The Mystery of the Yellow Room (2003)
"Le mystère de la chambre jaune" (original title)

Director:

Bruno Podalydès

Writers:

Gaston Leroux (novel), Bruno Podalydès

Stars:

Denis Podalydès, Jean-Noël Brouté, Claude Rich

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Denis Podalydès	...	Joseph Rouletabille
Jean-Noël Brouté	...	Sainclair
Claude Rich	...	Le juge De Marquet
Scali Delpeyrat	...	Le greffier
Sabine Azéma	...	Mathilde Stangerson
Michael Lonsdale	...	Stangerson
Julos Beaucarne	...	Le père Jacques
Olivier Gourmet	...	Robert Darzac
Pierre Arditi	...	Inspecteur Frédéric Larsan
Isabelle Candelier	...	Madame Bernier
Dominique Parent	...	Monsieur Bernier
George Aguilar	...	Petit-Pied, le garde-chasse
Patrick Ligardes	...	Le brigadier
Sylvain Solustri	...	William, homme en noir
Vincent Vedo Velli	...	Marcel, homme en noir

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

native american | pendulum | magician | revolver | frame up | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Mystery

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Details

Official Sites:

Why Not Productions [fr]

Country:

Belgium France

Language:

French

Release Date:

11 June 2003 (Belgium)

Also Known As:

The Mystery of the Yellow Room

Filming Locations:

Nièvre, France

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$797,399 (France) (20 June 2003)

Gross:

$5,071,394 (Europe) (18 July 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Canal+, Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC), CinéCinéma

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Version of El misterio del cuarto amarillo (1947)

User Reviews

Dumbed-down version of the book...

Interesting comical actor direction... But nothing even close to the wit that we can read in the book. Another one of those sad cases where the book, much longer than a 2-hour adaptation would allow, is twice more interesting than the movie. And it's always sad, for someone who read the book before, to notice that they didn't hesitate to remove most of the secondary plot lines, and even change the configuration of the infamous "Yellow Room" (which was very important to the plot).

But my worst worry would be for some of the actors they hired. Father Jacques is played by a man with an accent (what a stupid idea!) and a very bad actor. But even worse is Robert Darzac -- described as elegant and charming in the book, he also wears a mustache... Which he doesn't in the movie. Of course, the movie also forgets to render him as even remotely elegant or charming. And did I mention he's a very bad actor too? Well, maybe he just did what he was asked to do... Then it's probably the director's fault.

Do yourself a favor and read the book. It's excellent (and basically the book that inspired Agatha Christie in her youth), and doesn't need any of these fancy "inventions" that plague the movie.