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.

Based on the early years of the French classy hero, this movie provides all the fun you can expect from a classical adventure movie. Fights, Stunts, exotic places, wicked villains, and characters you will love to hate or chill for ! It was a good surprise to me, because I am not a great fan of Pitoff.

Romain Duris and Kristin Scott Thomas (especially her !) deliver a very good performance and Eva Green (i didn't know her before this movie) is really charming as Arsene Lupin youth love. One thing i enjoyed as well is the visual reconstitution of 19th century Paris, which is really impressive when you live there.

Good entertainment !

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

... or whatever the French equivalent would be ("mec, que est-ce qu'ils ont pense quand ils ont cree cette film?"). I was actually in Paris when this premiered. It's like six stories in one, and every time you think it ends, it just keeps on going on. We even get Knights Templar thrown in at what we think is the end, but then we move on to historic events.

The idea is great -- the gentleman thief. It's just over-over-over explained. Cinematography is quite good -- nice look and feel for old Paris. However, editing leaves something to be desired. And yes, Kristen Scott Thomas speaks very good French (well, actually, I'm not one to really judge -- sounded good to me). A nice effort that could have been a truly entertaining film if not written by a team of seven writers not in communication with each other (or so it seemed).

And one last thing -- the thief thing is a little ridiculous. The guy goes into a room, women are wearing enormous ostentatious necklaces and earrings, and they never notice him basically ripping these off of them. I think there was some sort of sensory deprivation problem back then (perhaps "touch" hadn't yet been discovered), so that might have made it easier for our pal Arsene. Otherwise, I have no explanation.

So, if you want to see a recent French film with good production value and practice your French, enjoy. If you want to see a good French film, there are many many other films more worth your time.

I guess it's not that easy to make a 1-2 hours script on such a character, but I'm afraid that the choices made by the production were wrong from the start.

This movie tries to depict how Arsène Lupin became who he is. It tries to give some of the keys which lead him to his extravagant life. But even in this attempt, everything is wrong. Arsène does not kill ? OK. But this is given to the viewer as a fact from the beginning. And the whole film tends to push him into criminal revenge for all the bad people he has to suffer from. I mean by this that his character is already forged, so the movie does not hint you how, and, on the contrary, everything that happens to him leads to no consequence about it. Then, what's the point ?

The way I picture Arsène Lupin is as a very smart gentleman. Even if he is nothing but a bad boy originally. This is why the choice of Romain Duris surprises me a lot. He seems like a good actor, but he looks much more as a bad boy than as a smart English gentleman. He's got a forced smile on a tough face, when Lupin always has this mocking smile. I agree though that this point could be discussed for hours as the original book character was a bit of both.

Finally, Lupin's character, even if he's an opportunist guy is very clever and usually thinks ahead a lot. He is not the kind of guy to run straight ahead inside a trap. I would have liked to see more "Ocean's Eleven" in it. In this movie, he is more reacting to the events than making them happen the way he planned it.

All in all, it's a nice movie with good acting and nice sets (I've been very surprised with the "Place de l'opera" with a 19xx look), but it is not very fair to the quality of the book character.