MYSTERY IN VENICE
Theatrical release: September 13, 2023
Duration: 1h44
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Main actors: Kenneth Branagh, Tina Fey, Camille Cottin
Synopsis: After devoting his life to solving crimes and witnessing the worst in human beings, Hercule Poirot gave up his vocation as an investigator. And if he does everything to avoid being confronted with criminal cases, they are often the ones who catch up with him…
Certain passages can reveal the story. Here's why some sentences are incomprehensible. If you don't fear spoilers, you can put the passages in front of a mirror to discover the content.
Agatha Christie and the adaptations
Agatha Christie and Sir Conan Doyle must be proud of all the popularity their characters have acquired over the decades. Through numerous books, films and series, it has become impossible today not to know these two private detectives, Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes.
The subject that interests us today is of course Hercule Poirot. This private detective born in Belgium will be mobilized as head of security during the world premiere. Wounded in the leg, he was declared invalid and repatriated to his country. A few years later, he became a private detective and settled in London. This man is surgically precise, analyzing every move. But his main fault is pride. Always dressed in a classy manner, he likes to be highlighted for his intelligence and does not like people to question his deductions.
Hercule Poirot has been adapted many times for cinema and TV. Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express remain the only two books to my knowledge to have been adapted so many times (cinema, TV, comics and video games).
Kenneth Branagh
It was therefore normal that a new film adaptation of Agatha Christie's novels would see the light of day. And it was Kenneth Branagh who was chosen as director for Murder on the Orient Express in 2015 (the film was released in 2017). Even if I don't find him physically suited to interpret Hercule Poirot, I must say that in this first film he knows how to play his character. Perhaps too much in my opinion due to the excess confidence he places in his interpretation. Without forgetting the enormous mustache that Kenneth Branagh sports and which we cannot miss, a mustache bordering on the ridiculous. But according to Agatha Christie, it is this mustache that he is most proud of.
In the second adaptation, Death on the Nile, Hercule Poirot is forced to return to service as he returns to London. The sumptuous settings and superb photography highlight Egypt in the 1940s. And just like the books, the investigation takes place behind closed doors, this time with a cruise ship as the crime scene.
The first two opuses give pride of place to Hercule Poirot's past. In The Crime on the Orient-Express, we discover that the detective is deeply saddened by the loss of a loved one which we can discover in a framed photo that he carries with him during his travels. But it is in Death on the Nile that we learn much more. His past is clearly explained during a scene set during the First World War.
The first two films always had well-written lead and supporting roles for me. And I can't say what motivates Kenneth Branagh, but the casting is still almost 5 stars. But the other side of the coin, dnoces el snad todaG laG te sserpxE-tneirO'L ed emirC eL ruop peeD ynnhoJ: reirtruem ud semitciv sel tnos iuq serbèléc sruetca sel sruojuot tse'c euq tse'c.
A Haunting in Venice
The talk of a third film on the adventures of Hercule Poirot is happening even though filming of Death on the Nile is not yet finished. With the help of his screenwriter Michael Green, Kenneth Branagh had the idea of writing a ghost story, while drawing inspiration from Agatha Christie's short story “The Halloween Murder”. Short story with the original title The Pumpkin Festival. This short story was also the subject of a TV adaptation, featuring David Suchet in the title role.
But if Mystery in Venice is adapted from Agatha Christie's short story, the film by Kenneth Branagh is also inspired by a collection of short stories about the supernatural.
Critical
Kenneth Branagh's first mistake was not being patient in refining his script. Because if The Crime of the Orient Express was released in 2017 and Death on the Nile 5 years later, it only took a year for the third opus to be released. It's not much and you can feel it.
First on the character of Hercule Poirot. The latter seems to have the character erased of any characteristic such as arrogance. All that will remain is a worn-out gimmick that even Branagh is tired of playing: The perfect size of the eggs he buys. Weren't there other things to play with to get some semblance of personality? Even David Suchet did better for 6 seasons.
Brannagh plays a Hercule Poirot who leaves the viewer passive and uninvolved by the events happening on screen. We have the impression that he is more interested in demystifying ghosts and spiritualism rather than actually looking for the murderer. All the characteristics that make Hercule Poirot a colorful character seem here to have been erased from the protagonist.
As for the photography, it seems dull and cold as if a gray veil had been placed over the projector. Everything is a sepia yellow shade, with few opposing colors. All accompanied by music based on monotone violins and without richness of tones. Certainly to accentuate the tone of the work which is intended to have esotericism as its common thread. But this is too strong and erases the investigative side of the adventures of Hercule Poirot to shift the film into a genre that Kenneth Branagh cannot contain.
Mysteries in Venice also gives pride of place to dialogue rather than the brilliance which is one of the characteristics of the main character. But it's also because the film claims to be something other than what it should be.
Maybe the director wanted to distance himself from the genre, but for me it was half-successful.
