As Múmias do Faraó

Funny, wacky, silly adventure comedy, it falls a bit flat during the long parallel montage of Adèle's failed attempts to take Prof. Espérandieu out of jail, while Caponi and Saint-Hubert disguised as lambs wait to catch the pterodactyl. This is clean entertainment, based on a French comic, with robberty of national treasures in foreign lands, deaths, female abuse and enough violence, to keep it rooted to reality, but thankfully it is far from the ideologically offensive and brutish world of Indiana Jones and his bunch. Louise Bourgoin is a beautiful Adèle, Nercessian's performance is a pleasure to watch, Giraud is a charming suitor, Lellouch is a quirky relative of Inspector Clouseau, and Amalric, the perfect villain. Delighfully French main course for a Sunday matinee.

French filmmaker Luc Besson has been responsible for some of the most enduring contemporary films from action thrillers like Nikita and Leon the Professional, to a personal science fiction cult favourite of mine The Fifth Element. Of late he has chosen to relinquish the director's chair and taking up story, scriptwriting and producing duties at his Europa Corp, although taking the chair back again with more family friendly adventures such as The Minimoys series, adapted from his series of children's books. His latest live-action adventure adapts from Jacques Tardi's series of comic books featuring a female adventurer quite like in the mold of Indiana Jones.

Adele Blanc-Sec (Louis Bourgoin) is smart, resourceful, and quite the alpha-female go-getter with a dash of sassiness about her, and these are precisely the kind of characters I suppose Luc Besson has been comfortable dealing with in his filmography. His Adele doesn't equip herself with weapons other than a rapid wit and a sharp tongue to disarm her enemies, setting her sights at far flung adventures where her publisher would send her to, though at times like this film, decide to detour and follow her own agenda. And for those taken in by the subtitle of the film promising something along the lines of Stephen Sommer's The Mummy films, let's just say to drop those expectations, because there isn't any Imhotep to lock horns with.

Besson keeps you guessing for the most parts as he unravels the story before you, opting to place you in suspense as you figure out how the multiple sub plot lines will come together and make relatable sense. It assumes that you have some knowledge of the basis of the lead character, but fills you in along the way nonetheless. With plot devices such as a Pterodactyl hatched from an egg in a museum and now taking to the skies of Paris, the attempts to capture that flying dinosaur by inept hunter Justin de Saint-Hubert (Jean-Paul Rouve), a promise of a romance between the shy scientist Andrej Zborowski (Nicholas Giraud) and Adele, and the need for Adele to steal a mummy from Egypt, all boil down to the extreme lengths the titular adventurer will go to save a family member.

Of course there's a need to keep things balanced up, so in contrast to the more dogged Adele comes on the side of the law, the bumbling police inspector Leonce Caponi (Gilles Lellouche) with a penchant for food, a need to be found from the mysterious psychic powers of ally Marie-Joseph Esperandieu (Jacky Nercessian), and a clash of good and evil with the villainy of an unrecognizable Mathieu Amalric as Dieuleveult with whom Adele crosses with early on in the story. It's a pity though that Amalric's screen presence was limited as his character Dieuleveult had so much potential, but the extraordinary adventures were indeed split down to Adele's quest, and everything else, peppered with a handful of quirky characters set to entertain, and a series of wry humour especially on that oh-so-familiar critique of society's top down approach to get things done which was brilliantly executed.

There''s no scrimping on the production values of this period piece set just before WWI and an infamous tragedy that marked the dangers of human arrogance, which should make a follow up film quite interesting should the filmmakers pick up from where they left off. Incredible production sets and costumes are what beautify the film, and the CG effects used to enhance the viewing experience went fuss-free, although it didn't break much new ground since movie audiences weaned on the Hollywood Mummy franchise would already be accustomed to how mummies move and behave, albeit with less civility.

Unfortunately though, the film did not manage to survive unscathed. I was looking forward to a scene where our heroine would be sitting in the bathtub and reading out letters of infatuation written by Andrej as she had hinted she would, only for a quick jump cut made and you're left high and literally dry. Having watched the dubbed English version during this screening, I will recommend that you head on to The Cathay to watch this so that you can immerse yourself in the aural pleasures of the French language and get by through the English subtitles (if you don't speak French) because while it's a relatively competent voice cast trying their best to emote as they could, I'm quite the stickler for authenticity and whatever's coming out of a character's mouth to be in sync with their lip movement, and have to struggle not to be too perturbed by it.

The opening film of this year's French Film Festival in Singapore, don't walk out just yet when the credits roll, as there's a coda that comes up midway. Don't berate what's essentially a fantasy piece that occasionally found pleasure dwelling on the absurd, but prepare for something that's visually gorgeous, narratively unusual and outlandishly entertaining.

