LES REVENANTS - THEY CAME BACK again and again

LES REVENANTS

(2004 movie, France)

Low-key zombie movie rises again and again as several TV series...

(Updated June 10th, 2013)

Nine years ago, there was an unusual zombie movie made in France. More sci-fi than horror, more arthouse than mainstream, it didn't cause much of a stir. But Les Revenants (2004) won't stay dead.

The film portrays a quiet resurrection day, realistically portrayed except for the fact that the recent dead have inexplicably returned to life. They parade quietly out of the cemetery and want to return to their old lives. No flesh-eating, no scratching, no biting... they just want their old jobs back. Most of them are past retirement age and want to return home.

Local government move (extremely) quickly to the sudden crisis with emergency housing and rounding up the new citizens to be identified and reintegrated back into society. Their living relatives are treated carefully, to help them gradually overcome the shock. The reactions of the living characters are very touching, their mourning suddenly has to be reversed.

But all of the 'returned' start displaying similar behaviour. They have trouble sleeping and wander about, night and day. They're distracted, quiet, perhaps like Haitian zombies. But then it appears that some of them are gathering in secretive meetings...

While their body temperatures are slightly low (allowing the authorities to track them with thermal cameras), they display no signs of decay. Director Robin Campillo (in this his only film) uses a wide variety of subtle techniques to make them stand out. Lit and made-up slightly differently, keeping them still, they gently stand out in every scene. The actors had to feel their way into a new kind of undead behaviour.

A very different addition to the genre, it remains a welcome change from the Romero blueprint. Knowing these characters were dead remains constantly gently eerie. It's never played as horror, but as mystery, an exercise in pure 'what if', beautifully judged and photographed.

There's no scientific or religious explanation for the phenomenon, though it could possibly be read as commenting about mental health, with the returned being carefully herded, watched and even drugged to make them more manageable.

Besides the central mystery itself, there's no other strong storyline, just a set of relationships. The phenomenon and its implications are presented in a relaxed but fascinating way. I enjoyed it as a zombie chill-out movie and also welcome further diverse approaches to the undead. Zombie drama, zombie comedy (Fido), whatever next?

But I didn't expect to hear of Les Revenants again...

LES REVENANTS

(2012, French TV series)

Just before Christmas, I learnt from Belgium-based writer Anne Billson (on Twitter) that there was a new TV series called Les Revenants (2012), based on a similar premise to the movie, on French TV. Eight one-hour episodes set in a small French village in the mountains.

This time it's a remote location, the mountains and a huge dam make for impressive visuals. The phenomenon of the dead rising isn't shown, just accepted. The performances make it believable. A young girl wanders home, back from the place she died. She's been missing for four years. Her memory is hazy and she doesn't realise that she's been dead. Her family are very, very shocked - in a brilliant scene when they first meet her.

Here, 'the returned' are less easy to tell apart from the living, so the news takes longer to circulate. Along with the reappearance of the dead, there's a murderer back in town...

A more violent variation on the film, the first episode teases interlocking mysteries and a townful of characters. I can't wait to see it all. The series has proved to be Canal Plus 'most watched' ever, meaning that there'll be a second season in 2014. The soundtrack by Mogwai makes it even more interesting.

We'll get a chance to see this creepy series on TV in the UK in June, the first foreign-language drama for Channel 4 in twenty years. Also, like many non-English-language TV imports, such as The Killing and Wallander, a remake is also on the way.

The rights to produce Les Revenants as an English TV series are now in the hands of Paul Abbott, the creator of Shameless, now in its eleventh and final season in the UK, with a third season in its US incarnation. This news reported here in The Hollywood Reporter in January.

BABYLON FIELDS

(2007, USA, TV pilot)

But there's already been an attempt at a series with a similar concept to Les Revenants made for American TV. In 2007, an impressive pilot episode called Babylon Fields narrowly failed to be turned into a series. It's worth seeing as an hour of powerful, edgy television, re-imagining the premise for a gun-toting, zombie-literate society. That is, some people are quick to shoot them in the head. But the Romero rules don't apply here...

The accent is very cop-centric. There's even a dead cop character, which could easily stray into the previously explored realm of Dead Heat (1988). The scene where the crowds of dead start leaving the graveyard are impressively and widely staged, The slightly-rotted look of the dead uses extensive make-up and slightly opaque contact lenses.

