[Spoiler-Free] Capitaine Marleau is called to the Meyer Brewery when the accountant of the company is found dead the very same day of the visit of Dimitri Nobécourt, who's about to buy the establishment. Later, a prominent figure of the venerable Meyer beer business is murdered.
Following an excellent pilot aired in 2015 by French pubcaster France 3, the crime drama Capitaine Marleau will return with two new episodes: Le domaine des soeurs Meyer and Les mystères de la foi. Belgian channel La Une aired the former on Friday, March 11, ahead of French TV.
« Vous savez pourquoi on dit de moi que j'suis moche comme un pou?
- Pardon?
- Pourquoi on dit de moi que j'suis moche comme un pou. Parce que c'est vrai. Quand je m'accroche comme ça, j'leur ressemble. »
Revealed by the film Louise Wimmer (2012), the amazing Corinne Masiero is back as
Capitaine Marleau (no first-name) of the Gendarmerie. An unconventional detective
between Vera Stanhope, Columbo (« Ah non mais j'voulais vous demander un truc. ») and French comedian Coluche. The colourful captain wears a cap with ear flaps which reminds of Frances McDormand in Fargo and she drives a Range Rover. Marleau's abrupt ways and her peculiar sense of humour hide a sharp mind and a profound knowledge of the human nature. She can also be poetically charming in unexpected circumstances.
Corinne Masiero first played Capitaine Marleau as a secondary character in the France 3 miniseries Entre vents et marées (2014), directed by Josée Dayan and written by Philippe Besson & Daniel Tonachella (Blood of the vine, Maigret). In 2015, Dayan and novelist/scriptwriter Elsa Marpeau (Blood on the Docks) gave the offbeat cop her own pilot for France 3, Capitaine Marleau: Philippe Muir, with Gérard Depardieu as a special guest star. In Le domaine des soeurs Meyer, written by Elsa
Marpeau and directed by Josée Dayan, Marleau investigates when death
strikes inside and around an Alsacian brewery owned by the Meyer family.
« Moi je crois rien. Moi en fait j'me poste et puis j'attends. Et les gens ils sont tellement tordus, il y en a ils viennent me répondre à des questions que j'ai même pas posé. »
The company raised the interest of Dimitri Nobécourt, a young and dashing businessman. Frantz, the Meyer patriarch, can't figure out why Dimitri looks so familiar to him. Katel Meyer, his wife, has Alzheimer's and Augustine, their eldest daughter, is her carer while her sister Clara runs the brewery. Petra, the youngest, is the black sheep of the family. Marleau's shrewdness and some assistance from Oscar Langevin, a sympathetic pathologist (and latinist), will reveal the truth behind the secrets and lies of the Meyers.
After Philippe Muir, Dayan, Marpeau and Corinne Masiero convert the try with an absolute brilliance. Once again, Josée Dayan gets the best of her guest actors: the excellent Sagamore Stévenin (Falco) as Dimitri, the great Bulle Ogier (Katel Meyer), French national treasure Jean-Pierre Marielle (Frantz), Sophie Cattani (Clara), Christine Brücher (Augustine), Sophie Verbeeck (very good as Petra) and Marius Colucci (Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie) as Oscar (1). Too bad that Marleau never stays in the same precinct for long because he could be a perfect regular.
« J'suis pas aussi con que j'en ai l'air.
- Et pourtant vous partez de loin. »
Stage legend, movie and TV actress Catherine Samie appears in a moving flashback scene. Valéry Schatz, who guest starred in an episode of Death in Paradise aired by BBC One in January, plays Rodolphe. Capitaine Marleau is produced by Josée Dayan's company Passionfilms and Gaspard & Co with To Do Today Productions, R.T.B.F. (Télévision belge), RTS Radio Télévision Suisse and France Télévisions. Le domaine des soeurs Meyer was filmed between October and November 2015 with the support of Strasbourg Eurométropole and Région Alsace Champagne-Ardenne Lorraine.
Produced by Josée Dayan and Gaspard de Chavagnac. François Bennaceur is the associate producer. Music by Catherine Lara and Cyrille Lehn (2). Series created by Elsa Marpeau, who also co-wrote TF1's hit Le secret d'Élise, based on David Schulner and Stephen Greehorn's Fox pilot The Oaks (adapted by ITV as Marchlands). A fourth Marleau, Brouillard en thalasso, is currently filmed in the Alsace region. The fifth episode will guest star Blood of the vine's Pierre Arditi.
(1) Marius Colucci is the son of the aforementioned Coluche.
(2) There's a nod to Catherine Lara in the dialogues. Other references include Hitchcock and Jacques Deray's film On ne meurt que deux fois.
http://www.elsamarpeau.com/
http://www.lalsace.fr/actualite/2016/03/04/trois-episodes-tournes-en-alsace