In 1911, in Paris, the bold journalist Adèle Blanc-Sec (Louise Bourgoin) is assigned by her editor to travel to Peru to write about the Incas, but she goes to Egypt instead to seek out the mummy of a doctor of Ramses II to bring him to Paris. Adèle has an agreement with Professor Marie-Joseph Espérandieu (Jacky Nercessian) that has the ability of bringing the dead back to life to resurrect the doctor to heel her twin sister Agathe Blanc-Sec (Laure de Clermont), who has been catatonic and paraplegic for five years due to an accident caused by Adèle. However, Professor Espérandieu is arrested in prison and sentenced to death after bringing to life a pterodactyl from an ancient egg in Louvre that caused the death of three persons. Now the last hope of Agathe is that Adèle saves Professor Espérandieu from the guillotine.

"Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec" is a highly entertaining and funny adventure by Luc Besson. Last week, I was zapping the television and I saw the last part of the adventure of Adèle Blanc- Sec. Today I have just watched this movie on DVD with my family and we really enjoyed the story. The weird and bizarre characters slightly recall the surrealism of Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet in "Delicatessen and "La Cité des Enfants Perdus". My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "As Múmias do Faraó"("The Mummies of the Pharaoh")

"Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec" is a good film. It almost qualifies for very good, but there a few small details which are poorly executed and which bar it from reaching its full potential.

The film has three excellent elements: masterful pacing, perfect editing and a great leading actress. Louise Bourgoin carries the movie with no apparent effort; the character of Mlle. Adèle Blanc-Sec "comme le vin" (*) fits right in with the minutely reconstructed Paris near the beginning of the 20th century. The quick pacing and seamless editing convey the thrill of moving from panel to panel in a comics (**) book (and I suspect that this was the intended effect).

(*) "Blanc sec" is French for "dry white". She helpfully tells a police officer that her name is "Dry White, as the wine", adding that he probably knows very well how to spell that.

(**) (For Americans) Note that in France and Belgium (and in Italy, to some extent) comics ("B.D." for "bandes dessinées") are an art form bearing little resemblance with Marvel's productions.

To get the most from the film you should watch it in the original French -- if you understand French, of course (subtitles may help). Part of the zany humor derives from the untranslatable undertones and rhythm of the dialog and narration.

The small details which detract from the overall beauty of the film consists in a few brief scenes where the computer-generated special effects should have been better. Carelessness is the word -- the vast majority of scenes containing CGI are well executed.

An adventure set in the early part of the 20th century and set in Paris in the years before and after WWI, revolve around the protagonist Adèle Blanc-Sec in a succession of far-fetched incidents . It is loosely based on the comic book series of the same name by Jacques Tardi and, as in the comic, follows the eponymous writer and a number of reoccurring side characters in 1910s Paris and beyond, in this episode revolving around parapsychology and ultra-advanced Ancient Egyptian technology. A cynical heroine, she is initially a novelist of popular fiction, who turns to investigative journalism as her research and subsequent adventures reveal further details of the mystical world of crime. It starts with the popular novelist named Adele ( rising central star Louise Bourgoin) and her dealings with would-be suitors (Amalric), a Police Inspector (Lellouch), a Pterosaur , and other distractions . She finds herself involved after returning from Egypt, where she was searching for Ramesses II's mummified doctor. She wants to revive the mummy with the help of Espérandieu (Nercessian) so the Egyptian doctor can save her sister Agathe (Clermont) .

This entertaining film packs fantasy , Science and action which both pastiche and subvert adventure and speculative fiction of the period ¨Belle Epoque¨. The popularity of the comic has made it much in demand for adaptation into other media, the first to be approved by Tardi being a projected trilogy of live-action feature films adapted and directed by Luc Besson, the first of which, also titled like the comic book The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec was released in France on April 14, 2010 and latterly in numerous other markets, including the United Kingdom. The picture incorporates contemporary action film as well as much use of computer animation to portray its fanciful elements , furthermore visual effects within the form of the older-style adventure films they have largely superseded. Atmospheric musical score by Eric Serra , fitting splendidly to action and intrigue . Colorful cinematography by Thierry Arbogast and perfectly remastered . The motion picture is lavishly produced by Eurocorps (Besson Production Company) and professionally directed by Luc Besson with his ordinary visual pyrotechnics . He often casts Jean Reno (though here doesn't appear) and music always by Eric Serra. Besson is the greatest producer and director from France with hits as ¨Leon¨ , ¨Joan of Arc¨ , ¨The fifth element¨ , the ¨Taxi¨ series , ¨Big blue¨ , ¨Arthur and the Minimois¨ , ¨Nikita¨ and many others . Rating : Acceptable and passable, 6 .This is a highly amusing and frequently funny action-adventure romp with a witty script, sensational special effects and a terrific performances from main cast .