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Reviews
Harper's Island (2009)
Do Not Disturb
As "Harper's Island" races towards its electrifying climax, I find myself bored. People are getting whacked simply for the sake of getting whacked. The survivors are doing what the plot demands of them rather than what their characters demand of them. It's too dangerous to wander around alone -- but they do it several times an episode. The murders grow increasingly preposterous. How many times have we seen one character startled by another sneaking up behind them? I certainly don't jump any more. Sometimes I continue to watch a show that has lost my interest, simply to see how disinterested I can become. At this rate, I'll sleep through the finale, no problem.
Knight Rider: A Knight in Shining Armor (2008)
Please Do Not Bother
Usually I'll give a new show 3 or 4 episodes to settle in before I pass judgment on it. I was tired of this one after fifteen minutes.
Almost everything is overdone: CG transformations, music, cheesecake. What might have been a funny line about an "adult film" star dragged on into four lines and drained all the humor out. Billy ought to sue Zoe for sexual harassment.
Even some of the performances are overdone (take some Prozac, people), with the notable exceptions of Justin Bruening and Val Kilmer; both are flat and lifeless. Bring back Hasselhoff and Daniels, say I.
There's got to be something more interesting to do on a Wednesday night than watch this.
Maigret: Maigret et les caves du Majestic (1992)
Below Street Level
Mme Emilienne Clark, wife of an American businessman, is found dead in a hotel locker. What was she doing in the basement so early in the morning? Did she have secrets? Did she know any of the Hotel Majestic staff? Answering these questions sets Maigret to unraveling a complex web of relationships. That unraveling doesn't go quite right, according to the magistrate, but Maigret continues to make the case his way.
Good character study and fine performances by all concerned make for a more-than-solid entry in the series. Special mention must be given to Jerome Deschamps as the sadly misnamed Prosper. Maigret bumps heads with other investigators and with the victim's widower. Yet he presses calmly on until the moment his nerves need settling and it's a suspect that catches the brunt.
Maigret: Maigret et les plaisirs de la nuit (1992)
Pleasures of the Night
Exotic dancer Lili warns the police that a countess is going to be murdered -- but she doesn't know which one. She is herself murdered after leaving the police station. This leaves Maigret with two problems: who killed Lili, and is there really a countess in danger?
Maigret glides through the Parisian night life without letting it touch him. The same cannot be said for his young assistant, Inspector LaPointe. Nor even for the people who have to live that life. Maigret investigates Lili's death because it is his duty; LaPointe's motivation is more personal and emotional. It's Maigret's tactics that bring out the truth, though LaPointe's passions help a lot at a critical moment.
The broadcast I saw was entitled "Maigret in Monmartre" after the Paris district where the action takes place.
Maigret: Maigret et le fou de Sainte Clothilde (2002)
La Place de Peyton
A man leaps from a moving train en route to Strasbourg. Maigret follows, but twists his ankle in the process and is laid up in St. Clotilde. Hearing of an attempted murder similar to a killing seven years ago, Maigret decides to stay in town and solve the case.
Understated compared to American fare, there is nonetheless intrigue as Maigret probes the secrets and entanglements of the town's "Four Aces": doctor, lawyer, police chief, and mayor. But despite a promising beginning and middle, the ending (executed in classic suspects-in-the-drawing-room style), rather flops. The cast is up to the task, but the script demands too little of them.
Maigret: La maison de Félicie (2002)
Autumn in the Country
Jules Lascours lived in a large villa with his maid and a brace of rabbits and kittens until someone killed him. Maigret nearly meets his match in the maid, Felicie; she knows more than she's telling and he has it rough trying to pry it from her.
Bruno Cremer and Jeanne Henry have a fine time playing verbal tennis as the policeman on a mission confronts the passive-aggressive girl-woman. The film indeed rises or falls on their interaction -- and here, rises it is. He is at turns forceful and sympathetic, while she flips between hostile and vulnerable. If you're an animal lover, this one's for you -- it has geese, sheep, mice, a dog, cats, and rabbits.
Maigret: Maigret et le marchand de vin (2002)
In vino veritas? Not quite...
Rene Chabout, a wine merchant with an insatiable appetite for women, is murdered. Maigret must sort through who was sleeping with whom and why, all the while hoping that some of what he learns will lead to a motive and a culprit. Perhaps it won't. Perhaps the motive is something else entirely ...
Excellent direction by Christian de Chalonge (including some suitably creepy first-person camera work), ably assisted by cinematographer Vladimir Smutny. Thierry Fremont and Dominique Frot contribute fine performances in small roles. The denouement is low-key (as is usual with the Maigrets I've seen), but well-executed and hardly disappointing.
Maigret: Maigret et la fenêtre ouverte (2001)
Brr, baby, it's cold outside ...
So close that open window!
Businessman Oscar Laget is murdered in his office. The only other people in the building are accounted for in the waiting room downstairs. Maigret is called in and confines them all at the crime scene and waits to see who will crack first.
This is a claustrophilic little story, with its action confined to the office building and the courtyard just outside. This serves to highlight the stresses the characters experience. Maigret calls it "an English-style whodunit, like Agatha Christie." On a thoroughly trivial note, the characters call World War I "la guerre quatorze-dix-huit," meaning "the war of (19)14-(19)18" and the World War II "la guerre quarante," meaning "The War of (19)40."
Maigret: Maigret chez le ministre (2002)
Vive la Quatrieme Republique!
