Agatha Christie in France versus England: The French Understand Her Better

A fun, excellent rendering of Tommy & Tuppence.

The BBC has produced a number of excellent Agatha Christie mysteries from Joan Hickson's Miss Marple to David Suchet's Poirot.

Recently, French television has produced a number of decent tributes to Agatha Christie with the series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie/Agatha Christie's Criminal Games.

Both series have successes and failures. Both produce strict retellings as well as versions that bear little in common with Christie other than the title of the original text.

Interesting enough, in a number of cases, the French versions capture Agatha Christie's sense of whimsy better than the BBC/English versions.  

A comparison between the BBC Poirot Cards on the Table and the French Cartes Sur Table, both based on Agatha Christie's mystery novel by the same name, points the difference.

The BBC version stars David Suchet and Zoe Wannamaker as Mrs. Oliver, a wonderful pairing. Alexander Siddig makes a surprise appearance as Mr. Shaitana. Cartes Sur Table stars the marvelous Samuel Labarthe, Blandine Bellavoir, and Elodie Frenck, an impressive comedic trio. Both versions are fairly straight-forward retellings although the BBC version varies the ending and the murderer's motive.

However, the French version does two things that indicate that perhaps, just perhaps, the French understand Christie just a bit better.

BBC versions of Christie books tend towards melodrama. And secrets! I've written elsewhere why so many recent versions of Christie miss the point. The scriptwriters are so busy gasping over scandals, like a bunch of Victorian news editors, they forget the human element.

Difference 1:

1. In the BBC version, Despard and Ann Meredith fall in love. Ann Meredith's possessive/obsessive roommate tries to kill her. (She also sets her up to be blamed for a murder.) There's some parental, Freudian stuff mixed in there as well.

2. In the French version, as in Christie's version, the Despard character prefers Alice Avril's tomboyish ways to Ann Meredith's demure personality. As in the book, Ann Meredith determines to eliminate Alice out of pique and self-protection. The vulnerable self-serving craftiness of Ann Meredith is perfectly conveyed.

Difference 2:

1. In the BBC version, Despard kills the drug-taking Luxmore who has been brutalizing his wife. When Luxmore goes after him, he kills the man in defense. It is very, very TRAUMATIC.

2. In the French version, as in Christie's version, Despard accidentally shoots Luxmore when Luxmore's wife hysterically throws herself at Despard. In the French version, as in the book, Poirot goes to visit the widow who presents herself, melodramatically, as a femme fatale. It is a very funny scene (in both the book and in the movie).

Don't get me wrong. I like the Poirot series, although I prefer the 1-hour episodes to the movies. And it's not exactly fair to compare the later poorly scripted films of Poirot to the earlier better scripted episodes.

Still, if one is to make comparisons, in this case between the English and French versions, the comparison here might be this:

The English seem to believe that "realism" is accomplished by everybody having deep, dark secrets. And every, single thing meaning something else because there just has to be a blackmail-able offense somewhere. The private face versus the public face--a legacy of Victorianism--is the constant underlying theme. 

The French seem to think that "realism" means that people are odd and variable and comedy follows quickly on tragedy. Love is downright funny. People are not that complicated; they simply behave as if they are. And life can be dark, but being surprised by it doesn't do anybody much good. 

Face it, in regards to the human condition, Christie was more French than English.