Fans of Georges Simenon’s detective Inspector Maigret are likely to approve of Maigret and the Dead Lover, the French detective’s latest movie outing.
Director Pascal Bonitzer’s Inspector Maigret has many similarities to others who have played the role including his mental sharpness, his love of his wife, good food and wine and the continual presence of a hat and pipe!
At the same time the actor playing Maigret, Denis Podalydès, is rather different in physique to other French actors who have played him including Harry Baur, Pierre Renoir, Jean Gabin, Gérard Depardieu and Bruno Cremer.
Based on Simenon’s book Maigret and the Elderly, the movie sees Maigret investigating the death of a former ambassador whose body has been discovered by his long serving housekeeper Jacotte (Anne Alvaro).
From the start Maigret realises it’s going to be a messy investigation. Instead of calling the police Jacotte has gone straight to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, claiming she is following diplomatic protocols.
Much to Maigret’s annoyance, the Ministry wants to stay informed of developments even though they are convinced there’s no connection to the ambassador’s former working life.
However, the Ministry’s interest becomes clearer on Maigret’s discovery of a series of hundreds of salacious letters between the deceased diplomat and the Princess of Vuynes (Dominique Reymond) whose husband, by strange coincidence, has also just died.
As Maigret discovers, the ambassador had many secrets but were they the reasons for his death or were there other forces at play as he also had a complex relationship with those around him?
With little forensic evidence available Maigret relies on his well-honed detective skills to solve the case. Needless to say, the outcome is rather a surprise!
It was these great skills that led to director Bonitzer choosing to set the movie at the beginning of the 2000s.
“Today, investigations are dominated by forensic and technical policing. Maigret therefore embodies the end of a world, that of old-style investigation,” he explains.
“I chose to set the story at the beginning of our century, before the arrival of smartphones and the flood of the Internet, rather than today, because in 2026, Maigret would simply no longer exist.”
As such the 80-minute movie is character-driven with the conversations between Maigret, Jacotte and the Princes of Vuynes eventually solving the mystery. It’s also full of atmospheric shots, particularly of the ambassador’s and the Princess of Vuynes’s homes.
Providing an insight into Maigret’s personal life through his interaction with his wife Louise (Irène Jacob) is another important element of the movie.
“Maigret enjoys regional dishes and alcoholic drinks. This aspect is often neglected in adaptations, as is Madame Maigret,” Bonitzer explains.
“I wanted to preserve all of that. Maigret and his wife form a very close and tender couple, with a claimed petit-bourgeois “normality in contrast to the more or less unbalanced individuals the commissioner confronts professionally. I wanted to keep this dimension of the character.”
As a result, Maigret and the Dead Lover is most likely to appeal to Simenon fans and those who enjoy an atmospheric, character driven slow-burn murder mystery.
Maigret and the Dead Lover opens in cinemas around Australia on Thursday September 3.
*@PalaceFilms
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