A sanatorium at Clairfond is buried in a landslide, killing 128, mostly children. The Minister of Public Works, though he wasn't in the government when Clairfond was built, fears a scandal will envelop him. And he's not wrong, once he receives the Calume report. He asks Maigret for some discreet assistance, but it turns out the report is fatal to almost everyone who reads it ...
The highlight here is Bernard Freyd as the Minister (August Point), an honest veteran of the French Resistance trying to survive in the cutthroat Fourth Republic government. More political intrigue than crime-solving, much to Maigret's distaste. But when someone asks for his help, "I'm like a pretty woman. I can't say no."
Maigret: Maigret chez les riches (2000)
Hmm ... the rich ARE different ...
M. Emile Parendon, a business attorney, receives a letter which may or may not be a threat. As a favor, Commissaire Jules Maigret looks into the affair, though there's no real crime -- yet. Suspects include Mme. Parendon, one son, one daughter, three employees, and three servants. (Each of these gets a one-line character description courtesy of the butler in an amusing exchange.) With the able assistance of his nephew Paul, Maigret has to uncover what's going on before someone gets hurt -- especially after he gets letters himself.
As one can tell from the title, the Parendons are indeed rich, and most of the action takes place in their strikingly opulent home, which also holds M. Parendon's office. The story unfolds quietly enough, as is the case with the other Maigret films I've seen. There's plenty here to hold one's attention. As an aside, Celia Granier-Deferre (playing Bambi Parendon) is the daughter of director Denys Granier-Deferre, who is the son of teleplay adapter Pierre Granier-Deferre. All in the family!
Maigret: Maigret voit double (2000)
Must-see French-Czech-Belgian-Swiss TV
Maurice Tremblet falls dead in his bedroom, a small projectile wound in his chest. Commissaire Maigret arrives to investigate, taking a room in a hotel across the street from which the fatal shot may have been fired. He calls this "settling in others' nests." And he must consider: why would anyone want M. Tremblet, a thoroughly ordinary accountant, dead? Of course, we learn that M. Tremblet was hardly ordinary. And we learn it as the characters do, for no one, not even his family, knew him well.
If you get a chance to see this one, take it. Sharp dialog leavened with genuine wit and outstanding work from the supporting cast (especially the lovely Eleonore Gosset) make it a winner. Quite a treat sorting out the true clues from the red herrings. Hats off to director Luciani (his only Maigret film so far) and experienced adapter Granier-Deferre.
Maigret: Un meurtre de première classe (1999)
A 12-Hour Stop at Jeumont
A train from Berlin to Paris stops for 50 minutes at the town of Jeumont. In that time, a passenger is murdered. The first-class carriages are locked; no one can get on or off. The local police inspector, Paul Lachenal, calls in his famous uncle, Jules Maigret, for assistance. Maigret goes about his investigation in his usual methodical manner. "I like to listen to people," he says. And he promises the passengers he'll have the murderer caught by 9:00 PM.
In this story, set in the long hot summer of 1953, Maigret's investigation and bits of character business between the passengers occupy almost equal portions of screen time. Both, to me, were quite enjoyable. Lachenal, only recently out of the police academy, is eager to make a good impression on his uncle. The passengers are keeping secrets from Maigret, and from each other. Impatiently he tells Miss Frankel, "You and your boyfriend are getting on my wick!" Which may not have been meant to be funny, but was, in subtitled translation. It's been a long time since French class, but I think Maigret's actual words were "courir sur le haricot," which can be literally rendered, "running on the bean." Your mileage may vary.
There's even a little gun play in this installment. My favorite scene, though, was of Maigret, sitting alone in the compartment where the murder occurred, reasoning it out. If you like quiet mysteries, and don't mind subtitles, give this one a try.
Maigret: Meurtre dans un jardin potager (1999)
Maigret Does It Again
A vagabond is found dead in a garden shed near Dole, carrying the same weapon that killed another vagabond in Paris a few weeks earlier. No one will admit to knowing the dead man, but Commissaire Maigret suspects differently. He must probe the dysfunctional Fouly family, a group of partying young people, and two sisters who haven't spoken (except in insults) in 30 years. There are old secrets to be unearthed.
This is a quiet, low-key story that comes up short of compelling, though its ending is quite strong. Bruno Cremer is good in the title role (and he should be, considering how many times he's played it). Renee Le Calm provides comic relief as the sometimes-deaf Fouly grandmother. Genevieve Fontanel (younger sister Fonsine) worked with Francois Truffaut in L'Homme Qui Aimait Les Femmes (The Man Who Loved Women). Filmed in the Czech Republic.
Maigret: Maigret et le Liberty Bar (1997)
Absorbing entry in the series
A woman and her daughter bury William Brown in their backyard, and are caught before they can make their getaway. Commissaire Maigret arrives from Paris to investigate. When the hapless Inspector Boutigues lays out his theory of the case and asks Maigret what he thinks, the Commissaire replies: "I don't think anything. I listen...and I look." No fistfights, no gunfights, just Maigret listening and looking and unraveling the connections between the grave-digging Martini women, Mado (owner of the Liberty Bar), the lovely Silvie (her sometime-tenant) and Harry Brown (the late William's son).
Bruno Cremer in the title role has the physical size and screen presence necessary to keep the center of the film on himself. Not widely available, but certainly worth a look if you come across it. Filmed in South Africa, standing in for the 1950's French Riviera.