From the opening point-of-view scene of someone clawing their way out of the ground, to the shock of the first family to meet a living corpse is horrifying, panicky and suitably realistic. But it's less successful when it later adds a little comedy, when zombie neighbours try to pick up where they left off. It's good as long as it takes itself seriously.

Interesting that this didn't become a series considering the success of The Walking Dead soon afterwards. Not sure where the story could have gone, but it's a powerful opening episode. Maybe it could have become The Talking Dead...

Les Revenants - the movie (2004) is available in North America as They Came Back on DVD with English subtitles. It includes an interesting 'making of' featurette. I felt that the trailer really undersold the film. Arrow Films are due to finally release the film on DVD in the UK in July.

Les Revenants - first season of the French TV series (2012, 8 x 50mins) is on DVD in France, but I doubt that the set has English subtitles. Channel 4 have announced that it will be aired in the UK in June, 2013 under the title The Returned. Amazon have ear-marked a page for a DVD release from Universal UK, but no firm details yet.

Babylon Fields - the US pilot episode (2007) is online to view here (42 mins).

They Came Back is the working title for Paul Abbott's new TV project to remake the French series...

LUCKY LUKE (2009) - Jean DuJardin, hero of the wild west

LUCKY LUKE

(2009, France/Argentina)

Cowboy spoof, action comedy, more fun than The Artist

Lucky Luke, cowboy, sharpshooter, drifter, do-gooder... Renowned for his heroics across the wild west, Luke is summoned by the President of the United States to help unite the country by clearing the last obstacle to the trans-American railroad - the lawless Daisy Town. But this may prove too big a job for just one cowboy...

Like Tintin, Lucky Luke started as a Belgian comic strip. First appearing in 1946, the character became hugely popular across Europe, but not so much in the UK or US. It spawned cartoon series, two live-action movies (1991) and a TV series (1992) aptly starring spaghetti western veteran Terence Hill (They Call Me Trinity).

Also like Tintin, the cartoon character has had to move with the times. But the movie playfully references many of his earlier traits, like the cigarette that used to hang from his mouth... Writer/director James Huth also humorously turns many movie western cliches on their heads.

At times, he uses brash colour schemes, like early comic books, for certain scenes and even single shots, making it look almost experimental at times. Comic book humour extends to visual gags as wild as the silent movies. I loved the President's train carriage with it's thick, static ceiling of smoke, and the population of terrified townspeople hiding and moving around in upturned water barrels.

The range of bizarre characters and offbeat approach to the cowboy genre, where half the population (somehow) have hearts of gold, reminded me of Gore Verbinski's similarly enjoyable Rango. Calamity Jane looks more cowboy than cowgirl, Billy The Kid is a childish adult and Jesse James is a failed actor, with a magnificently overlong longcoat. Even Luke's horse is a character.

The desert location work (shot in Argentina) and impressive scale of the film makes this one very overlooked movie. For me it was a far more rewarding experience than The Artist, perhaps because that was overhyped and this was underhyped. This is funner, but not Jean DuJardin at his funniest. You need the two OSS 117 films, Cairo - Nest of Spies (2006) and Lost In Rio (2009) to see his full comic range.

The cover art for the UK DVD sneakily presents DuJardin in black and white, alluding to The Artist, but this movie is totally drenched in colour. It's presented in French with English subtitles and no extras. If Amazon.fr is to be trusted, the Blu-ray sold in France also has English subtitles on it.

Lucky Luke comics website (in  French).

THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC (2010) - directed by Luc Besson

THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC

(2010, France, Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec)

Director Luc Besson previews his latest film in London

A great film while you wait for Spielberg's Tintin. This adaption of a French graphic novel will also make an interesting comparison in many ways. Besson uses actors to represent comic book characters rather than the far more expensive motion-captured, computer-generated people for Tintin.

That's not to say there aren't extensive visual effects in Adèle. CGI portrays impossible characters, like the pterodactyl. Digital compositing is used to present Paris and Egypt of a hundred years ago. For the more grotesque and bizarre human characters, prosthetic make-ups are used.

Adèle is on a trip to Peru to complete her latest book. That's what her publisher thinks. She's actually in Egypt raiding tombs. Why has she lied, and what has this to do with a pterodactyl terrorising Paris? The police can't believe that a prehistoric animal has killed a senior politician, they need to solve the case fast, no matter how much Adèle gets in their way.

