‘Maigret and the Dead Lover’: Bringing French detective back to big screen - review

Georges Simenon wrote 75 novels featuring this detective between 1930 and 1972, and he often published three a year, in addition to short stories.

Maigret was beloved because he was so ordinary – except for his talent for solving crimes and the way he did so. The gruff but observant detective would immerse himself in the world of his victims and suspects, unraveling each crime not so much through amassing clues but by putting himself in the shoes of everyone involved.

Each novel is a snapshot of a different world, often set in Paris, ranging from high society to the gritty underworld of pimps and petty criminals.

His career thrived under the Nazis, although he was investigated and cleared of charges of collaboration during the war.

Despite all this, there is no argument that Maigret is an extraordinary character, who has been portrayed frequently on both the big and small screens, in movies and series starring actors such as Pierre Renoir, Jean Gabin, Rowan Atkinson, and Gerard Depardieu.

Podalydès doesn’t fit the traditional image of Maigret as a large, lumbering man, often underestimated. Rather, Podalydès is compact and radiates impatience and energy, but he captures Maigret’s dogged quality, and his performance works.

Aside from Podalydès in the lead role, the rest of the movie is a mixed bag. It’s filmed in the flat style of a 1960s or 1970s television detective series. At first, it even seems set in that era, which makes sense given that it was based on a 1960 novel, Maigret et les Vieillards.

The title of that novel translates as: “Maigret and the Old People,” and it’s certainly hard to imagine this movie appealing to today’s impatient younger audiences. It’s static, with long scenes of witnesses sitting and telling Maigret their stories.

You will likely be alternately charmed and bored by the film, which is meant to be contemporary – one character uses a laptop, and people talk about dating sites and ask why the inspector won’t get a cellphone – but old-fashioned, like its hero.

It starts with a representative of the foreign service who brings the case to Maigret, telling him that a former ambassador has been found dead.

The victim has been shot multiple times in his opulent Paris apartment. He was found by his longtime housekeeper and sometime lover, Jacotte (Anne Alvaro), who knows much more than she is saying, or so the detective suspects.

But it turns out the victim’s heart belonged to another woman, Isi (Dominique Reymond), an aristocrat, a princess actually, whose husband was just killed in a riding accident. There’s also his nephew, a fussy art dealer, who may stand to inherit the ambassador’s estate.

Each witness or suspect gets a couple of scenes, and eventually, Maigret has to put it all together. But somehow, this case just isn’t very compelling, and those who come to the film without prior knowledge of the character may be underwhelmed.

For those who enjoyed the books, the movie will bring them back to the atmosphere of the police headquarters on the Quai des Orfevres.

There are also scenes of the detective’s placid home life with his beloved wife, Madame Maigret (Irene Jacob), which highlight his love for fine food and wine. There is even a scene in which he prepares an elaborate meal for her, something he rarely does.

The relatively short film, which seems like the pilot episode of a new television series, may inspire viewers to seek out the novels.

Audiences should be warned to keep their attention up toward the end, and VOD viewers should not turn it off when it seems like it has ended. The denouement is unexpected and doesn’t make much sense – a gimmick that isn’t characteristic of the Maigret novels.