoming storm. Everyone but the hidden Quasimodo jump at the sound.
Esmerelda smiles, "They really are quite beautiful." The Gypsies, Phoebus, and the Archdeacon all smile and nod. Frollo just sits in silence, not caring one bit for the 'pathetic skills of the half-formed' as he thought of Quasimodo.
Clopin: "To the little bells soft as psalm, and some say the soul of the city's in the bells. The bells of Notre Dame."
Clopin on screen sighs and holds a hand up to his ear as he listens to the bells
Clopin: "Listen, they're beautiful, no? So many colors of sounds, so many changing moods."
He glances at the children and smirks
Clopin: "Because, you know, they don't ring all by themselves."
Quasimodo and Frollo's eyes widened at that, but for two different reasons.
'He…he knows about me? H…how?' he questioned in his mind.
Frollo frowned as he thought, 'how can that spawn of scum know about my monster? How many others know?'
A small puppet version of Clopin pops out next to the original
Puppet: "They don't?!"
Clopin smacks the puppet upside the back of its head
Clopin: "No, you silly boy."
He then points up towards the cathedral towers
Clopin: "Up there, high in the dark bell tower, lives the mysterious bell ringer."
He looks at the children with a questioning look
Clopin: "Who is this Creature?"
Puppet: "Who?"
Clopin: "What is it?"
Puppet: "What?"
Clopin: "How did he come to be there?"
Puppet: "How?"
Clopin: "Hush!"
Clopin bonks the puppet on top of the head, causing the children to laugh at his silliness.
Clopin chuckles and says, "Yes, the laughter of children. Musique à mes oreilles. (2)"
Esmerelda smiles, "Oh? And what about the non-married mothers that you flirt with on occasion? What are they?"
He smirks and says, "Art for the eyes, of course." Earning chuckles from most of the people in the room.
Before the movie can start again, DC518 speaks to Quasimodo through his mind, 'the next sentence will seem hurtful my friend, but you must not fall to despair. You will see that not everything you were told is true.'
Quasimodo thought for a second, accepting the more powerful beings advice
Clopin: "And Clopin will tell you. It is a tale, a tale of a man and a monster!"
(A wipe to a dark night. A band of gypsies quietly proceeding down the Seine, hoping to avoid detection. A baby in the woman's arms begins to cry.)
Clopin: "Dark was the night when our tale was begun, on the docks near Notre Dame."
Gypsy 1: "Shut it up, will you!"
Gypsy 2: "We'll be spotted!"
Gypsy Mother: "Hush, little one!"
Clopin jumped up quickly once he heard the Gypsy woman's voice. "Non, no it cannot be," he mumbled to himself. Once the woman's face appeared on screen he cried out, "Mon Dieu! Maria! (3)"
Esmerelda looked at him in confusion, "Maria? Whose Maria?" a few of the other Gypsies looked like they understood and sent a few pitying looks to Clopin.
He sighed and said, "She…she was the dancing girl before you, and also….my sister" Esmerelda's eyes widened in shock, having never heard of a sister before.
Frollo was surprised as well, 'I never did think the monster had more family.' He settled down as he thought, 'Luckily, he's not here to see this.'
Clopin: "Four frightened gypsies slid silently under the docks near Notre Dame"
Boatman: "Four gliders for safe passage into Paris."
Before they could pay the man, an arrow hit and stuck into his paddle. Making them all turn in fright.
Clopin: "But a trap had been set for the gypsies, and they gazed up in fear and alarm,"
Clopin grabbed the arms of his chair in fear, having never known what happened to his sister or his little nephew. He hadn't even seen his nephew before.
Clopin: "At a figure whose clutches were iron as much as the bells,"
Gypsy: "Judge Claude Frollo!"
On screen, Frollo appeared with a legion of guards while riding a giant black horse. He gazed at the Gypsies dispassionately, not really caring for them.
Clopin glared at the back of Frollo's head, hoping that the Minister would give him a reason to kill him
Clopin: "The bells of Notre Dame. Judge Claude Frollo longed to purge the world of vice and sin, and he saw corruption everywhere EXCEPT within."
Frollo: "Bring these gypsy vermin to the Palace of Justice"
Clopin had to be restrained as he tried to attack Frollo. "MY SISTER WAS NOT VERMIN YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Frollo just ignored him and kept watching the movie as Clopin was forced back down into his seat
Phoebus was conflicted. On one hand it was his job to follow Frollo's orders, but the man appeared to be inhuman to anyone he saw as below him. 'If the man does anything besides arresting them…I won't be responsible for what happens to him,' he decided finally.
Guard: (to mother) "You there! What are you hiding!?"
Frollo watched as the Guard tried to tug the blankets she had close to her chest away
Frollo: "Stolen goods, no doubt. Take them from her.
Clopin glared harder at Frollo, "My sister has never stolen a thing in her life salaud." (4)
Clopin's face appeared in a flash of lighting, his eyes wide as he talked
Clopin: "SHE RAN!"