Like the Tintin stories, there's a detailed and realistic presentation of the past, but with more magical and fantasy elements. Like Tintin, Adèle is also a writer, giving her the opportunity to travel. Her only real strength is her personality - she doesn't bow to convention. It may not be ladylike to ride a camel, but if she needs to learn, she will. With a burning desire to succeed, she overcomes the odds with little more than an umbrella and a bag of bird seed...

As a newcomer to the stories, I loved the completely unpredictable nature of the story, and it's always nice to see a guillotine in action. This wasn't as consistently funny as it wanted to be, but maybe I was missing out on the Frenchier in-jokes. It could almost be a family film, though some of the more intense drama and some casual nudity might not be for younger viewers. Film Forager has a tougher review, here. Personally we're holding out hopefully for a blu-ray with English subs.

Besson mentioned that this story was a childhood favourite of his. He spent many years gaining the trust of the author, Jacques Tardi, who'd already dealt with three film studios trying to adapt the story. While this isn't as dark or as adult as many of Besson's earlier films, I think that's because he's committed himself to being as faithful to the original story as possible. While he's more likely to be the producer nowadays, after writing the script he couldn't let another director make this one.

I haven't read the comics yet, but I will. Actress Louise Bourgoin is far more beautiful than the grumpy character in the comics. The first two stories (which combined to form the basis for the film) have been translated into English as one volume. There's a little more about Jacques Tardi's original stories here.

After the screening, Luc Besson held an informal question and answer session that touched on many stages of his career. Movies hadn't been a part of his childhood at all. His parents (both divers) didn't even have a TV. The nearest cinema was far away. But after seeing a movie on a daytrip to Paris, he immediately fell in love with the medium and left home to make movies for himself.
Subway (1985) was based on characters he actually met when he opened a maintenance door in the Paris Metro and disappeared for two days while meeting a whole community living down there. He didn't now think that the film was a satisfying 'whole', as much as a patchwork of several stories he'd written.

The diving experience he'd learnt with his parents led to The Big Blue (1988) and Atlantis (1991), though he doesn't think he'll ever do another underwater film now. He doesn't enjoy directing anything similar to previous projects, unless he thinks he can learn from them. This partly explains why he has been producing so many projects.

When asked if he was flattered by the (three) remakes of La Femme Nikita (1990), he said he would be if any of them had been any good (laughs). It also wasn't a favourite film of his because he had to rewrite and reshoot the ending at the last minute, and that wasn't a great way to make a film.

He dismissed the suggested idea of a sequel to Leon: The Professional (1994) unless a good idea for a story came along. He hinted that there was a demand for one because it would make money.

The films he'd made that he was most satisfied with were the ones that turned out the way he'd imagined them - he named The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) and Angel-A (2005).

He's currently finishing work on The Lady, starring Michelle Yeoh and David Thewliss, and said he was trying to get it ready for a November release. After that, he was interested in maybe another sci-fi story. He described the frustration of filming the intricate special effects for The Fifth Element, just before the digital revolution would have made them far easier. Being dependent on motion-control cameras and modelwork, he felt his camera moves were being too restricted.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec is already out on DVD in many countries, having been released around Europe and Asia last year. Besson presented this screening on March 19th at BFI SouthBank to promote Optimum's UK release in April. Doesn't look like the film has yet launched in the US.

Here's an original trailer on YouTube, no English subtitles but not much dialogue either...

AND SOON THE DARKNESS (1970) ...they were lost in France

AND SOON THE DARKNESS

(1970, UK)

Tense thriller from the production crew of The Avengers

(This is an updated review, first posted in 2007.)

This is a good companion piece to Blind Terror (US title See No Evil) also written by Brian Clemens. There's a slow-burning set-up that carefully builds up atmosphere, and never telegraphs to the audience where the story will go next.

Again, I was first frightened by this film as a teenager. It's still intriguing and suspenseful, capturing the atmosphere of a hot continental summer. There's a hundred films where people are stranded in the unwelcoming wilderness of middle America, but how many are set in rural France?

Although this is one of my favourite psycho-thrillers, I still want to see the new remake that stars Karl Urban. It won't need much tweaking to work really well today.

Pamela Franklin and Michele Dotrice play two friends on a cycling holiday in the French countryside. The girls cross paths with a mysterious stranger, and soon afterwards get separated. Michele thinks she's being watched. But when Pamela tries to find her again, she can't... either they keep missing each other, or there is a mystery here, and the local people (those who talk English) talk about other local disappearances...

