LES PETITS MEURTRES D'AGATHA CHRISTIE: LE CRIME DE NOËL (FRANCE 2)

[Spoiler-free] It's Christmas time. Commissaire Laurence (Samuel Labarthe) complains that there's no crime until he investigates the murder of... Santa Claus. And he must protect a very special witness.

Alice Avril (Blandine Bellavoir) returns to a sinister place.

On a Christmas market, Alice and Marlène Leroy (Élodie Frenck) meet a strange man dressed as Santa Claus who distributes banknotes. Two children, Louison Sauvage and her brother Baptiste, escape from the Sainte-Cécile orphanage during the night. In the empty market, the generous "Santa" appears in front of the kids when he's suddenly shot dead. Baptiste disappears while Laurence, Avril and Marlène find Louison in the street. The little girl stays at Swan's appartment for her own safety, much to the commissaire's annoyance. 

Regrettably for the love of singing (and for ears in general), Marlène is the member of a choir. Alice knows Sainte-Cécile too well and when she investigates inside the orphanage, disguised as a teacher, bad memories surface. Written by Thierry Debroux and directed by Rodolphe Tissot, Le Crime de Noël is the first Christmas special of the French hit series Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie. It's also the first time that the script is not based on a book of the famous English author. Though not a firework, this honorable Christmas celebration (tomorrow on France 2) is in line with the quality standards of the popular crime comedy-drama.

Samuel Labarthe gets once again the best of the episode, including great dialogues. Marlène's renditions of Douce nuit, sainte nuit and Mon beau sapin will stay as anthological moments thanks to the irresistible Élodie Frenck. And Cyril Gueï proves that the character of Timothée Glissant is one of the best things that happened to Les petits meurtres in recent years. Dominique Thomas (Tricard) has not much to do, not even Santa in the end. Although similar tricks were used in the past, Alice's encounter in the orphanage is a bit far-fetched. Le Crime de Noël lacks the sparks of the previous episode written by Debroux (L'homme au complet marron) but it's still a good Christmas treat. 

The excellent Christiane Millet plays Madame Hautin, the orphanage director who makes Roald Dahl's Miss Trunchbull (Matilda) look like an amateur. Also with Elina Solomon (Louison), Julien Bouanich (Gaston), Franck Andrieux (Max), Loïc Legendre (Geoffroy Dopagne), Zoé Schellenberg (Mireille Dopagne), Julien Ledet (Baptiste Sauvage), Merlin Delarivière (Rudy), Mathieu Maricau (Bouboule), Soizic Naeyaert (La petite fille), etc. Éric Beauchamp plays Agent Martin. Fans' favourite Bubulle (Marlène's goldfish) is mentioned in the end credits. Co-produced by Escazal Films and France Télévisions, with the support of Pictanovo and Région Hauts-de-France.

Produced with the participation of TV5 Monde and RTS Radio Télévision Suisse. Sophie Révil is the producer. Laurent Chiomento exec produces. Main characters created by Sylvie Simon and Thierry Debroux. Music composed by Stéphane Moucha. Bertrand Mouly is the cinematographer. Production designed by Moundji Couture. Costumes by Sophie Dussaud. Cédric Le Maoût is the assistant director in charge of the children. Main title sequence designed by Romain Segaud. Like in Drame en trois actes, the end credits are accompanied by behind-the-scenes images. Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie is available in the U.S. on VOD service MHZ Choice.

(Amandine Attard contributed to this review)   

http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/233077/article/2017-10-03/il-neige-rue-alexandre-leleux-pour-un-episode-des-petits-meurtres-d-agatha
http://www.francetvpro.fr/france-2/programmes/10299997 

LES PETITS MEURTRES D'AGATHA CHRISTIE: L'HOMME AU COMPLET MARRON (FRANCE 2)

Commissaire Laurence becomes a secret agent again after the death of a good friend from the intelligence community during an assignment at the Lille Opera.

