Arsène Lupin

Spectacular production of a novel written by Maurice Leblanc about the character, Arsene lupin, known perhaps to many Europeans and video game addicts, but not much to the rest of the film-going community. Great for Saturday afternoon film going and very much unlike any French produced film I've seen before. Young actor, Romain Duris, does a decent job of portraying Arsene Lupin in his youth and early beginnings as a gentleman thief. It's very difficult to take your eyes off him. He plays the part more as a modern day version of the old-fashioned character - grungy and hairy and all that. Up and coming young actress, Eva Green, plays his childhood sweetheart with just the proper amount of restrain. Overall a finely tuned performance. Kristin Scott Thomas plays the Countess of Cagliostro and outrightly steals the movie. She is no match for the gentleman cambrioleur. Anyone familiar with her other films will not recognize her as the exotic, over-sexed and murderous femme-fatale. It's a multi-dimensional and very soulful performance. The rest of the cast provide superlative work. I'm sure there will be lots of comparisons to Indiana Jones. However, the difference here is the well written and intelligent screenplay. The French has finally come up with their version of an action adventure that everyone can enjoy, but doesn't insult your intelligence.. I didn't think they were capable. A most enjoyable film to watch.

I watched "Arsène Lupin" a few months ago, and I am very astonished when I read some opinions here. This movie is... how can I say that ? simply bad ! For the first time of my life I was ready to take my coat and walk out after only 30 minutes. And what a pity ! Because they could play with one of the most popular French character, because it seems they had a big budget to make it (I mean for a French movie), and because they smashed almost everything. OK, Romain Duris was an excellent Arsene Lupin and I must applaud the set decoration and costume design work too. But that's it ! Special mentions for the worst film editing I've ever seen and for an overloaded storyline. Disappointing.

I. Adler

For all that money invested in the film, it could have really included a lot more intriguing plot than a Satan-faced diva in perpetual search of her final goal which is... what actually? And all those endings, just when you're about to get up from the seat and leave the cinema with your face in agony thinking it's all over, no, your blissful sense of relief won't appear... not yet... the film over-culminates and looks like a huge wedding chocolate cake with fruits and jelly and cream and nuts, and caviar and oysters on top of it. In other words, too much, and completely without any purpose. If you want to watch beautiful pictures for more than two hours (btw, it feels like it lasts more than three), see the film at home, with some music on.

Romain Duris, the little schoolboy from l'Auberge Espagnole, in the skin of the "Gentleman Cambrioleur" is a little more than I could take. I could not recognize the man from "L'Aiguille Creuse", "Le Mystérieux Voyageur", "Le Collier De La Reine" and "La Comtesse De Cagliostro" which are the stories mixed in together in the movie. Some characters are reinvented or mixed in with different concepts which are too much to swallow. Why not sticking to the story if you're not going to make t better?

There is however good playing, Kristin Scott Thomas is awesome as the countess. And even though Arsene lacks the class and style one is entitled to expect, Romain Duris have some very good moments.

A fan of Lupin ( I read almost all the novels), I entered the movie theater with great expectations and came out with mixed feelings, but with a margin of admiration. That's certainly the best of the cinematic technical renditions of Maurice Leblanc's immortal personnage (the TV renditions are all below standard).But after John Barrymore and Melvyn Douglas, Jules Berry and Robert Lamoureux brought a conception of the main character which is absent from this superproduction. The two guys from Toronto (nice city, I lived there six months) who sent positive comments are mostly correct. The other from Italy is right when he predicts "failure abroad" (this movie is already losing momentum in Paris only a week after its premiere and severe reviews). Now let's be lucid: most of the French movie critics are hopeful future cinematographers, and they react furiously when a newcomer comes up with a movie that reflects a good use of a heavy investment, which was the case with many films by Claude Lelouch, and applies also for ARSENE LUPIN (2004). J.P. Salomé did a fine job with the millions he was able to raise, and most of the actors look real. Too bad Lupin is not one of them; I didn't recognize my Arsene from Romain Duris' impersonation, although he tried hard (and his stunts were Indy Jones, Tarzan and Flash Gordon reunited). To put it simply, the Arsene Lupin standing up on the screen for me had not the class I remember from Maurice Leblanc's sensational novels. I just went across a lengthy interview I made with Claude Leblanc (son of Maurice)in 1992, when he was 90 years old (he died two years later). I'm sorry to say, Romain Duris is no match to the list of the former Lupins (except Charles Korvin, in the last of the three movies made by MGM), including Georges Descrières, classy, but unable to save the TV versions. But how can you concentrate "813" in 52 minutes? And the ending, with Franz-Ferdinand of Austria murdered in front of the Gare de l'Est, is purely ridiculous, almost an insult to the millions of youngsters who were murdered after the Sarajevo catastrophe. J.P. Salomé probably imagined that moviegoers would smile at that: none did, at least in my sparsely populated theater. If he imagined it as a prelude to a new sequel, he missed the point. Too bad, because I generally enjoyed his movie and appreciated the efforts deployed to make it a success. I sincerely wish it good luck. harry carasso, Paris