With Brian Clemens writing and producing, Robert Fuest directing, and Laurie Johnson composing, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was an episode of The Avengers (the series had just been cancelled). Together, they successfully make a Hitchockian thriller, inverting the setting of a psycho-thriller from a cliched storm-drenched, haunted house into sunlit open fields, a little like the famous cropduster scene in North by Northwest.

Talking on the US DVD commentary track, Clemens must have had a lousy holiday in France to inspire the menace of the deserted roads and the unfriendly locals. All the French spoken in the film remains untranslated (by subtitles), siding us with the confused English holidaymaker. We are as much in the dark as she is.



Perfectly cast, Michele Dotrice and Pamela Franklin both look great in hotpants (tight, short shorts). Franklin was already a horror veteran, as a child star in The Innocents (1960), The Third Secret (1964) and The Nanny (1965), and soon appeared in the The Legend of Hell House (1973) as a psychic. Oh and let's not forget she was then in the fairly awful The Food of the Gods (1976), a sign that her film career was slowing down - what a terrible waste. I'll watch her non-horror roles - she's such an interesting actress.

Michele Dotrice (daughter of actor Roy), is better known in the UK as a sitcom star, but had also done horror in Hammer's The Witches (1966) and soon appeared in Tigon's extraordinary Blood on Satan's Claw (1971).

  

Sandor Eles' character roams the countryside, appearing here between his two famous Hammer horror roles, The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) and Countess Dracula (1971). Like most of the main cast, British actors at this time couldn't afford to turn their noses up at TV work or horror films. Though Sandor's Hungarian accent often restricted him to playing villains.

Director Robert Fuest is always interesting, pushing for unusual but effective cinematography, set design and story ideas. Here there aren't any of his usual stylish sets, instead he uses the sparse locations, constantly achieving dramatic effects with subtle lighting and framing. He was the perfect choice as a director for many episodes of The Avengers, and his next few films are among my favourite ever - The Abominable Dr Phibes, Dr Phibes Rises Again, The Final Programme and The Devil's Rain.

I'm sure that the music is supposed to remind us of Hitchcock's films, but mostly it reminded me of The Avengers, until the intense climax where composer Laurie Johnson complemented the action with unique and eerie sounds.

The region 1 DVD is 16:9, but the 1.33 aspect I'm used to seeing on British TV looks better off unmatted. For example, some scenes of the girls cycling are so tight that you sometimes can't even see they're sitting on a bike - surely not the intention. But the DVD has a great commentary track with both Brian Clemens and Robert Fuest. Clemens' "necrophiliac" comment is a classic! There was a UK DVD release from Optimum soon afterwards.

More on the genre films of Robert Fuest here.

J'ACCUSE (1919 and 1938) - return of the war dead

J'ACCUSE

(France, silent version 1919, sound remake 1938)

Powerful pleas for an end to war

Never thinking I'd get to see it, I was fascinated by the images from J'accuse in the 1975 book Catastrophe: The End of Cinema (an illustrated guide to visions of the apocalypse that predated the 70's 'disaster movie' craze, and also anticipated the climax of Inglourious Basterds). I saw my first clip in David Gill and Kevin Brownlow's brilliant 1996 documentary The Other Hollywood (which looked at six European countries that once had film industries to rival America, before they were all put on hold by the two World Wars - enough time for Hollywood to dominate the market).


Director Abel Gance rose to command the country's biggest budget for a silent film with the epic Napoleon (1927), pushing the medium to its technological limits. A James Cameron for silent cinema, Gance attempted to include a sequence shot in every film format yet devised, including his famous triptych of three side-by-side sequences, and even a 3D section (removed from the final cut).

But Gance's two versions of J'accuse interest me more, for their early anti-war theme and horror-themed climaxes, where the war dead rise up and march on the living. A zombie fantasy to convey the real horrors of war. But the supernatural isn't the central premise to the films by any means. Gance is trying to convey many aspects of the impact of war through emotion rather than shock, through reality rather than fantasy.

Such bold statements from a famous director, I thought these films would be easy to see. But the 1919 film has only just hit DVD (as a special edition restoration from Flicker Alley), and the 1938 remake was restored and last released on VHS in 1991 in the US. Such sparse access through the years has meant that films like All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, 1979) are better known for representing World War One.

