Maigret Sees Red

The well-known commissioner, who has a detailed map of Paris in his head, starts to see red only towards the end. And in my view, it's not because of the audacity of the Italo-American gangsters, the lying witnesses, diplomatic incidents, or the immunity protecting the miscreants. Just look at Jacques Bertrand, who even irritated Commissioner Juve, and it's clear that working with this material is very challenging and requires as much leniency as one would show to amateur criminals. Jean Gabin, bringing the tentacles of organized crime to a frothy beer without the foam, is undoubtedly a dynamo of DC charisma, but here Gilles Grangier has sent him into a case that lacks confidence and merely flirts with the potential of neo-noir. (01/04/2024)

The weakest of the three Maigret films, but still solid. The title is a bit misleading — Jean Gabin’s Maigret is as cool as ever. He strolls through the plot, gracefully sips his beer, and solves the case as effortlessly as slicing through butter. (09/02/2022)