Maigret stellt eine Falle (1958)

Maigret stellt eine Falle: Directed by Jean Delannoy. With Jean Gabin, Annie Girardot, Olivier Hussenot, Jeanne Boitel. A serial killer is targeting women in the seedy district of Montmartre.

“Itu0026#39;s a hot summer in Paris while a mysterious killer is plaguing the serene joie de vivre of Montmartre district making victims out of women who have in common (besides the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong moment of the night) to be young and plump brunettes. The film opens with a murder that recalls the beginning of the mother of all psychological thrillers: u0026quot;Mu0026quot; and thereu0026#39;s more that justifies the comparison.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJean Delannoyu0026#39;s u0026quot;Maigret Sets a Trapu0026quot; is a fine example of a police procedural film that gets three things right: first, it perfectly conveys the atmosphere of an impending danger whose motivations -we rapidly suspect- are rooted in the mire of human psyche, secondly, the villain isnu0026#39;t just an antagonist but the subject of a character study that unveils the sleaziest and most sordid expressions of hubris and finally, the film lies on the broad shoulders of a great and iconic protagonist in the person of Jules Maigret, the u0026#39;Frenchu0026#39; Sherlock Holmes, created by Belgian writer George Simenon.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA few words about Maigret: the Chief Inspector is a robust-looking, well-built man with a reassuring physique and a sort of detached attitude that allows him to be more perceptive of little details surrounding him, heu0026#39;s a man who takes his time, follows his instinct, and tries to identify hints about the assassinu0026#39;s profile as insistently as if they were tangible evidence. Heu0026#39;s a man who can nonchalantly wonders across a busy street to test the waters and gather clues from the mere sight of playful kids or noisy vendors. Heu0026#39;s not alone in this job, he has various subordinates (one is played by Lino Venture) whose mission can consist of walking in the screen and fishing potential suspects out of shoals of onlookers.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI make his approach methodical but it isnu0026#39;t, Maigret built enough experience not to let himself distracted by bureaucracy, he can enter a house without a warrant considering itu0026#39;s up to the suspect to know the rules. He handles information as if theyu0026#39;re no big deal, encouraging the suspect to go on without arousing any suspicion on his side, u0026quot;may I see your wardrobe?u0026quot; u0026quot;did you have a key?u0026quot; innocent questions whose purpose is to grab facts that can eventually be contradicted by subtle cross-examinations. Thereu0026#39;s something fascinating in the way Maigret handles the investigation, even when we suspect heu0026#39;s not fooled by the criminalu0026#39;s identity, let alone his psychological profile, he still acts with the potential killer as a simple civil servant concerned by red tape issues.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThereu0026#39;s no doubt in my mind that Gabin was born to play Maigret, the actor, in the second part of his career, had the quiet strength of the experienced man, who knows when to speak, when to listen and when to let his authoritarian voice erupt in a few occasions. Gabin was perfect to play characters who didnu0026#39;t need to rise their voice to obtain what they wanted and knew when to use it to finally get the confession, a man in total control of the situation even when it could get out of control. Gabin trusts his competence and knows that his instinct would only half fool him and half the way to the killer goes through the fatal weakness heu0026#39;ll be able to spot. He can tell from an anonymous letter that thereu0026#39;s a big ego behind the assassin, one that would bite on the right bait.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBasically, the film is composed of three acts: Maigret sets the trap that fulfills its purpose in extremis, then thereu0026#39;s the investigation where Maigret asks questions between Montmartre and Les Rosiers and the filmu0026#39;s climax consists of interrogation scenes that are as riveting and absorbing as the classic u0026quot;Garde à Vueu0026quot; by Claude Miller: Maigret in his office, Maigret outside and Maigret in the interrogation room. And at that point of the review I must mention that, in her earliest roles, Annie Girardot delivers a great subdued performance as a bourgeois woman bored by her effeminate husband Jean Desailly, equally superb as the Mamau0026#39;s boy whou0026#39;s been so pampered by her mother he developed a strong aversion to the female persuasion. Both actors would be nominated for the BAFTA Awards.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThereu0026#39;s a great study of French manhood in that early urban setting of the 50s that might echo the post-war atmosphere film noir. France was a country that was both defeated at the end of the war and yet had its honor saved by the great De Gaulle, a country whose citizens accepted the patronizing and infantilizing tone of Pétain telling them to surrender to Germany for their own good and yet where a handful of fighters decided to maintain the fight. Itu0026#39;s one of Franceu0026#39;s tragic ironies to have invented the world u0026#39;Resistanceu0026#39; and be forever associated with u0026#39;surrenderingu0026#39;. In that confrontation between Maigret and the suspect, thereu0026#39;s the collision of these two sides of French manhood, the old-school and principled citizen and the wimp who accepts defeat and yet doesnu0026#39;t have the guts to assume it. This is why you canu0026#39;t totally disconnect the film from a certain view of France and the way social classes can condition ethical choices, that the killer is highly educated says a lot about a certain defiance toward the upper class man.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThereu0026#39;s more in u0026quot;Maigretu0026quot; than a formulaic police movie: behind the investigation, thereu0026#39;s a study on mores of its time, itu0026#39;s a rather disenchanting and heavy-loaded portrait of a moral decadence and the way men have lost their way, and when the film ends with that sudden rain, we feel as relieved as Maigret who chooses to walk alone on the street as if he felt even the police couldnu0026#39;t triumph over all the filth and evil that eat away the people and maybe a good rain will watch some of it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe first opus of the u0026quot;Maigretu0026quot; saga is a gem of French popular cinema… with an assumed populist undertone.”