In the aftermath of a young woman’s bloody murder in Paris—her identity shrouded in mystery—detective Jules Maigret begins to unravel the strange details surrounding her life and death. In this elegant adaptation of Georges Simenon’s Maigret et la Jeune Morte, Gérard Depardieu inhabits the broad, world-weary frame of the eponymous detective, pairing his natural charisma with a melancholic edge that perfectly captures Maigret’s character. With a brooding, compassionate air, Maigret follows a trail of clues and forgotten details of the unassuming, anonymous victim, searching for her identity and humanity with a compassionate grace, in sharp contrast to the seeming indifference of those around him. Writer/director Patrice Leconte situates the tale in a 1953 Paris still recovering from WWII, contrasting a dark, sombre atmosphere of everyday people in the city with the sparkling opulence of glamorous socialites and aristocrats, crafting a thoughtful—yet thrilling—spin on the classic detective story.
Supported by
Patrice Leconte
Gérard Depardieu, Jade Labeste, Mélanie Bernier, Aurore Clément, André Wilms, Hervé Pierre
France/Belgium
2022
In French with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Lives of Others
This month's Talking Pictures film is a masterly Cold War thriller set in East Berlin. An agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives...
Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other
This intimate and candid film by a younger husband and wife artist team is a delicate and immensely moving dual portrait of two artists, husband and wife, together and apart, at that point in life when the end casts a shadow over even the sunniest day.
Image: © Manon et Jacob and Final Cut For Real
Blue Road - The Edna O'Brien Story
Judging by this candid, funny, passionate biographical documentary, it would have been a wild ride to have been Irish novelist Edna O'Brien, or even to have been in her circle of friends and lovers. Well, for an hour and a half we can pretend we were.
Erupcja
Charli xcx headlines this indie gem about a young English couple coming unmoored over a few days in Warsaw. Will means to propose. Beth has cold feet -- and an escape hatch she has barely admitted to herself... Think Before Sunrise 2025.
Lingua Franca
Lingua Franca is a tender portrait of intimacy shaped by migration, vulnerability, and the quiet negotiations of belonging. Centered on an undocumented Filipina trans woman living in New York, the film moves with delicate restraint.
Credits
Producer
Jean-Louis Livi
Screenwriter
Jérôme Tonnerre, Patrice Leconte
Cinematography
Yves Angelo
Editor
Joëlle Hache
Production Design
Loïc Chavanon
Original Music
Bruno Coulais