J'accuse (1919)

Abel Gance wrote and directed both versions, and even shot actual fighting during the end of the war. I'd love to know how on Earth he was allowed to borrow thousands of soldiers for the climactic marching scenes, during wartime, for an anti-war film! The splendid photography, lighting and rapid editing help the film look ahead of its time.

The story starts in a small French village, where idealistic poet Jean Diaz (Romuald Joubé), and brutish huntsman Francois (the impressive Séverin-Mars) are both in love with the same woman. Their rivalry is interrupted when they enlist to defend France from the German invasion. I was then surprised by a little comedy as both rivals find themselves in the same regiment.


When their beloved Edith is captured by the advancing enemy, both men are driven to the edge of sanity amidst the bullets and missiles of the trenches of 'the western front'. The war-torn love triangle reminded me of Pearl Harbor (2001).

Eventually Jean is discharged from the army with shell shock, leaving Francois tortured that Jean can now see his wife, who is actually hiding another more terrible secret from her husband.


When the war finally ends, Jean dares the townspeople not to forget their dead relatives and friends. He tries to convince them that the dead soldiers will rise up and revisit them unless their consciences are clear. Is that really going to happen, or has he been driven mad?


For the most part this is more melodrama than war film, but it benefits from being made at the time. There's realism in the emotional effects of war on the families and soldiers alike. Even small details ring horrifyingly true - the extended scenes of families saying farewell to sons, fathers and friends as they head for almost certain death, the soldiers' growing immunity to being around corpses, Francois thinking of his hunting dog as he lies in hospital... all well-observed and still uncliched.

Gance demonstrates his skill in directing actors, using choice close-ups, symbolic superimpositions and even rapidfire editing, I found his overuse of the iris effect the only dated visual device. But this remains an accessible and sophisticated film for 1919, helped by a good score, authentic tinted scenes and a realistic projection speed. It's still very watchable, owing to the relatively natural performances.


The new DVD presents an often scratchy, jumpy print, but one that gives us the original version of the story. Despite being 90 years old, many of the film elements still look good today, preserving the carefully lit cinematography. The montage that visualises Jean's poem to the Sun is particularly beautiful.

J'accuse (1938)

The remake is a very different film, a far more emotional and direct plea, albeit a mysterious one. When he completed the 1919 film the war had just ended, but in 1938 Gance was desperate to prevent it happening again.

It plunges straight into the war, eliminating practically the first two hours of his original story. The rest of the scenario is drastically altered and tightened. I only spotted a couple of shots recycled from the first film, and that was actual war footage.

Jean and Francois are still rivalling for Edith's affections. But in an attempt to settle their differences, Francois makes Jean swear that if he dies, Jean won't hook up with his wife. Victor Francen (as Jean) is so intense when promising his friend, it's almost hypnotic, and frighteningly convincing. Throughout the story, Francen repeatedly and passionately laments the dead with enough tears and conviction for a dozen Oscars. I'm surprised that the only other film I've noticed him in was as the ailing concert pianist in the Hollywood horror The Beast With Five Fingers (1945).

Gance is harsher, angrier, inter-cutting between the actual victory parade in Paris through the Arch De Triomphe, and shots of graves and corpses, all while upbeat marching music blares out. As the world gets back to normal after the war, Jean returns to live on the site of the battleground, near the graves of his comrades. His only friend, the cafe owner who kept the soldiers spirits high during the war.


The centre section of the story then tries to rush through the love triangle plot of the first film, adding a second more unsettling triangle between his beloved Edith and her daughter (who confusingly look the same age)! The narrative then skips forward twenty years to the eve of World War Two, suddenly introducing that Jean works at a glass factory where new war technology is being prepared.

One night, in the only passage of the film that deliberately looks like a horror film, his hair turns white while he's off tunnelling among the tombs. What has he seen? What has he learnt? He hints that he's now tense about what's going to happen and the power he now has...

I wish the core of the film was Jean's promise to his fallen comrades and his progressively more mysterious connection with their graveyard, as the scenes in his hometown appear to be far less relevant here. He appears to have been driven insane by his connection with the dead, rather than by shell shock in the first film.

This is a much darker film, with many evocative passages pleading for sanity. The climax is far longer, more elaborate, a little confusing and pregnant with unused possibilities. The march of the war dead is realised both by stony (clay?) make-up and hundreds of actual war veterans who had been maimed and disfigured in the war, at a time when plastic surgery and prosthetic replacement were in still their infancy.


