The Man in the Iron Mask

The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)

Timing: 2:12 (132 min)

6.647/10
4102

7.287/10
69368

6.5/10
189000

All about film

Video 10

Photo 41

Actors and characters

Release date

1998-03-12

Country

United States, France, United Kingdom

Production

United Artists, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, The Ladd Company, UAC

Genre

Adventure, Action, Drama

Budget

$35 000 000

Revenue

$183 000 000

Website

Director

Randall Wallace

Actors

Leonardo DiCaprio, Gabriel Byrne, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gérard Depardieu, Anne Parillaud, Judith Godrèche, Edward Atterton, Peter Sarsgaard, Hugh Laurie
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Randall Wallace, Paul Hitchcock, Russell Smith, René Dupont, Alan Ladd Jr.

Operator

Peter Suschitzky

Composer

Nick Glennie-Smith

Artist

Audition

Cathy Sandrich Gelfond, Amanda Mackey

Editing

William Hoy
All team (17)

• Filming of the movie primarily took place at the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, a French estate where Louis XIV actually resided during the construction of the Palace of Versailles.
• Alexandre Dumas, père (1802-1870), the author of the novel that served as the literary source for the film, wrote about a mysterious prisoner of the Bastille who, on special occasions, wore a leather mask for two years between his imprisonment and death. The idea that this was the face of someone resembling a member of the royal family belongs to a historian from the mid-18th century and was first put forward approximately 70 years after the events described.
• D'Artagnan's death does not align with its depiction in his biography: in Dumas' novel 'The Vicomte de Bragelonne, or Ten Years Later,' D'Artagnan dies on the battlefield.
• A portrait of Louis XV hangs in the apartments of Louis XIV, despite the film's events taking place approximately fifty years before his birth.
• The film concludes by stating that Louis XIV was remembered as the most generous of kings. This 'statement' is generally met with amusement by the French: in France, it is believed that, despite his political genius, Louis XIV was a cold and despotic ruler who sacrificed the needs of the people for his ambitious projects.
• In the scene where the captain of the musketeers pleads for Raoul, d'Artagnan sits in the presence of the king, an act of audacity that would have been punishable by immediate execution.
• The king's ball takes place in the Main Salon of the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. In reality, this hall remained empty only from the mid-20th century onwards. Before that, the Main Salon contained various furnishings, including children's furniture.
• Filming took place from April 28 to July 1997.
• D'Artagnan's death does not match the description in his biography: in Dumas' novel 'The Vicomte de Bragelonne, or Ten Years Later,' D'Artagnan died on the battlefield.
• At the end of the film, it is stated that Louis XIV was remembered as the most generous of kings. This 'statement' is usually received by the French with a good deal of humor: in France, it is believed that, despite his political genius, Louis XIV was a cold and despotic ruler who sacrificed the needs of the people to his own adventurous projects.