Monsieur Joseph (2007 TV Movie) User Reviews

When everything is not as it seems...

[csylvain · 8/10 · 30 March 2011]

This is a simple story of a respected specialized bookseller, the Algerian-born Monsieur Joseph, who has worked hard over more than 40 years to integrate well in his community. Nothing demarcates him from his neighbours and other shop owners in the market square until, one day, his much younger wife does not come back from one of her escapades with another man (Monsieur Joseph accepts these).

Suspicion builds up for several days over her fate and all eyes suddenly turn on this man everyone thought they knew. This is the classical story of how, when one's neighbour is found guilty of something horrible, all those around who freely and willingly befriended him, suddenly have stories to tell about how how they "knew" something was wrong. Except here, no one knows but Monsieur Joseph's life is turned upside down when the rumours set in and everybody jumps to conclusions. His entire community turns against him, no longer seeing him as one of them but as an untrustworthy foreigner. He gradually descends into a living hell. It does not end well.

This is an under-stated movie, with few words, sober decor, and fine acting by the only main character, played by Daniel Prévost. He deservedly won some accolades for this role. And the movie is well worth watching, if only because it is a story that's all too familiar.

Brilliant Simenon

[MaxineNunes · 8/10 · 17 May 2008]

An absolutely beautiful written and acted film about the destructive power of hidden racism and the inability to see the complexity of relationships outside the stereotypical norm. And because it's Simenon, suspense keeps it moving.

If I have any criticism, it's just that French TV movies, like American ones, have a fairly boring visual style.

(The film is about a middle-aged Algerian bookseller who is completely assimilated into French life and the life of his town. But when he marries a beautiful young girl--who disappears--he's accused of murdering her.)

The book seller

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 25 February 2011]

Youssef Hamoudi is a man in his sixties living in a small town in France. His French mother had settled in Algeria many years ago, where she met and married an Algerian Muslim . The union produced this man that we meet now; he owns a book store that specializes in rare tomes much looked after by collectors. Having settled in France, where he has been living for more than forty years, he has changed his name to Joseph, a more French sounding name.

As the story begins we watch a sort of a ritual where polished shoes are placed neatly together. Joseph is writing a letter to the police chief. Joseph, a man that loves beauty, is also a man that lived quietly, always following a daily routine that made him feel comfortable, as well as secure in his environment. The morning visit to the coffee shop gave him an opportunity to talk to his friends and neighbors. While writing his letter we learn more of the personal story of Joseph.

Joseph made a tactical mistake. He fell in love with the beautiful Tina, a woman more than thirty years younger than him. The purpose of the marriage is to enjoy her radiance, rather than for sexual purposes. It was a union of convenience because he wanted her; Joseph made sure to set things straight from the start. She was free to have sex with other men. Tina proved to be an attentive housewife, catering to her husband's taste. Tina's reputation in town was that of an easy woman to be with, as attested by some of the men that have been with her, prior, or even after, to her marriage to Joseph.

One night Tina reminded Joseph she was babysitting for her friend Sandrine, who was going to the movies with her husband. Tina never returned home, something that prompted Joseph to take a walk to see if he could find her. The following day, he stopped at Sandrine's who was taken aback by Joseph's questions as to what time was when she left. That visit will come back to haunt Joseph later on. In fact, Tina's brother Fred and her mother, a shopkeeper, began to suspect foul play. There had been an unsolved murder in town; a bank clerk was found at the bottom of a canal, and an eyewitness version that put Joseph late one night at the site of the never solved murder. Rumor and innuendo began to spread in town as to Joseph's guilt.

The police was never able to find anything that remotely connected Joseph to any criminal wrongdoing, but he began to feel the hatred he generated because he is a Muslim, and he is a cuckold, to boot. Jealousy might be a cause for getting rid of Tina, a woman who had ridiculed Joseph. When obnoxious graffiti started appearing all over town, Joseph found himself against a wall because of the hatred the locals showed him after living amongst them for such a long time.

We enjoyed this made for television French film shown on an international channel recently. Directed by Olivier Langlois, the film is based of a Georges Simenon mystery text that Jacques Santamaria adapted skillfully. The main theme shows how insidious a rumor can be to ruin a perfectly clean reputation. Discrimination based on religious bias is at the heart of the story. Unfortunately, Joseph's love for beauty and elegance, turns against him because the narrow mindedness of the uneducated town people that perceived the man as superior. They loved bringing him down.

