Jean Richard, Bruno Cremer, for TV, Michel Simon, Jean Gabin and today Gérard Depardieu for cinema.
A prestigious line of actors has taken on the costume of the eminent commissioner Maigret.
Felt hat screwed on his head, dark overcoat and sacrosanct pipe always at hand... The first images of the film shot by Patrice Leconte, soberly titled
Maigret
, augur a tailor-made role for the sacred monster of French cinema .
The actor exudes the same imposing look, insight, compassion and empathy, intrinsic virtues of the character created by Georges Simenon.
Read alsoCommissioner Maigret returns to service
In this adaptation of
Maigret et la Jeune Morte
, published in 1954, the divisional superintendent investigates the death of a young girl whom nothing allows to identify. His meeting with a delinquent resembling the victim awakens in him the memory of an old disappearance. Alongside Gérard Depardieu, actresses Mélanie Bernier, Aurore Clément, Jade Labeste, Anne Loiret and Clara Antoons complete the cast.
The character of Maigret has captured the attention of cinema since the 1930s. Jean Renoir paved the way with
La Nuit du carrefour,
in 1932
.
Julien Duvivier, Henri Verneuil, Jean Delannoy to name but a few rushed into the breach.
Before
Maigret et la Jeune Morte,
scheduled for release on February 23
,
Patrice Leconte was already inspired by Simenon with
Monsieur Hire
, released in 1989. If Maigret is not in the game, the film will remain in the annals of French cinema by the unforgettable interpretation of Michel Blanc, extraordinary in the role of the protagonist suspected of murder.