Disparue

Had me hooked from start to finish! Great cast. Just wish my French was better!

If considered separately, particularly, then Disparue is definitely not bad - the story is in place, tensions and twists available, most of performances and characters sustained... But, having comprehensive knowledge of similar Scandinavian creation, then you might want to declare that the final solution is too trivial, there are several scenes providing no additional value to the course of events, and that the French-specific qualities (e.g. friskiness, inconsistency, fast talking) do not fully fit in the background, requiring more balanced and reasoned approaches and actions (instead of Lyon - although a fine place - the location could have been a city in Northern France where Belgian/British "calmness" is more visible). Moreover, female performances excel the male ones, and as for some suspects, it was evident right away that they cannot be offenders in this case, event taking into account the past actions.

But still, if you have not seen e.g. Forbrydelsen, then Disparue is a unquestionably a worth-watch, preferably within short interval, in order to main the thrill between the episodes.

This 8-part French TV series is called in the original DISPARUE ('disappeared'), and is available with English subtitles on DVD. It is truly amazing, and you cannot stop watching it. You simply have to sit through every episode continuously, always on the edge of your seat. It deals ostensibly with the disappearance of a young French girl on her 17th birthday at a late-night pop concert in a park. But the series is really far more complicated than that. The story is set in the French provincial city of Lyon. Has the girl been kidnapped, or murdered, or has she merely run off? A very dour French detective (played in a restrained and sombre fashion by Francois -Xavier Demaison) sets about the complex task of investigating the disappearance. But unlike most series of this kind, the detective is not the main character. The main ones are the girl's family, and even more extraordinary, one of them is a ten year-old girl who is the younger sister of the girl who has disappeared. This amusing little girl is played by a child actress named Stella Trotonda, and she really is a main character, not just a supporting actress. She provides the light relief for a very tense story. The script was written in such a way as to give her many of the best lines of dialogue, many of them hilarious. Who on earth would direct a TV mystery series with a child as a main character? Well, the answer is that the director must be a woman, and she is. Her name is Charlotte Brandstrom. 'Born in France but raised in Sweden', this tri-hybrid can direct films in English, French, or Swedish, being fully trilingual, and speaking also some other languages. Her direction is inspired, but never intrusive. She must have an incredible capacity for rapport with actors, because I have rarely seen such harrowingly intense performances in a series stretching over so many hours, and that must owe a lot to her. One does not know which to praise more, Alix Poisson who plays the mother, or Pierre-Francois Martin-Laval, who plays the father. They are both so brilliant than they are way up in the stratosphere of performers. The range of emotions they are required to portray in the course of the unfolding drama is immense, and by the time the 8 episodes are over, I would say they have deserved several Oscars each. We do see the disappeared girl a lot in the first episode, before she disappears. She is marvellously well played by a very beautiful creature named Camille Razat, who before this had only appeared in one 19-minute film. She is quite a discovery, and portrays a girl so irresistibly charming that everyone's grief at her disappearance is thoroughly convincing. Having someone like her around, who would ever want to lose her? Her first cousin Chris, played by Zoe Marchal, conveys a marvellous air of despondency and mystery throughout, and also does a superb job. Every actor in the series is good, and what with an inspired director and a fantastic original script written by a pair of women (Marie Deshaires and Catherine Touzet), this series is simply sensational. There are so many dizzying twists and turns that one is agasp at it all. The series is a profound study of the inconsistencies, untrustworthiness, mendacity, vacillation, duplicity, and unreliability of an extended family and those connected to them. During the series we discover that everyone is lying about something, everyone is concealing something, and the ground is not solid beneath anyone's feet. This is an exercise in humanology, the science of humans, those strange creatures who cannot be trusted. So much treachery, so many lies, and yet when one first meets them, they all seem so normal, friendly and well-meaning. At one point the mother says, in a moment of reflection on her evident maternal failures: 'I know I did something wrong. I just don't know what it was.' And that is all part of the tragedy: the characters are so flawed but seem unaware of how. The study of all these people close up, warts and all, is absolutely spellbinding. And the mystery goes on and on, a new surprise every few minutes for eight hours. How sad, how strange, how human. And what a brilliant series!

LA DISPARUE contains a fair share of clichés associated with the detective drama. Shot in the east central city of Lyons, it depicts the urban landscape as threatening, with streets peopled with citizens largely indifferent to one another, and a nightlife full of potential criminals - drug-dealers, pimps and predators looking for available partners. By day the city has its beauty-spots such as a local park; but by night they become sinister places for murders and other crimes to take place.

Other clichés include a chief investigating officer Morel (Pierre-François Martin-Laval) who is divorced and has to shoulder the responsibility of a looking after a rebellious teenage daughter Rose (Myra Tyliann). Neither he nor his ex-wife know quite what to do with her.

Nonetheless Charlotte Brändström's production does have its redeeming factors, most notably its portrayal of an apparently happy family torn apart by the disappearance and eventual death of middle daughter Léa (Camille Razat). We discover a tangled web of intrigue; of rivalries, political affiliations; sibling struggles; and the vain attempt of Léa's parents (Pierre-François Martin-Laval, Alix Poisson) to maintain a normal life in the face of almost unendurable pressures.

The chief attraction of the story lies in the rivalry between Morel and Léa's father Julien. While Julien is almost obsessively concerned to find out what happened to Léa, even resorting to illegal behavior in his quest, Morel has to balance an obvious concern for the family with professional ethics. For the most part Morel manages the task successfully, although he admits on one occasion to sidekick Camille (Alice Pol) that he has been severely emotionally affected by the investigation.

The plot is engagingly complex, with each episode ending on a cliff-hanger, culminating in the final episode that contains an unexpected plot-twist. LA DİSPARUE is definitely worth a look.

One of best taut drama, suspense, series I've seen. On a free trial of "Acorn TV" on Amazon, I decided to give this a try and was immediately drawn in and couldn't tear myself away. Great mystery, story, characters, acting, direction, and locale in Lyon, France.

The very real anguish of a family, after the disappearance of their teenage daughter and the gradually building nightmare gathers steam hour after hour, keeping you guessing right up to the end. A +++