Features > Movie Reviews > The Extraordinary Adventures…

...French stylist Luc Besson's movies have always moved like fast, florid graphic novels. So now he finally attempts a comic-book adaptation for real, we shouldn’t be surprised that it emerges as his best film in years. Which isn’t saying a huge amount, but still...

Just as he has throughout his entire career, Besson again discovers a beautiful, wilful, memorable heroine. Born in the pages of a ‘70s French comic-strip, Adèle Blanc-Sec (“Comme le vin,” she explains, helpfully) is an intrepid Indiana Jones-style adventuress who, when we meet her in 1911, is tomb-raiding in Egypt to find the Pharaoh’s mummified doctor. Why? He’ll be resurrected back in Paris by scientist, Professor Esperandieu (Jacky Nercessian), with weird occult powers. Why? In order to bring her comatose sister (Laure de Clermont-Tonnere) back to life following a nasty accident with a hatpin and a tennis ball. Why this is easier than getting the scientist to bring her sister back to life? No clue. Maybe because Esperandieu is too busy clumsily unleashing a pterodactyl into the skies of Paris.

Yes, it’s that kind of film. Adèle Blanc-Sec sounds ridiculous because it is. Gummed together by more of the manic Gallic humour last seen in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs, Besson’s giddy historical fantasy adventure might test the steeliest of patience – if it weren’t for the fantastic central performance of Canal+ weathergirl turned Cesar-nominated actress Louise Bourgoin. Rattling off screwball dialogue with deadpan aplomb while hurling herself through slapstick set-pieces, she’s a wonderful concoction of spirit, stubbornness and subtlety. Of course, this being France, Besson doesn’t dodge the chance to strip her off during a bathtub scene.

As she’s pursued by clownish male admirers and antagonists – including her evil archaeologist nemesis Dieuleveult (Mathieu Amalric, unrecognisable behind cartoon makeup and jutting teeth) – we’re helter-skeltered through the story just quick enough not care that it’s just a mad jumble. Pace, charm and bizarre character hold Adèle Blanc-Sec together. And while Besson’s $40.8 million budget is stretched – the cheapo pterodactyl looks like it escaped from Primeval – cinematographer Thierry Arbogast (Leon, The Fifth Element, Heartbreaker) makes an eye-catching job of recreating pre-WWI Paris.
 
You have to love Besson’s cheek, too. Having fluffed one attempt at a franchise – his duff ‘toon saga Arthur and the Invisibles – the writer/director nonchalantly finishes his movie on another saga set-up instead of an ending. But thanks to Bourgoin’s feisty performance, you get the feeling Adèle Blanc-Sec may well be back.