Monsieur Hire (1989) - film review

Monsieur Hire is a respectable middle-aged man who runs a small tailoring business and lives alone on a suburban housing estate.  He is hounded by a police inspector who believes he is responsible for the recent murder of a young woman.  His only pleasure in life is to spy on the young woman who lives in the flat opposite to his...

Arguably one of Patrice Leconte’s most poignant film dramas, Monsieur Hire is a fascinating study in prejudice, loneliness and desire.  It has the feel of an intense psychological thriller, but ultimately the tenderness and compassion of a profoundly moving love story.  It is stunningly filmed and marvellously acted.

Michel Blanc plays the balding love-starved bachelor to perfection.  His is a uniquely engaging performance which fully captures the tragedy of his character’s situation.  At first he appears as an object of fun, ridiculed by children, then we see him as something quite dangerous – a voyeur who peeps as a young woman undresses each night.  We instantly put two and two together and conclude that he is indeed the murderer which he is labelled as.  But, when we have seen something of his life and his aspirations, we see the real Monsieur Hire – a sad, hopeless individual with no future, and only a cage full of white mice for company.  As in real life, our earlier prejudices are all too quickly forgotten.

For such a short film, this is a film that seems to say so much, and with the minimum of dialogue.  The photography is profoundly melancholic, replete with touching little scenes which contribute nothing to the narrative but add volumes to the characterisation.

© James Travers 2000

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