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What changed on screen
What changed on screen, title by title: 20 in total. Tap a cover to open it. Titles you haven't marked as read stay locked so nothing gets spoiled.
- Referencenod to comics or other movies
- Cameoa familiar face shows up
- Setupplanted now, pays off later
- Behind the scenesproduction trivia
- ChangeThe narrator reads the book
In the 1972 version, Jean Desailly's voice reads passages from the novel almost word for word. That is how TV keeps the chronicle tone Druon gives the book.
source ↗ - ChangeAll of France in a studio
The book moves through Paris, Pontoise, Fontainebleau and the pyre on the Seine island. In 1972 it all becomes a stage with painted backdrops. In 2005 the Templar roundup gets crowds of extras.
source ↗ - ChangeDepardieu at the stake
Jacques de Molay barely appears in the book, but his curse drives the saga. In 2005 the part went to a star, Gérard Depardieu; in 1972 it was Xavier Depraz.
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- ChangeA cardboard Château-Gaillard
Druon describes the cold, crumbling fortress where Marguerite is held. The 1972 version handles it with a bare set and stage lighting, leaving the weight on actress Muriel Baptiste.
source ↗ - ChangeSci-fi palaces
The book is a traditional historical novel. In 2005, sets by comics artist Philippe Druillet give Louis X's court an odd, almost space-age look.
source ↗ - ChangeThe king played by a Depardieu
Louis X, the book's jittery, weak king, was played by Georges Ser in 1972 and by Guillaume Depardieu in 2005.
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- ChangeThe mud campaign offstage
The book shows Louis X's army bogged down in Flanders. The 1972 version, shot in a studio, sticks to the basics; the 2005 one goes for battle scenes with extras.
source ↗ - ChangeMahaut with a legend's face
The book's Mahaut is big, coarse and frightening. In 1972 Hélène Duc made her a theatrical figure; in 2005 the part went to Jeanne Moreau.
source ↗ - ChangeMore sex and blood in 2005
Druon tells of poisons and plots with a chronicler's distance. The 2005 version reshuffles the plot, speeds up the action and shows sex and violence with a frankness the 1972 one lacked.
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- ChangeThe book that lost its episode
In 1972, The Royal Succession gets its own episode. In 2005 the series has five episodes and none bears this book's name: its story gets squeezed between its neighbors.
source ↗ - ChangePhilip V in two styles
The book's Philip of Poitiers is cold and calculating. In 1972 he was played by Josep Maria Flotats; in 2005 by Éric Ruf of the Comédie-Française.
source ↗ - ChangeThe queen who is Gérard's daughter
Jeanne, Mahaut's daughter who becomes queen in this book, was played in 2005 by Julie Depardieu. In 1972 it was Catherine Rich.
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- ChangeEngland on stage
Half the book takes place in England, from the Tower of London to Berkeley Castle. The 1972 version moves it all onto the same kind of stage, with painted backdrops.
source ↗ - ChangeIsabella and Mortimer
The book's central couple was played by Geneviève Casile and Claude Giraud in 1972, and by Julie Gayet and Bruno Todeschini in 2005.
source ↗ - ChangeTwo Edward IIs
The English king the book paints as weak and ruled by his favorites was played by Michel Beaune in 1972 and by Christopher Buchholz in 2005.
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- ChangeLis or lys
The novel is called Le Lis et le Lion. In both miniseries, the final episode is listed as Le Lys et le lion, with the old spelling of the flower.
source ↗ - ChangeWhere both versions stop
TV ends here. Both miniseries adapt only the first six books, and The King Without a Kingdom has never been filmed.
source ↗ - ChangeRobert from Piat to Torreton
This is Robert of Artois's book. Jean Piat played him in 1972, in a cast drawn largely from the stage; in 2005 the part went to Philippe Torreton.
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- Behind the scenesSeventeen years later
The sixth book came out in 1960 and this one not until 1977, from Plon rather than Del Duca. It was first published in English in the HarperCollins reissue, between 2013 and 2015.
source ↗ - ReferenceGeorge R. R. Martin's praise
Martin called the series "the original game of thrones" and wrote the foreword to the 2013 English reissue. He cites Druon as an inspiration for A Song of Ice and Fire.
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