I suppose it's not important how Jean calls the dead back - it appears to be by sheer force of will - but with a two-hour running time, a little more time spent on his methods would have been welcome. For such a monumental build-up, the final pay-off is powerful, but relatively short and ultimately too simple. Obviously, the dead want the living to remember their sacrifice, nothing more. I'd like a sequel to see what the dead did next! With all the rage and sacrifice, I'd have expected more anger and choicer targets. In a similar vein, Joe Dante's Masters of Horror episode 'Homecoming' (2005) brilliantly brought all the dead soldiers back to life... to vote!

Again Gance uses real war footage, but by 1938 film projection speeds had changed, resulting in a marked difference in quality and far too 'sped up'. His use of cross-cutting is more jarring as a result. But I'd have thought this version of J'accuse was one to deserve a special edition DVD. The only copy I could find was this 20 year old VHS from Connoisseur Video.



I'd also recommend The Great War (1964) as a first hand guide to the First World War. Using only documentary and newsreel footage, as well as eyewitness testimonials from both sides, this BBC series exhaustively described the harrowing history of 'the war to end all wars'. It was recently released on DVD in the UK.

The World At War (1973) is an epic documentary series about the Second World War, and has just been restored and released on Blu-Ray. It's a harrowing and thorough history lesson, that I'd be reluctant to see again in any greater visual detail. Some of it is so gruesome and tragic.

TINTIN AND THE MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE - finally on DVD

The two live-action Tintin films from the sixties now digitally remastered...

(Updated article from 2006)

Frustratingly hard-to-get (until now), these handsomely made children's films will suit Tintin fans of all ages. Both movies are about to be released on DVD in the UK (in mid-October) having been digitally remastered - reportedly a huge improvement in image quality on the previous French and Australian releases. The UK release of Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece will also include the recently discovered English-language audio track.


I'm sure I remember these two Tintin adventures being available as hardback books in the same style as the other Tintin comic albums, but with photographs and text telling the story of the films. I've recently tracked down both books again but only in French (pictured below). Did I imagine the English editions? I've also seen images on the net of comic album versions of these stories, but I believe they are even rarer.

Besides remembering these stories being included in the classic Tintin comic book collection (early graphic novels, if you like), I also saw Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece on British television in the seventies. The memory of that broadcast, prompted me to search for these films again four years ago, first finding them on VHS in Canada.

TINTIN AND MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE

(France/Belgium, 1961, aka TINTIN ET LE MYSTERE DE LA TOISON D'OR)

Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece (1961) is by far the most fun of the two. Both films succeed at portraying the famous characters, but Golden Fleece also captures the flavour of a typical Tintin adventure - it has the globe-trotting scale, the sense of location and culture, and a good mystery at the core of the plot.

Captain Haddock (played admirably by Georges Wilson) is sitting in his hammock at Marlinspike, when he receives a telegram informing him that he's inherited a ship. He takes Tintin (played in both films by Jean-Pierre Talbot) and of course Snowy down to Istanbul to collect his inheritance.

The ship, called the Golden Fleece, turns out to be an old rust-bucket. But why does international businessman, Anton Karabine, want to buy the ship from them. Rather than sell it, they sail to Greece to deliver the relatively worthless cargo of carpets. Then they discover more about the ship's history and how desperately Karabine still wants to get his hands on it...


The young actor Jean-Pierre Talbot is a real find as Tintin. He looks the part, does his own stunts and is even pretty good at judo (for taking the baddies down). He only seems to fall short of the original character by not getting any comedy moments to himself. He also doesn't get much chance to frown - comic book Tintin always had a great frowny face when he was working out mysteries, but there's none of that here.

The comedy is of course left to Captain Haddock, dotty Professor Calculus and the hapless Thompson Twins, all uncanny lookalikes of the originals. But even the secondary characters appear to have walked off the pages of Herge's illustrations.

The handsome photography complements the many real-life shooting locations which make up the majority of the film. Particularly spectacular are the cityscape of Istanbul and the Greek clifftop monastery (that looks like the same one used in the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only).

