Friday 17 November 2017

L'ART DU CRIME - EPISODES 1 & 2 (FRANCE 2)

[Spoiler-free "Mini review"] An unlikely cop/consultant duo (another one), a lecture about Leonardo da Vinci, surreal sequences, split screens and name-dropping in art and philosophy are some of the ingredients of L'Art du crime.

This new 6-episode crime drama from Gaumont Télévision started tonight on France 2 with a two-parter directed by Charlotte Brandström.

Created by Angèle Herry-Leclerc and Pierre-Yves Mora, L'Art du crime stars Nicolas Gob as Antoine Verlay and Éléonore Gosset-Bernheim as Florence Chassagne. Verlay is a grumpy cop reluctantly working for the OCBC (Office central de lutte contre le trafic des biens culturels). Ignorant about art, he's forced to team up with Florence Chassagne, an art historian who's far too much imaginative (amongst other issues). The young woman could be a distant cousin of Chloé Saint-Laurent (Profilage) or the French niece of Professor T. Though Florence is definitely not related to Lovejoy (Lovejoy, 1986-1994) despite some humoristic efforts in this premiere. And while we're at it, the duo is not Laurence and Avril from Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie. However, they try hard.

This slow-paced and cliche-ridden opener has two legendary guest stars: Venantino Venantini as... Leonardo da Vinci (seriously) and Miou Miou as a character who looks inspired by a very well-known rich French woman. Philippe Duclos (Spiral) plays Pierre Chassagne, Florence's father. His lines are terrible but most of the cast gets its share so there's no jealous. On the positive side, the butler is well-played by Stéphan Wojtowicz, the music by Frans Bak (Doctor Foster, The Killing) is excellent and the locations are beautiful. Anyway, TV crimes sell well globally.


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