Meurtres à Bayeux is an entry in the Meurtres à... (Murders in...) procedural anthology series/tourism promotion.*
A few words about the Meurtres a... formula-- and it does have one. Generally, the murder takes place in a location having some scenic, historical, or cultural significance. Usually it pits man and woman detectives against each other-- often one of them is a hotshot from out of town, the other a local who resents the carpetbagger. They are forced to work together, sparks fly (it doesn't hurt that they're both usually drop dead gorgeous), and by the end of the 90 minutes they have gotten together.
Sometimes they vary the formula-- the detectives might be a father and daughter, or brothers, or sisters, or a married couple, or a divorced couple, or mother and son, or nun and son (yes, it has happened), or a cop and a prosecutor, or cop and a pathologist, or a cop and an author, or even a cop and a pathologist/author. In Meurtres a Lille 2 (2018) the team was a woman commander and a gay captain-- but they wound up together anyway. But man and woman detectives meeting cute over a corpse is the standard equation.
Lord John Dewish, expat British royal living in Normandy, is found dead-- apparently shot from his horse with an arrow to the eye, the same death as Harold as portrayed in the famous Bayeux tapestry.
The main protagonist is Gendarmerie Capt Clara Leprince (Sara Mortensen from Astrid et Raphaëlle), who is called in from Caen to handle the case, but she has her own problems: seven months pregnant, estranged from her sister Mathilde (Camille Claris), and Bayeux is her hometown. She left Bayeux ten years before after the apparent suicide of her mother who, like Mathilde is now, was connected to the town's tapestry-based economy. Partnered with Lt Vincent Clerc (Idir Chender), who happens to be Mathilde's fiancee, Clara finds the Dewish case has troubling connections to her mother's death.
NOTES
It's odd to my American ear to hear the Battle of Hastings loser called Harold Godwinson (4'23"), as on this side of the water he is usually known as King Harold, Harold II, or 'the Anglo-Saxon king, Harold.'
The island of Aurigny, Alderney (12'45"), was also the setting for the book A Line To Kill (2021) by Anthony Horowitz. In it, a book festival with murder takes place on the island, and tapestries aren't mentioned at all. And, Alderney is British, it seems no problem for Clara to travel there, despite Brexit.
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| Clara (Mortensen) and Clerc (Chender, center) visit the tapestry museum. |
Un tireur (26'05") means 'a shooter,' but tireur l'arc is 'archer,' so close enough.
Clara finds a gap in a fence (27'21"), although soon after she calls it a chantier (28'10"), which means 'construction site.' It's probably some alternate-alternate definition that means 'needing work.' So I'm putting 'fence gap.' Clara ought to say, 'I found a gap in the fence needing work.' In fact she essentially says that at 28'27", which would be redundant of the first instance.
The OCBC (28'57") is the unit where Capt. Verlay and Mme. Chassagne work on L'Art du Crime.
Renseignements (31'33") is 'Intelligence,' Clara may have trained with the DGSI, the internal security service.
Mathilde pops in at the Gendarmerie to say Hi (31'56"), and Clara snaps: Tu te crois dans un moulin?-- 'Do you think you're in a mill?' Moulin also means 'boat engine,' 'fence,' and also 'chat,' and none of them make sense in this context. So I've put 'shop.'
Here's a new one on me: Petit déj (41'43") is short for petit déjeuner, 'breakfast.'
The Alderney tapestry (47'16") was a real project during 2012 and 2013. Started by 3 islanders, eventually 400 people contributed stitches, including the then-Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker-Bowles.
I guess Dewish's horse is named Viking (74'27"), but for the life of me I didn't catch where it is first called that.
When they spot the suspect at the Dewish estate, Clara says dans joué, 'in play' (81'57"), like a sports metaphor. I'm translating it as 'here we go.'
The murder is recounted (86'50")-- though it seems like self-defense to me-- and then we hear Clara whisper, Ah, doucement, ouais, nos super. It could mean 'Oh, go easy, bloody great,' but it's not clear who she's whispering to. The literal translation (Oh, easy, great) makes sense literally, but not necessarily in this context.
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