Maigret (TV Series) Maigret et l'affaire Saint-Fiacre (1995) User Reviews

Couldn't they leave the story alone?

[lucyrfisher · 6/10 · 12 November 2023]

The atmosphere in this episode is wonderful. It is winter, and Maigret wanders around the grounds of a huge chateau. Inside it is full of the stuff collected by previous occupants, and panelled in pale blue.

Unfortunately the adapters couldn't leave the story alone. Every element (familiar from Gambon and Davies versions), has been tweaked, and not to good effect. The altar boy, the whistle, the prayerbook. This whole strand is garbled. Gauthier Senior is not a thief. There was no need to make the hotelier a previous girlfriend of Maigret's.

Maigret left the village to study medicine, he was never offered the job of steward, he didn't "flee" the village. This is not just unnecessary - it's banal.

Mme Maigret is present in this version, looking smart in a subdued suit and hat. Anne Bellec's performance has grown on me - perhaps she grew into the part and the director(s) gave her more to do.

Jacques Spiesser is great as the decadent Comte de St Fiacre, but I agree that he could have made the point in half the time. He was so good, though, that I began to worry about him, now alone in his remote chateau while a way of life ebbs away. Will someone take him in hand and send him to Alcoholics Anonymous and come up with a business plan for the chateau? I'd hate him to gut it and turn it into a wedding venue, but couldn't he turn the redundant wings into flats and...

". . . a crime will be committed at the church of Saint-Fiacre . . ."

[garywhalen · 9/10 · 18 September 2023]

A handwritten message delivered to Maigret at his Paris office prompts him to visit Saint-Fiacre, the place of his birth and childhood and home to the estate which his father managed. A crime, the message states, will occur during the first mass of All-Saints Day. Maigret and his wife make the trip and attend the mass. A death does occur. But what's the crime? How can an obvious natural death be murder in any sense of the word?

This is a very special story among the many Maigret mysteries written by George Simenon. We learn much of where and how Maigret was raised. References to and memories of the past are handled beautifully in this film. One difference between book and film is that Mrs. Maigret joins her husband in his visit to his "past" and it's a very good addition and one, frankly, that Simenon should have included in the book. Maigret's visit to the chateau of his youth, his encounter with those who knew him as a child, and his wandering about the estate provide moments of amusement, wistfulness, and poignancy. One doesn't read Simenon's Maigret mysteries to simply move to the denouement and find out "Who did it?" Such matters, yes, but only a bit. The best parts are the lingering moments in between. In this film, this is understood as it's those many lingering moments that make watching this episode worthwhile.

The conclusion seems a bit odd. A group of suspects are gathered round a dinner table. Conversation and accusations lead to the big reveal. It seems a bit forced but it is true to the book. This is what Simenon wrote and unlike some of these Maigret book-to-film episodes I don't see any other way the scriptwriters could have gone in finishing this one. I didn't find it a satisfying ending (though maybe you will), but I didn't care. The mystery of a death is not what makes this "mystery" the fascinating story that it is.

Madame Maigret features prominently

[wjspears · 9/10 · 8 February 2021]

If you enjoy this Maigret series, I would recommend looking for this episode, if you missed It. It is unusual for a couple of reasons.

First, because it is about Maigret's returning home for the first time in decades, due to a mysterious letter he received. Maigret's ambivalence about returning back to the provincial home of his birth, the memories, and the people still there, make it an interesting show to watch.

Bruno Cremer does a wonderful job of revealing shifting emotions, with a raised eyebrow, or an extra puff of his pipe. Add to this the death of a Countess Maigret knew as a boy with Maigret trying to figure out if she was murdered or died of natural causes.

The second, even more unusual feature, is the presence of Madame Maigret, Anne Bellec, throughout much of the episode. Madame Maigret has accompanied her husband to his home town, to see where he grew up.

Madame Maigret's own reactions to the people she meets--cool toward the Countess, while delighted meeting a woman who had a crush on Maigret--are as fascinating to watch as Maigret's. opaque behavior. Add to this, scenes showing Madame Maigret annoyed at her husband and his petulant response.

Very little of Maigret's thoughts and reactions are ever "fleshed-out" or explained. They are simply there to be observed. It made, I found, for a particularly intelligent and intimate episode of Maigret.

Maigret takes his wife home - maybe she was as bored as I was?!

[Tony-Holmes · 5/10 · 8 November 2023]

Just saw this version on the Talking Pictures (UK) channel. We had previously seen the same story done in the old (60s) BBC version with Rupert Davies (about an hour runtime) and later (90s) in the two series with Michael Gambon (died just recently) as Maigret (runtime about 90 mins).

I see two previous reviews, wjspears and garywhalen, both seem to lavish praise on the slow thoughtful way that the story wanders along to a final (& rather odd IMO) ending. I can agree that it was nice to see Mme Maigret in attendance, back to his old home town, and she (played by the excellent Anne Bellec) does provide some nice touches with her reactions.

BUT -- sorry, the reviewers should see the other 2 versions that I mention, both IMO vastly superior. In this one by halfway I couldn't care less who the culprit was (I knew from the other versions) I just wanted them to hurry up! Masses of wordy speeches about this or that, dragging the story very slowly along, all tortuously slow.

The Rupert Davies one showed the Count as a wasteful dilettante in a few lines of dialogue, this one was banging on for about half an hour to show the same effect. I'm glad I'm coming late to this Cremer version, if I'd seen these first I doubt if I'd have bothered with Maigret at all?!!