Maigret (TV Series) Maigret et l'homme du banc (1993) User Reviews

"Those aren't his shoes. And that tie!"

[garywhalen · 10/10 · 2 September 2023]

A man is found stabbed to death in an alley. He's wearing yellow shoes. And he's someone who's been seen sitting on benches. Maigret will piece together his life and, most important, the last three years of his life to find the motive and the killer. He will converse with family including wife and daughter, former work colleagues, friends, a brothel madam, and a mistress.

I think this a solid entry in the Bruno Cremer "Maigret" series. Seldom do novel-based films include all the characters, plot points, and dialogues from the novel, but this episode comes close to it, and it certainly captures the feel of what author Simenon brought to the page. The director, Etienne Périer, adds some nice touches: a steam train passes by a cemetery where Maigret is attending a funeral; the wake at the family home delivers the appropriate melancholic mood; and the brothel, while a bit over the top-it's far fancier than what Simenon likely intended-is what I would guess such a place would look like.

At the end of the episode the murderer will be revealed but that's not what you'll remember; rather, I think, you'll remember the man on the bench and ponder his short-lived happiness. The murder victim always matters in any good mystery, but in this episode you'll come to know him and, I think, empathize with him. And it is in that empathy that this episode truly captures Simenon's style. One doesn't read Simenon's Maigret mysteries simply for setup, epiphanous moment, and denouement. I would say the same is true of watching this episode. Getting to and finding out "Who did it?" matters, yes, but only a bit. The best parts are the lingering moments in between.

(By the way, In Simenon's Maigret stories, Maigret's assistants change with some being given more prominence than others in different books. Those assistants include Lucas, LaPointe, Torrence, and Janvier, among others. The filmmakers have decidedly clearly to compress the actions of multiple assistants into one or two in most episodes. I seldom have found this to be an issue. Compression of characters, dialogue, and timelines often occur-understandable so-in the transfer of novel to film.)

Maigret is the cat that catches the canary

[Tony-Holmes · 9/10 · 28 April 2023]

Just saw this on the Talking Pictures channel (UK old films and TV). They've also just started re-running the entire 4 series of the Rupert Davies version, BBC, early 60s.

This particular episode wasn't done by the BBC, but I have read the book, though some time ago. It features a mild-mannered chap, who loses his job, and is at an age when getting another one will be tricky.

So he doesn't tell his his battleaxe wife, or grasping daughter, but still goes to work as usual, and returns on the usual train later. Then after 3 years, he gets knifed in the street, and there seem to be no clues to go on, but why was he wearing yellow shows, and a cartoon tie, his wife says he would never wear such things?

Maigret goes to his old firm, and with the help of a nearby concierge, tracks down a few of his former colleagues. One of them is his new lady friend, and another says he had a new source of money. The team find a local street criminal, who it seems had teamed up with the victim, but he's not the violent type.

They find another former workmate, who'd given the victim a canary (he's a breeder of rare types) and by tracking him, unearth a boarding house cum brothel where the henpecked hubby had rented a room. Where had the victim's money (from the street crimes) gone? How had his canary got back to the breeder who'd offered it as a gift?

Slowly (these shows don't move quickly!), Maigret works out what had happened. On the way he cracks a couple of jokes, takes his wife to the theatre (the actress is perfect in that role), chides some of his team, AND finds time to visit a young criminal he'd put in prison, taking him some home cooking!

The plot varied somewhat from the book, which had Lapointe spending long hours (days) tracking the victim's habits and haunts round certain parts of Paris, but key parts like the daughter blackmailing her dad were kept in. Another book variation is that trusty assistant Lucas, ever-present in the novels, again doesn't appear in the episode. We think it must have been a pay thing, actors getting more than a certain number of appearances in a series had to be paid more?!