Screenplay by Rémi
Bezançon and Vanessa Portal
Directed by Rémi
Bezançon
Coming to 2020
Alliance French Film Festival 12 March to 8 April
Palace Cinemas
Previewed by Len
Power 24 February 2020
A delightful comedy-mystery of a movie, “The Mystery of
Henri Pick” was adapted from the popular novel by David Foenkinos that has been
translated into multiple languages. Director, Rémi Bezançon, keeps the tone light
and the pace fast as the story unfolds
A young book editor finds a rejected manuscript in a library
and decides to publish it. It becomes an
instant bestseller but a literary critic suspects a hoax, especially when the
deceased author’s wife tells the world he never wrote anything “besides a
grocery list”. The unravelling of the
mystery becomes a fascinating and enjoyable adventure as well as an amusing and
very French comment on relationships and human behaviours.
At the centre of the film, Fabrice Luchini gives a fine
comedic performance as the literary critic, Jean-Michel Rouche, who must solve
the mystery to retrieve his reputation, damaged after a controversial
television interview with the deceased author’s wife. Unexpectedly drawn in to help him, the
author’s daughter, Joséphine Pick, is deftly played by the luminous Camille
Cottin.
There is also fine work by Alice Isaaz as the young editor, Daphné
Despero, who finds the manuscript originally.
It was also interesting to see the German actress, Hanna Schuygulla,
famous for her participation in the films by Fassbinder in the 1970s, in a
small but key role in the movie.
Once again, here is a film that you feel only the French
could make. The light touch of the
comedy aspects of the story and the interaction of the colourful but very real
characters is so distinctively and delightfully French.
As the film progresses, we start to feel the same obsession
as the leading characters to solve the mystery and, as it deepens, we begin to
worry that maybe it will never be solved.
The director teases us expertly, keeping us guessing right up until the
end. Did we learn the truth? You’ll have to see it to find out.
Len Power’s reviews
are also broadcast on the Artsound FM 92.7 ‘In the Foyer’ program on Mondays
and Wednesdays at 3.30pm.
‘Theatre of Power’, a
regular podcast on Canberra’s performing arts scene with Len Power, can be
heard on Spotify, ITunes and other selected platforms or at https://player.whooshkaa.com/shows/theatre-of-power.
