Belphégor - Le fantôme du Louvre

A confusing, senseless script with plot holes the size of the Eiffell Tower. Terrible acting by all involved - no exception! Laughable and cheesy dialogue. Lame attempts at humor and romance. Extremely cheap special effects. All this makes for a giant mess of a film, you'd best avoid.

After putting a mummy in a local museum goes through the cat-scan, a metal object in it's brain reacts adversely to the procedure, thus freeing the spirit,or phantom if you will, of the mummy, Belphegor. Due to convenient circumstances, Lisa, who lives close to the museum finds herself possessed by the evil spirit. Soon enough she's stealing the museum's Egyptian treasures out from under their nose. Detective Verlac comes out of retirement to catch the supernatural thief.

This is a serviceable enough, if you haven't seen any other incarnations of "Belphégor" before. If you have, I recommend skipping this particular version as it can't help but pale in comparison to the others despite the nice locals and scenery.It plays out like a (slightly) higher budgeted Sci-Fi Original film, and I don't really mean that as a compliment.

Eye Candy: Sophie Marceau shows ass & side boob

My Grade: C-

DVD Extras: none

This is a complete disaster !The cock-and-bull story defies any explanation.The cast is wasted to a fault:I hadn't even recognized Julie Christie until the final cast and credits.Michel Serrault overplays as hell and is almost unbearable.Sophie Marceau is beautiful ,the director does not ask her for more.Jean-François Balmer, a very talented actor is unable to do anything with his empty character.One good line in the whole dialogue:the museum attendant to an old lady :"Mona Lisa?I dunno".One magic moment in a 90 minutes film the screenplay of which could have been written by a ten-year-old: in the graveyard,Marceau bumps into Juliette Gréco who strangely smiles at her:Greco was the first heroine of the miniseries in 1965.This made-for-TV work was first-rate and has worn superbly well today:if you get the chance to see it,please do!Its obsolete charm is inestimable.

NB:both the movie and the series were remakes of a silent movie by Henri Desfontaines.(1926)

Before to be this movie, Belphegor was a novel and a movie (1926) and a tv serie (1965). The producers have done the same disaster that others did with "the avengers" or "wild wild west". Belphegor reminds more "the mummy" (1999) than the novel or the tv serie. Only the Bruno Coulais soundtrack can be saved, and some apparitions of the egyptian ghost in the museeum of Louvre. The ghost in the original version was a woman, here it is really a phantom. Belphegor could have been more suspenful, but lacks of time to create fear and emotion. the script is weak, yet the idea of an egyptian mummy was not bad at all. The tv serie in 1965 was not shot at the louvre (but in studio), this one though having the benefice of the museum, is missed. Some exciting scenes are not enough to do a movie.

O.k Belphégor has its weakness, but this movie has good special F.x...at least for a French movie.

Also, I truly love Fredéric Diefenthal in this movie because he was the romantic lead ( a first time after having play the buddy in taxi ) and was funny and touching ( and cute , very handsome). Sophie Marceau was good and was scary as a woman possessed by a ghost. O.k For me the acting was the best thing. Michel Serrault and Julie Christie were excellent. I didn't know that she could speak French.

The last good thing about Belphégor: The fact that they shot in the Louvre that cost me 5,00$ to go see the Louvre...in Paris