Le Mystère de la chambre jaune (2003)

Le Mystère de la chambre jaune is a French crime film first released in 2003, directed by Bruno Podalydès.  The film is based on a novel by Gaston Leroux and stars Denis Podalydès, Jean-Noël Brouté, Claude Rich, Scali Delpeyrat and Sabine Azéma.  It has also been released under the title: The Mystery of the Yellow Room.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


At château Glandier, Mathilde, daughter of the famous inventor Professor Stangerson, is attacked in her bedroom by an unknown assailant.  Who could want to kill her and how could he (or she) enter and leave a room which was locked from the inside?  The police, led by Frédéric Larsan, suspect Mathilde’s fiancé, Robert Darzac, but reporter and amateur sleuth Joseph Rouletabille has another theory.  Assisted by his loyal photographer, Sinclair, Rouletabille sets about solving the mystery of the yellow room and makes some astonishing discoveries...

In this, the fourth film adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s celebrated novel Le Mystère de la chambre jaune, director Bruno Podalydès offers a distinctly personal slant on the familiar detective mystery genre.  With its 1920s setting, comic book style characters and quirky sense of fun, the film is a respectful mélange of Agatha Christie and Hergé’s Tintin – an obvious pastiche, yet one which is crafted with great skill and imagination.

What most sets this apart from similar films is its pleasing nostalgia element (emphasised by the moody photography, slightly parodied characterisation and the mesmerising interludes featuring mechanical “toys”). This is obviously Bruno Podalydès re-living his first acquaintance with the fictional heroes of his early adolescence.  Podalydès also manages to include a number of references to Alain Resnais, a director whom he greatly admires.

Bruno Podalydès’ brother, Denis, takes the starring role of the journalist Joseph Rouletabille (who, in this incarnation, bears an uncanny resemblance to Tintin), in a star-studded cast which includes Claude Rich, Sabine Azéma and Pierre Arditi.  Michael Lonsdale is a delight as the eccentric scientist Stangerson, but most endearing is Jean-Noël Brouté in the role of Sinclair, Rouletabille’s hopeless sidekick.  The Podalydès-Brouté double act works so well that we can probably expect to see them together in a subsequent film.  The episode in which Rouletabille forces Sinclair to stay on guard inside a grandfather clock is the stuff of film legend.

The film is heavy on exposition (which is perhaps unavoidable given the complexity of the plot in Leroux’s original text), but the narrative style and comic embellishments help to make it digestible.  To appreciate the film’s artistic style, a second viewing is essential; the first time you watch the film, you are too occupied with the plot to see the lavish detail behind it.   Unlike most films which follow the “whodunit” formula, Le Mystère de la chambre jaune can be watched again and again without losing its appeal.

© James Travers 2003

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