The work of Daniel Prevost as Joseph is one of the best things we have seen him do. He is the main reason to watch the film. Daniel Prevost is an elegant French actor with exquisite delivery, one can see in his face the effect of the hatred thrown at him. Serge Riaboukine has some good moments as the police commissioner. Julie-Marie Parmentiere appears as Tina.

George Simenon is perfect as usual in handling human frailty

[clanciai · 9/10 · 15 June 2022]

This is a typical Simenon grey tragedy of humdrum life, pinpointing weaknesses of humanity. Monsieur Joseph is an Algerian who for forty years has been working hard to establish a small specialised bookshop in a small town in northern France, when a young girl who helps him in the shop inspires him with the idea of a marriage, better late than never. He is double her age and does not foresee the dangers of such a marriage, a very young wife of a middle-aged man is wont to look for younger men and to have escapades. When she does he does not mind but is tolerant and keeps his good faith in human nature. That is his mistake. When she disappears without a trace leaving nothing behind and no communication, people around him start to talk, and as there has been a recent unsettled murder case with a drowned young woman in the town canal, he becomes the subject of gossip and prejudiced suspicion, since he is Algerian. And so the merciless tide rolls on.

Daniel Prévost makes an excellent and unforgettable performance as the culprit of nothing, and there is actually no sadness in his role, just a typical Simenonesque casual hopelessness and resignation to the logic consequences of inevitability. At least he finally learns that his wife is still alive and that she only has betrayed him - he should have suspected such a consequence from the character of her family with a brother who is a spoilt outrage. Well, most things are learned too late.

The atmosphere is very much alike to the moods of "The Man who Saw the Trains Pass By" which is a similar story with similar outcome, a bottomless tragedy without sadness but with all the hopelessness naked in its inevitability.

Monsieur Joseph

[msbsegal · 20 September 2007]

I saw it yesterday on the French TV Channel 2, and I am not sure what to think about it. I am in doubt if I know what Georges Simenon wanted to write in this book and I do not know when he wrote it. Then I cannot say what the writers and Director have done with this novel and how true to the book they are. It is quite a far cry from all the "Maigret" series, which I have seen performed by various great actors.

Here we have a police investigation of the disappearance of a young married woman Tina brought about by her nasty mother and her hooligan-like brother : they both hate Joseph, Tina' s husband, because he is not a true born French, like they are, he is a stranger, he came from Algeria 40 years before, he is what is known as a "Pied Noir". So if the movie is about the xenophobic behavior of the French simple minded people of a small village, then it is not so special, you meet with this types everywhere in democracies, in the Third World – no place is xenophobia-free. That the French do not like the Pieds Noirs, who arrived in the '60s in France fleeing Algeria, that is not new. I found the treatment of this theme pushed to its extreme, when the so-called friends bar Mr. J.' s entrance to the "friendly" bistro, where he used to come for his coffee every morning : one patron prevents his entrance. I thought this is too much. And of course is one of the reason for the bitter end.

As for the complaint to the Commissaire De Police, it seemed to me very far from the usual top French movies of this genre. It seemed to me a bit too Americanized, like the Assistant to the boss who is a nice black girl.... The Commissaire does not think Mr. J. has done it, but he investigates. The long interrogation of Mr. J. of course reminded me of the great and famous "La Garde a Vue", the wife who disappears, the other body discovered and the rapist never found and everyone in the village quite happy to point a big finger at Mr. J. Eventually many days later, an eyewitness comes with a lead as big as an elephant and nothing : what does the Commissaire do with it ? We do not know, yet we know from the witness that Mr. J. did not do it, so why the movie does not show the results of the investigation ? Why the Commissaire does not reveal to the bloodthirsty xenophobic populace the truth of the witness testimony, which may have changed somewhat the attitude of the "friends" towards poor Mr. J.?

The end is similar to the one in "La Garde a Vue", except that there it was appropriate and here it is just a kind of "la morale" at the end of the fable, it adds nothing there are so many better ways to go about it, like move to a new city meet new friends, etc.

The actors are OK, they carry the performance of all this, Daniel Prevost is a well-known actor, as for Mr. Langlois, the Director I saw some other work from him much more captivating like "The Virus", which I recommend.

I really do not know where lies the fault here : with the novel, the writers, or the director. Something is missing. I do hope someone else will see this movie and comment on it.