Le Parfum de la dame en noir (2005)

Le Parfum de la dame en noir is a French crime film first released in 2005, directed by Bruno Podalydès.  The film is based on a novel by Gaston Leroux and stars Denis Podalydès, Sabine Azéma, Zabou Breitman, Olivier Gourmet and Jean-Noël Brouté.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Joseph Rouletabille is haunted by the memory of a woman who used to visit him when he was at boarding school many years ago.  He can still recall the fragrance of the perfume she used to wear and is convinced that this strange woman has some close connection with him.  Before he can resolve this mystery, Rouletabille learns that his friend Mathilde Stangerson is in danger and rushes to her aid with his loyal friend Sinclair.  Mathilde has just married her fiancé Robert Darzac and the couple are enjoying their honeymoon in the company of some friends in the south of France.   Rouletabille is incredulous when Mathilde claims to have caught a glimpse of her mortal enemy Larsan, better known as the illusionist Ballmeyer.    The world knows that Larsan is dead, having died on stage when one of his escapology acts went horribly wrong.  If Larsan is alive then Mathilde has good reason to be afraid.  Little does she know that he is much closer to her than she realises...

Following their immense success with Le Mystère de la chambre jaune (2003), the Podalydès brothers return with a second generous helping of offbeat murder mystery featuring the amateur sleuth Rouletabille and his comical sidekick Sinclair.   Based on another convoluted novel by Gaston Leroux, Le Parfum de la dame en noir is a slick production featuring a prestigious cast, but its main attraction is its exuberant humour, which owes a great deal to the Tintin stories of Hergé.  Indeed, there is hardly a character in the film who does not look like he or she has fallen from the pages of a Tintin comic book.  Professeur Tournesol appears in the guise of the hapless inventor of a leaky solar-powered submarine, Olivier Gourmet does a good impression of Captain Haddock, and Sinclair is obviously Tintin’s resourceful little dog Milou.  Writer-director Bruno Podalydès clearly has something of a fixation with the quiff-headed boy journalist.

Le Parfum de la dame en noir has far less plot and slightly more silliness than Le Mystère de la chambre jaune but this doesn’t prevent it from being any less enjoyable.  Sabine Azéma’s glorious histrionic outbursts are as hilarious as Michael Lonsdale’s dead-pan impression of an impressionist painter and make up for Denis Podalydès’s bland characterisation of Routeabille, who looks increasingly like the only sane man in a lunatic asylum as the film progresses (Podalydès is certainly much too old to play the part convincingly).   The film’s supremely elegant design (redolent of a BBC adaptation of an Agatha Christie story) complements its zany humour and O.T.T. performances, making this an appealing, albeit somewhat messy, murder mystery romp.

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