TINTIN AND THE BLUE ORANGES

(France/Spain, 1964, aka TINTIN ET LES ORANGES BLEUES)

Tintin and the Blue Oranges (1964) falls short as a follow-up. The characters are still impeccably portrayed, even though it's largely a different cast. Jean-Pierre Talbot returns as Tintin, but Calculus and Haddock are played by new actors. A notable addition to the cast is a cameo by Castafiore, the opera singer, who briefly adds fun to the proceedings.

Basically, Professor Calculus is sent some mysterious blue oranges in the post. When an intruder tries to steal them, Tintin and Haddock realise they're valuable, but why? They head off to Valencia, where Calculus remembers an old colleague was working on something similar. When the Professor is kidnapped and Tintin and Haddock are stranded in a grain silo, they realise that they are getting closer to the heart of the matter...

The problem with the film is the less spectacular locations and the less spectacular plot. The action mostly takes place in small towns in Spain, but nowhere iconic or recognisable. There's also a huge gang of children added to the mix - always a mistake in children's films, I feel. You don't necessarily need child characters for a young audience to identify with.

The whole film feels much smaller in scale, with few memorable scenes. The only highlight for me was an exciting fight scene. Jean-Pierre manages a spectacular flying tackle, a couple of judo throws, and a dropkick all in one take.

Once again, the French DVDs (pictured here) have no English subtitles. The 2007 Australian DVDs have subtitles, but are also from analogue masters (that is, not digitally remastered).

Here are original trailers for both films, in German, but you'll get the idea...

Again, I'd also like to hear from anyone who can find any trace of my another Tintin holy grail - the 1960s' cartoon series that were shown as a series of 5 minute cliffhangers. These are also totally off the home video radar as far as I can see. I believe they might have been released on VHS in the UK (in the eighties, before the new 1993 series came out).

For all your Tintin needs, visit Tintinologist.

OSS 117: LOST IN RIO (2009) - a very welcome sequel

OSS 117: LOST IN RIO
(2009, France, OSS 117: Rio Ne Repond Plus...)

France's most oblivious secret agent in the summer of love...

This is last year's sequel to the highly enjoyable OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies (2006). OSS 117 was originally a serious character in books and films, a French secret agent who first appeared in 1949. These new films spoof the old OSS 117, James Bond films and, this time, even Hitchcock.


The year is 1968. Once again, France's best secret agent, (the best at vanity and pig-headedness) is on the case. Besides an important mission to Rio to deal with Nazi blackmailers, he's also being targeted by Chinese assassins. Going undercover to team up with the American and Israeli secret services, tracking the blackmailer leads him around some of Brazil's most spectacular tourist spots.


The fun begins from the very first second, with a spoof of the late 1960s use of complicated split screen images (think Grand Prix or The Thomas Crown Affair), filling the widescreen frame with a brilliantly co-ordinated overuse of parallel action. If you think you know split-screen from Brian De Palma films, when the image is neatly divided down the middle, prepare to be dazzled.

While I thought there wasn't quite enough action in the first film, there's no shortage of gun battles here. While the hail of bullets manage to miss our hero, he never, ever empties his clip.


OSS 117's ignorance of world politics and history missed the point of the entire Muslim nation while he was in Cairo. Now working with Israeli agents, it's similarly excruciating as he, gulp, only seems to remember the Nazis because of Hitler, rather than their treatment of Jewish people. Added to this are his complete insensitivity to the equality of women, the hippy revolution or innocent bystanders. There are very few back references to the first film and thankfully few repeated gags from the first film.

With advanced digital compositing, it's hard to say how much of Lost In Rio was actually shot there. But I recognised a few nods to the Bond film Moonraker (1979) which used some of the same Brazilian locations. Jean-Paul Belmondo's That Man From Rio (1964) may have been a reference too, which also visited Brasilia, while the city was still being built.

Thankfully OSS 117 gets to dance again. Once more, actor/comedian Jean DuJardin is effortlessly funny, and I'd like to see more of his films, comedy or otherwise, but none seem to be subtitled anywhere else in the world.

I also really liked the soundtrack, a very catchy mix of contemporary crooners and modern lounge pastiche, incorporating nods to John Barry, Henry Mancini and Bernard Herrmann. I can't find it on CD anywhere, but can be downloaded from iTunes and Amazon.

While a third film is supposed to be in production at the moment, OSS 117: Lost In Rio is out now on DVD in the UK from ICA Films, and coming soon to the US. The region 2 DVD only has English subtitles, with no dubbed audio track.


Here's the movie trailer on YouTube...