« Non, pas Brigitte! Je déteste Brigitte! »
 
Written by Thierry Debroux, L'homme au complet marron is based on Agatha Christie's novel The Man in the Brown Suit. It's the second of the two episodes of Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie (Agatha Christie's Criminal Games) filmed between October and December 2016. Like Le miroir se brisa, the previous episode, it is directed by Rodolphe Tissot (The Churchmen/Ainsi soient-ils). Swiss television RTS aired both ahead of French pubcaster France 2.

« Les Russes? Comment ils sont les Russes?
- Slaves. »

French secret agent Nadine Mercuret works undercover as the secretary of Alexandre Latour, the director of the Opera Moderne de Lille. Her service thinks that ballerina Tatiana Pochenko is a member of a Soviet spy ring run by the mysterious "Colonel". When Nadine finds out his true identity, she's mortally wounded but tries to warn ex-colleague and friend Swan Laurence (Samuel Labarthe) at his appartment. To avenge her death, the commissaire collaborates with Gaullic spymaster Gilbert Loyson, a pal from his Resistance days, and disguises himself as a woman to be the new secretary of Mr Latour. After all, no less than the security of the free world is at stake.

« Bienvenue dans le monde des femmes, commissaire. »

Jules Touchard, an employee of the Opera, is knocked over by a black car right in front Alice Avril (Blandine Bellavoir). Soon Gilbert arranges the necessary disappearance of Swan. Marlène (Élodie Frenck), sworn to secrecy on the life of her goldfish, teaches her boss how to be "Brigitte", the perfect secretary. Brigitte's face seems familiar to Avril, who instantly dislikes her. Contrary to Tricard (Dominique Thomas), who likes this Brigitte a bit too much. Between a 60s spy caper and Some Like It Hot, L'homme au complet marron is a pure wonder dominated by the performance of Samuel Labarthe. It's also a great occasion to put the talented Dominique Thomas under the spotlight with much more screen time than usual.

The excellent guest cast includes Thierry Gimenez (Gilbert Loyson) (1), Grégoire Oestermann (Latour), Marie Céline (Tatiana Pochenko), Alice Dufour (Lisa Bonfanti), Mikaël Chirinian (Patrick Mallet), Benjamin Gauthier (Eustache Miller), Céline Cuignet (Martine Touchard), Anton Yakovlev (Sergueï), etc. Some of them worked with Rodolphe Tissot before. Also with Cyril Gueï as Timothée Glissant, Éric Beauchamp (Martin) and François Godart (Robert Jourdeuil). Produced by Escazal Films and France Télévisions, with the support of Pictanovo and Région Hauts-de-France. Sophie Révil is the producer. 

« Je vous déteste.  
- Oui, oui. Moi non plus. »

Main characters created by Sylvie Simon and Thierry Debroux. Music composed by Stéphane Moucha. The next episode will be Drame en trois actes, written by Sylvie Simon. Followed by Crimes haute couture (2), penned by Jennifer Have and Zina Modiano (writers of the interesting Le miroir se brisa) and a Christmas special called Le crime de Noël, written by Thierry Debroux. Agatha Christie's Criminal Games is available in the U.S. on VOD service MHZ Choice.

(1) In Le crime ne paie pas, a 2014 episode written by Thierry Debroux, Laurence's spymaster pal was called Gilbert Bourdet and he was portrayed by Renaud Rutten.
(2) https://web.archive.org/web/20170616211921/http://bullesdeculture.com/2017/04/les-petits-meurtres-d-agatha-christie-2017-news.html [Update - August 31, 2017] In June it was announced that the next couple of episodes to be filmed would be Crimes haute couture and Drame en trois actes, in that order.

http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/161405/article/2017-05-12/les-petits-meurtres-d-agatha-christie-tourneront-en-juillet-dans-le-centre-ville

See also: 

http://tattard2.blogspot.fr/2017/04/les-petits-meurtres-dagatha-christie-le.html (Le miroir se brisa)

LES PETITS MEURTRES D'AGATHA CHRISTIE: LE MIROIR SE BRISA (FRANCE 2)

Struck by a personal tragedy, Commissaire Swan Laurence is not at all in the mood to investigate a crime committed during the filming of the new movie starring Blanche Dulac. 