(As the gypsy mother tries to escape with her baby, Judge Frollo gives chase on horseback. She reaches the doors of Notre Dame and pounds on them.)
Gypsy Mother: Sanctuary! Please give us sanctuary!
Clopin sighed, "Thank goodness. Nothing bad should happen now." He glared at Frollo, "Only the truly despicable harm those claiming sanctuary."
He was so busy glaring at Frollo that he missed the Archdeacon's solemn face, but Esmerelda and Phoebus did not.
(Frollo finally catches up to her on the steps of the cathedral. He rips the still covered bundle from her arms, and kicks her, sending her crashing to the cement steps, where she is knocked unconscious but bleeding heavily. The baby begins to cry.)
The room was silent, except for the sobs of Clopin as he cried for his sister. Phoebus stood up suddenly, bringing all attention to himself as he walked towards Frollo.
A calm Frollo stood to greet him, "Captain, I-"he was cut off when Phoebus punched Frollo in the face, sending him stumbling back. Phoebus ignored the surprised looks he was getting as he glared at Frollo.
"Once we leave this place," he said quietly, but calmly, "The king will hear of how you are running the city." He then calmly walked back to his seat, nodding to a grateful looking Clopin as he sat down.
Quasimodo ignored all of this, he was more focused on the mother and child on screen. 'Why…why does she seem familiar? Why do I feel like I know her?'
Frollo: "A baby?"
(Frollo uncovers the baby's head, seeing the deformed infant.)
Frollo: "A monster!"
(He looks around, searching for a way to dispose of the creature. He sees a well, and rides over to it. He is about to drop the baby down the well when a voice (a lightning flash between Clopin and the Archdeacon) shouts out.)
Archdeacon: "Stop!"
Clopin: "Cried the archdeacon"
Frollo: "This is an unholy demon. I'm sending it back to hell, where it belongs!"
Archdeacon: "See there the innocent blood you have spilt, on the steps of Notre Dame."
Frollo: "I am guiltless—she ran, I pursued."
By now everyone, from the people in the audience to the three hidden Gargoyles up above, were glaring at the emotionless Frollo. Quasimodo was shocked, having figured out that he was the baby.
'He lied to me. He said… that she gave me up, but he killed her' he thought in both sadness and rage, only holding back from questioning him because of his fear of being shunned.
Archdeacon: "Now you would add this child's blood to your guilt, on the steps of Notre Dame."
Frollo: "My conscience is clear!"
Archdeacon: "You can lie to yourself and your minions. You can claim that you haven't a qualm,"
He pointed at Frollo as he sung the next part.
Archdeacon: "But you never can run from, nor hide what you've done from the eyes! The very eyes of Notre Dame!"
(Constant switching between Frollo's horror stricken face and the cold, hard stares of the cathedral's statues. Each statue seems to be judging him unworthy for what he has done)
Clopin: "And for one time in his life of power and control, Frollo felt a twinge of fear for his immortal soul"
Frollo: "What must I do?"
Archdeacon: "Care for the child, raise it as your own."
The Archdeacon sighed heavily as he said, "Never, in all my years, have I felt sorrier for something I've done" he looked towards Clopin. "Had I known what would have become of the boy, or that he had family, I never would have allowed him," he glared at Frollo, "To raise the child."
Clopin was anxious now, "What happened? What did he do to my nephew?"
The Archdeacon sighed again, "I believe, if we keep watching, we can see first-hand how he teaches the boy." He was silent after that, causing them all to think deeply and to worry about the poor boy
Frollo: "What? I'm to be saddled with this misshapen—"
(He pauses as a thought creeps across his face.)
Frollo: "Very well. Let him live with you, in your church."
Archdeacon: "Live here? But where?"
Frollo: "Anywhere. Just so he's kept locked away where no one else can see."
(He looks up and spots the bell tower of the church.)
Frollo: "The bell tower, perhaps. And who knows—our Lord works in mysterious ways. Even this foul creature may yet prove one day to be, of use to me."
Everyone was surprised, Clopin most of all. He cried out, "Mon Dieu…I was so close to him. I never knew." He sat down dejectedly, upset about not seeing his nephew.
Quasimodo looked at him in sadness, "Uncle," he whispered, "I want so much to see you…but. I'm too scared of how you'll react to me."
Clopin: "And Frollo gave the child a cruel name. A name that means half-formed…Quasimodo!"
(Soon, a puppet of Frollo carrying the child is shown, followed by years of progression in the child's life)
Clopin: "Now here is a riddle to guess if you can, sing the bells of Notre Dame. Who is the monster and who is the man?"
(The back of a shadowed figure is shown, a noticeable hump on his back. He reaches up and begins to ring the bells)
Clopin: "Sing the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, BELLS OF NOTRE DAME!"
END Chapter 1
on s'en fout = who cares
Musique à mes oreilles = music to my ears
I wanted to give her a name, and a connection to the Gypsies already in Paris. It gives her a reason for trying to get into the city
Salaud = Bastard