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Nicolas Gob and Eleonore Bernheim, in the French TV crime series “Art of Crime” Season 7. Courtesy of MHz Choice

Last May, I covered the first six seasons of this light-hearted French crime series. Here’s the link to that review to bring you up to speed or refresh your memory before watching “The Art of Crime” Season Seven: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2024/05/the-art-of-crime-season-6-tv-series-review/

Season 7 brings another pair of two-part mysteries for our “Odd Couple” to solve. At the end of Season 6, it appeared that the will-they-won’t they finally landed in the boink column. But this round opens with Antoine and Florence awkwardly backpedaling from the idea of the horizontal mambo realm. The first murder takes them to Versailles where the stiff du jour was seeking a treasure allegedly hidden in Marie Antoinette’s elegantly-crafted wardrobe. The little coterie from the séance he performed that led him there provides a nice suspect pool.

Florence (Eleonore Bernheim) and Antoine (Nicolas Gob), in the French TV crime series “Art of Crime.” Courtesy of MHz Choice

This light crime series from France, “The Art of Crime,” provides the usual elements of TV mysteries with a painless education in the meanings of classic paintings and personalized art history. Don’t yawn yet. Keep reading a bit further.

The Paris police have a special unit for art-related crimes. Antoine (Nicolas Gob) is assigned to it as a banishment from the serious crime squad he’d thrived on until he pissed off the wrong honcho. His complete lack of knowledge about or interest in this milieu makes the transfer even more punitive. He’s also forced to accept a partnership with a quirky consultant, Florence (Eleonore Bernheim), whose expertise in the Old Masters is essential to catching the offenders. Each case is handled in two 50-minute episodes, so no pressure to binge.

Exclusive: Gaumont International exec Ben Bishop has joined Canadian firm Vortex Words + Pictures as President, International Distribution, based in Sydney, Australia.

Bishop, who started June 1, joins from Gaumont where he served as International VP of TV Sales for Asia Pacific and sold shows including Narcos, El Chapo, Art Of Crime, El Presidente, and Calimero.

Prior to Gaumont, he worked for 13 years at Entertainment One, latterly as Sales Director for Australia, New Zealand and Asia, selling The Walking Dead, Hell On Wheels, Girl On The Train, Divergent and Spotlight.

The exec will be tasked with growing the international footprint of Vortex, which has been on a buying spree. The company, run by veteran Canadian producer Bill Marks, acquired a majority interest in A71 Entertainment and V71 Entertainment in 2019 and this year purchased the assets of D Films. In January of this year the company announced Justin Rebelo as its new CEO.

On Wednesday, Series Mania hosts digital presentations of drama series projects developed during a writing residency attended by 12 writers from France and Israel, whose credits include leading shows like “The Bureau,” “Fauda” and “Braquo.”

The week-long residency, initiated by France’s Cnc and Israel’s Gesher Multicultural Film Fund, was supervised by Italian scriptwriter Stefano Sardo and Israeli writer-producer Yoram Mandel. Five projects have been selected for Series Mania.

Espionage thriller “The Loyalists” by Alix Deniger and Eran B.Y., centers on two agents from rival intelligence agencies – a devious Israeli family guy and a straightforward French ladies’ man. They are forced to cooperate in a sophisticated operation to seduce and manipulate a Syrian scientist and his secret mistress – the Syrian defense minister’s daughter – in order to prevent a biological attack on Israel.

Deniger is a serving police commander, with 34 years of experience, including 11 years working in anti-terrorist intelligence. He...