Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie - a Film Review

Scene from 'Un meurtre en sommeil'

In 2009, the French decided to make their own adaptations of Agatha Christie's detective stories. They do this (the series continues and the filming for the new season is to be broadcast in 2018 is being filmed as I write this) entirely in their own way. Poirot and Miss Marple have been replaced by the comic police duo Larosère and Lampion. This is not the only thing they have changed in the stories. They have changed almost everything to Christie's classics except the basics of the stories. In some episodes it was difficult for me to see which Agatha Christie story they used.

Antoine Duléry in 'Je ne suis pas coupable'

They also made the stories more modern. For example, inspector Lampion is gay and in one story he has to dress himself as a woman to catch the killer. Normally, I do not like this kind of dressing up because it often results in a cheap kind of humour and I just find this embarrassing. But that is not the case this time.

Marius Colucci in 'Je ne suis pas coupable'

Although Lampion finds himself, as a woman, in uncomfortable situations, it never becomes laughing at the expense of somebody. In the other episodes we see that he is gay, but this is not important for the course of the story.

Scene from 'Cinq petits cochons'

Although the stories are drastic altered, they are not bad at all. I would even say the contrary. I wouldn’t claim that they are better than Agatha Christies, but they are different and certainly no less good than those of the grand dame du crime. Also the other aspects of this new series is finger-licking good. The characters are fun, the acting is good, the directing, sets, lighting and editing are also very good.

Marius Colucci and Angèle Humeau in 'Un cadavre sur l'oreiller'

I would like to say; Don’t think about the name Agatha Christie anymore and look at this series as if it were complete new stories.