Maigret | Life is a thriller ★★★½

“Understand and not judge”, such is the motto of Jules Maigret, investigator of the brigade at 36, quai des Orfèvres. The famous character of Georges Simenon, who appeared in a book in 1931, seems frozen in time and old habits. Decked out in his eternal suits, overcoats and soft hats, he still gives off an old-fashioned, old-fashioned scent. But he no longer smokes his pipe, because at the beginning of the film, a doctor orders Maigret to quit smoking.

Luc Boulanger
The Press

The fact remains that by finding the commissioner on the big screen, his values ​​act like a balm for an era, ours, where we prefer to judge… and not understand. By going to see the both free and respectful adaptation of Patrice Leconte, you will joyfully (re)discover Maigret, in the guise of a Gérard Depardieu at the height of his art!

Loosely adapted from the novel Maigret and the dead girl, released in 1954, the film begins with the discovery of a young girl stabbed in the heart of Paris, in the middle of the night. There is nothing to identify the victim, no one seems to have known or remembered her. On his way, Maigret will meet a young lost girl who looks a lot like the dead woman… As his investigation progresses, he will remember another disappearance, more intimate and personal. While investigating this heinous crime, the commissioner will also try to find peace in his heart.

A Vulnerable Maigret

Obviously, Patrice Leconte is attached to Simenon’s antihero. The filmmaker shows us “his” Maigret: an aging man, exhausted and vulnerable in his desire to hide his old wounds, to erase an old sorrow. Despite this, this Maigret hasn’t lost his instinct for separating truth from lies.

Maigret is a beautiful film that praises the “ordinary” man and woman. While being a work of cinema, with its neat framing, its refined artistic direction, its references to Godard, Hitchcock and silent cinema.

Without reinventing it, Leconte gives the curator a human and sensitive layer, universal and timeless. Between the lines, Maigret remains a man caught between his family and his work, justice and doubt, a sense of duty and the thirst for freedom. Like many people.

Depardieu, the actor

To embody Maigret, the director bet on Gérard Depardieu. A choice that is not unanimous, since his indictment in 2020 for sexual assault. Whatever one thinks of the man, the actor impresses. With sober, nuanced acting, he gives us access to Maigret’s consciousness. Beyond the wall of his imposing shell, Depardieu, like Maigret, is an aging and broken man. His acting transmits the fragility of the policeman, upset by the death of a young stranger who also reminds him of lost time and the fear of dying.

Among the secondary roles, alas, there are weaker performers; the crime suspects form the film’s weakest link. Note, however, the luminous presence and talent of Jade Labeste. In the role of Betty, an (almost) exact copy of the victim, the actress fresh out of the Paris Conservatory of Dramatic Arts is excellent!

Finally, the director of Ridiculous signs with finesse and tact a touching, sober and twilight film. A fleece all in lace.

Indoors

Police drama

Maigret

Patrice Leconte, after the work of Georges Simenon

Gerard Depardieu, Jade Labeste, Melanie Bernier

1 hr 28 mins

★★★½