Greatest French Movie Detectives

Commissaire Maigret

Aloof, pipe-smoking police inspector Jules Maigret, created by prolific Belgian writer Georges Simenon, is probably the most beloved detective character in French literature and cinema. Several prominent actors have portrayed him, including Pierre Renoir, Harry Baur and Albert Préjean. Most notably, the legendary Jean Gabin played Maigret in three films: the 1958 Maigret Tend un Piège (Inspector Maigret) and 1959 Maigret et l’Affaire Saint-Fiacre (Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case, both directed by Jean Delannoy; and Gilles Grangier’s 1963 Maigret Voit Rouge (Maigret Sees Red). The inspector’s fame crossed the Atlantic when Charles Laughton took on the role in The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949), directed by Burgess Meredith.

Arsène Lupin

Lupin, a sympathetic and debonair gentleman burglar turned detective, was created in 1907 by author Maurice Leblanc and still enjoys considerable popularity today. His adventures have been brought to the screen many times all over the world, most recently in a high-tech 2004 adaptation by Jean-Paul Salomé titles simply Arsène Lupin, starring handsome French leading man Romain Duris.

Rouletabille

Gaston Leroux’s celebrated 1900s novel Le Mystere de la Chambre Jaune (The Mystery of the Yellow Room), starring young reporter and amateur sleuth Joseph Rouletabille, has been recast as a screenplay several times. Film versions were directed by Marcel L’Herbier in 1930, with Roland Toutain as Rouletabille; by Henri Aisnier in 1949 with Serge Reggiani; and most recently in 2003 by Bruno Podalydès, in a quirky comic-book adaptation starring the director’s brother Denis. Rouletabille also appears in various movies based on the book’s sequel, Le Parfum de la Dame en Noir (The Perfume of the Lady in Black), as well as cinema versions of minor novels by Leroux, who is best known in the United States as the author of Le Fantome de l’Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera).

Inspecteur Wens

For film fans, the image of the cool Inspector Wens, created by Belgian writer S.A. Steeman, is inseparable from elegant actor Pierre Fresnay, who portrayed him twice: in Le Dernier des Six (The Last One of the Six) by Georges Lacombe (1941) and in L’Assassin Habite au 21 (The Murderer Lives at Number 21) by Henri-Georges Clouzot (1942). Both films are an inspired mix of comedy and whodunit, with screenplays written in collaboration by Clouzot and Steeman.

Inspecteur Lavardin

Created by director Claude Chabrol and portrayed tongue-in-cheek by actor Jean Poiret in Poulet au Vinaigre (Cop au Vin) in 1985 and Inspecteur Lavardin in 1986, Lavardin is a cynical but quite likable police detective whose investigations, in perfect Chabrol manner, are more about the dark secrets of the provincial bourgeoisie than about the crimes themselves. Lavardin is one of the rare recurring movie detectives who is not based on a literary character.

Inspecteur Juve

Juve is the powerless archenemy of one of the most popular villains in French crime fiction, Fantômas, created in 1911 by writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre. Among the numerous films pitting Inspector Juve against Fantômas, two stand out: the chilling silent serial directed in 1913 and 1914 by Louis Feuillade; and the updated 1960s comic series directed by André Hunebelle, starring Louis de Funès as Juve and Jean Marais as Fantômas. A new adaptation directed by Christophe Gans, starring Vincent Cassel (Fantômas) and Jean Reno (Juve), will be released in 2011.

 

Tied for 7th

Commissaire Valentin A 1900s police inspector played by Clovis Cornillac in Les Brigades du Tigre (Jérôme Cornuau, 2006), based on the successful 1970s TV show.

Lemmy Caution Eddie Constantine takes the role of this American secret agent in a B-movie series (directed by Bernard Borderie) and also, most notably, in Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville (1965).

Nestor Burma This saxophone-playing private detective is drawn from a series of novels by Léo Malet. Three films have been based on the books, with Burma portrayed by Michel Serrault, Jean-Luc Miesch, and Michel Galabru.

Les Ripoux (literally, crooked cops) Philippe Noiret and Thierry Lhermitte play two corrupt policemen in a series of three comedies directed by Claude Zidi (1984, 1990 and 2003).

Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg A poet inspector inspired by Fred Vargas novels, played by José Garcia in Pars Vite et Reviens Tard (Have Mercy on Us All), Régis Wargnier (2007).

 

Trailers of most of these films are on www.youtube.com

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Originally published in the May 2011 issue of France Today