In Paris, the various employees and managers of a posh bank are confronted with a weird little incident : a stranger walks in and proposes to sell them a large quantity of gold, for a very low price. Still, the gold bars are genuine and the seller delivers the cargo with an admirable efficiency, so why worry ? During a dinner this anecdote piques the interest of one of the guests, to wit the fiancé of the bank director's daughter. The man, who's a journalist, thinks there is an interesting mystery to be discovered. He may well be right, given that the banking world is about to meet with an epidemic of random strangers offering ever more gold...
"Les compagnons d'Eleusis" is a French television series which treats themes like social injustice, class inequality and prejudice. (The beginning is telling : a man walks into a bank looking non-rich and non-powerful. He's pretty much treated as a horrible little man - look, look, he's even rolling his own cigarettes ! - until it becomes clear that he does possess a fortune in gold bars. Upon delivery of the gold he is invited in for a cordial chat over an expensive cigar, having progressed from pest to esteemed client.) The series looks at these themes from an esoteric angle, by telling a tale about a secret society wanting to flood France with gold, presumably in an attempt to bring about a better and less material world. There is even a second secret society around, which observes these developments with interest but also with a lack of enthusiasm.
If you want to know where the gold comes from or what both groups are up to, you'll have to watch the various episodes. But beware, "Les compagnons" ends with a lot of questions still hanging in the air. Our protagonist, the young journalist, is taken on a magical mystery tour by a variety of master manipulators and ends up more bemused than enlightened ; well does one understand him...
The series isn't bad, but it's a pity that both secret societies seem to spend most of their time doing generic secret societies' stuff, such as meeting in a picturesque location, having a reunion while masked, addressing members by pseudonyms, watching from behind a street corner and so on. Surely it would have been a good idea to show them at work, whatever this work consists of - killing off prize bulls, rebuilding Arthur's Avalon, dancing in honor of the morning fairies ? Adoring the goddess Demeter ? Teaching Russian orphans how to move tractors with the force of their minds ?
All this talk about alchemy would have been better, too, if it had been enlivened with a few scenes actually showing some hopeful scientist messing about with lead or fleeing before a lizard-shaped cloud. Don't tell us, show us !
For me, one of the main charms of "Les compagnons" consists of a long and leisurely tour of Paris, with its countless churches, libraries and antique shops. The Medieval history of the city is not neglected, on the contrary. Many of the monuments shown will remind viewers of a happy afternoon spent feeding the pigeons and watching glass-covered boats navigate the Seine. Another charm is the sustained 1970's look. If you, dear reader, are ever asked to create a dollhouse, a theatre set or a window display supposed to reflect 1970's fashions, look no further : this series is your man.
Conspiracies, age-old codes, crypts, occult knowledge, vows of silence, mysterious inscriptions... I've never read the book the series was based on, but I would not be surprised to learn that a copy once made its way to a young Dan Brown and fired his imagination. Certainly there's an overlap in general territory.
"Les compagnons d'Eleusis" is a French television series which treats themes like social injustice, class inequality and prejudice. (The beginning is telling : a man walks into a bank looking non-rich and non-powerful. He's pretty much treated as a horrible little man - look, look, he's even rolling his own cigarettes ! - until it becomes clear that he does possess a fortune in gold bars. Upon delivery of the gold he is invited in for a cordial chat over an expensive cigar, having progressed from pest to esteemed client.) The series looks at these themes from an esoteric angle, by telling a tale about a secret society wanting to flood France with gold, presumably in an attempt to bring about a better and less material world. There is even a second secret society around, which observes these developments with interest but also with a lack of enthusiasm.
If you want to know where the gold comes from or what both groups are up to, you'll have to watch the various episodes. But beware, "Les compagnons" ends with a lot of questions still hanging in the air. Our protagonist, the young journalist, is taken on a magical mystery tour by a variety of master manipulators and ends up more bemused than enlightened ; well does one understand him...
The series isn't bad, but it's a pity that both secret societies seem to spend most of their time doing generic secret societies' stuff, such as meeting in a picturesque location, having a reunion while masked, addressing members by pseudonyms, watching from behind a street corner and so on. Surely it would have been a good idea to show them at work, whatever this work consists of - killing off prize bulls, rebuilding Arthur's Avalon, dancing in honor of the morning fairies ? Adoring the goddess Demeter ? Teaching Russian orphans how to move tractors with the force of their minds ?
All this talk about alchemy would have been better, too, if it had been enlivened with a few scenes actually showing some hopeful scientist messing about with lead or fleeing before a lizard-shaped cloud. Don't tell us, show us !
For me, one of the main charms of "Les compagnons" consists of a long and leisurely tour of Paris, with its countless churches, libraries and antique shops. The Medieval history of the city is not neglected, on the contrary. Many of the monuments shown will remind viewers of a happy afternoon spent feeding the pigeons and watching glass-covered boats navigate the Seine. Another charm is the sustained 1970's look. If you, dear reader, are ever asked to create a dollhouse, a theatre set or a window display supposed to reflect 1970's fashions, look no further : this series is your man.
Conspiracies, age-old codes, crypts, occult knowledge, vows of silence, mysterious inscriptions... I've never read the book the series was based on, but I would not be surprised to learn that a copy once made its way to a young Dan Brown and fired his imagination. Certainly there's an overlap in general territory.
