Saw this on the Talking Pictures channel, UK older films and TV. They showed the entire collection of the Rupert Davies Maigret episodes (BBC, early 60s) and are now showing this quirky, slow-paced French one (90s) with subtitles. We've also seen the ITV versions with Gambon in the lead (12 episodes, excellent, 1990s), and the less successful Rowan Atkinson attempts (2014, 15, or so?).
The atmosphere is very French, lots of slow thoughtful looks, and Maigret wastes few words, which fits with the books, as does the actor's rather lumbering figure. And there are subtitles, doubtless annoying for some, but done quite well.
No real complaints re the lead portrayal, except that in the books he does crack the odd joke, and has some repartee with faithful R-H man Lucas. In this however, Lucas hardly ever appears, not even mentioned in most episodes, which is STRANGE - I cannot recall a book without him featuring in some way!
This story is quite complex, with a variety of characters, some mysterious behaviour, and some incompetent members of Maigret's team.
As reviewer Whalen states (accurate as ever) this story is let down by the ending.
The Davies version covered it in HALF the time, and told the tale much better, without any sudden surprise revelations that the director was in too much of a hurry to show properly!
Here the acting is good (as usual), but I see no reason for a leisurely stroll through the first 70% of the episode, then a frantic disjointed sprint the rest of the way?!
Gradually Maigret, as usual, plods about and eventually discerns what happened, even though his belated seeing the light was largely kept from us!
I find it especially irritating that his team is radically different from the books I've read. It's a grating annoyance that Lucas, almost a constant in the books, hardly ever appears in this version -- WHAT did he do?!