Arsène Lupin (2004) - film review

Arsène Lupin’s harmonious childhood ends abruptly with the brutal death of his father, a notorious crook.   Twenty years later, Lupin has established himself as a gentleman thief; he relieves the rich of the burden of some of their wealth, without ever resorting to violence.  He also has an eye for the ladies and one day he falls under the spell of the mysterious Countess Joséphine.  She lures him into recovering three crucifixes which will reveal the whereabouts of a lost royal treasure.  This is to be Arsène Lupin’s greatest adventure, played for the highest stakes...

Having failed spectacularly in an over-zealous attempt to bring a fresh re-interpretation of one icon of French popular culture in Belphégor – Le fantôme du Louvre (2001), director Jean-Paul Salomé does exactly the same with another, the celebrated fictional thief Arsène Lupin.  With its ludicrous plot (a totally chaotic melange of action adventure and supernatural fantasy), absurd characterisation and over-reliance on special effects, this charmless film bears absolutely no resemblance to the wonderful Maurice Leblanc novels.   Any plus points the film has (set and costume design) are totally negated by Salomé’s stylistic excesses which  make an already convoluted narrative virtually unfathomable and sqaunder the talents of some fine actors.  Whilst Kristin Scott Thomas scores a partial success as the film’s main villain, Romain Duris appears absurd almost from start to finish, mainly because he is compelled to portray Lupin as a two-dimensional action hero, somewhere between Indiana Jones and Superman.  It’s a tedious spectacle of CGI effects and gratuitous Grand Guignol gore, whose appeal is limited to juveniles with an unhealthy addiction to the kind of showy Hollywood blockbuster adventure movie which this film tries so hard – in fact, too hard – to emulate.

© James Travers 2007

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