On the set he finds a bad remedy for his situation, while Alice Avril finds love with a crew member.
 

« Un mort sur le tournage de Blanche Dulac? Mais c'est merveilleux, Alice! »

Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie welcomes writers Jennifer Have and Zina Modiano and director Rodolphe Tissot (The Churchmen/Ainsi soient-ils) with Le miroir se brisa. This adaptation of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side is the first of two new episodes filmed between October and December 2016. The fact that the big budget series had to leave its production base to build new sets elsewhere and a regrettable drop in the quality of the previous batch of episodes hurt neither its ratings nor its popularity. Les petits meurtres is a hit even in repeats! (1)

Last year saw an apparent reorientation of the Laurence/Avril/Marlène era of Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie to something along the line of their predecessors Larosière and Lampion, hence less comedy and fast-paced banters. Le miroir se brisa keeps it that way with an interesting script and a good direction for a rather reassuring result. The life of Commissaire Laurence (Samuel Labarthe) falls apart when Dr. Euphrasie Maillol (2), his great love, dies in a plane crash. Devastated, the commissaire rejects the support of Marlène (Élodie Frenck), who remembers about her "Tonton Léon" (« Tonton Léon, suicidé au Paris-Brest. »)

« Alice détective. J'aime bien. »

Laurence treats the sympathy of Alice Avril (Blandine Bellavoir) no better. Worse, he neglects his new case: Simone Maupin, the "Hand double" of movie star Blanche Dulac (the fabulous Anne Consigny), has been poisoned during the shooting of the latest film directed by Blanche's husband Marc Borel (Nicolas Briançon). Swan is particularly odious with his loyal secretary and even with the victim's son. He ends up accepting a very special prescription from Dr. Jacques Mentchikoff (Luc-Antoine Diquéro, impressive), the sinister personal physician of the actress. 

« Vous êtes mon ange blond, Marlène. »

Jennifer Have and Zina Modiano bring the main characters on new territories. Thankfully for Marlène, who reached her limits in Le cheval pâle. The writers allow Élodie Frenck a couple of touching moments, as Laurence's secretary goes undercover in the entourage of Blanche Dulac and meets the star's disabled young son. Samuel Labarthe is given the opportunity to explore another aspect of his character. And Blandine Bellavoir steals the episode thanks to the encounter of Alice with Fred, the set photographer played by Camille Rutherford.

Scriptwriters Jeanne Le Guillou and Bruno Dega brought back some life in Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie with Albert Major parlait trop. The enthusiastic work of Have and Modiano on Le miroir se brisa restores a bit of the series's greatness, damaged by the abysmal La mystérieuse affaire de Styles. The rest of the cast includes Alice Vial (Sylvia Franco), the excellent Cyril Gueï as pathologist Dr. Timothée Glissant, the talented Dominique Thomas (Tricard), Éric Beauchamp (Martin), François Godart (Robert Jourdeuil), Adeline-Fleur Baude (Simone), etc. 

Produced by Escazal Films and France Télévisions, with the support of Pictanovo and Région Hauts-de-France. Sophie Révil is the producer. Main characters created by Sylvie Simon and Thierry Debroux. Music composed by Stéphane Moucha. Swiss television RTS aired Le miroir se brisa ahead of French pubcaster France 2. The next episode is L'homme au complet marron (based on The Man in the Brown Suit), written by Thierry Debroux and directed by Rodolphe Tissot. The Laurence/Avril/Marlène era of Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie is available in the U.S. on VOD service MHZ Choice under the title Agatha Christie's Criminal Games.

(1) http://www.programme.tv/news/audiences/173339-record-historique-en-prime-time-pour-france-5-avec-les-petits-meurtres-d-agatha-christie/
(2) Played by Natacha Lindinger in 3 episodes, here seen through stock shots.