This is one for Sylists. The Podalydes brother put on, to quote the pop song, the style. In spades. Essentially they - Bruno as writer/director possibly a tad more than Denis as actor - have taken Gaston Leroux' celebrated 'locked-door' mystery, which was responsible seemingly for Agatha Christie's career, given it a lick of paint, thrown in some loving 'period' detail and added some of the finest actors in French cinema to the mix. There are those who will be disappointed that the 'mysterious' element fails to rivet attention; equally there will be others who relish the stylistic touches, the brilliantly whimsical opening credits featuring one of those carefully 'weighted' devices which delivers a ball to successively lower levels until it is deposited onto a train which then runs on its own miniature rails through open countryside and segues into a real train carrying four of the principals to the scene of the 'mystery'. Eccentricism is the order of the day which means that English viewers will have no problem relating to half the principals (ironically it has yet to be shown in England) and Podalydes is scrupulous in his attention to period detail, costumes, etc. Even setting the mystery itself to one side there is much to savor in the playing of such luminaries as Fanny Ardant, Sabine Azema, Michael Lonsdale, Denis Podalydes, Isabelle Candalier and Pierre Arditi. In total a very pleasant romp.
Review of The Mystery of the Yellow Room
