Subtitles download link
I forget how/where I got this 2008 policier, I think maybe from a YouTube foreign TV playlist. It’s on Amazon Prime in France– but no subtitles! It stars Florence Pernel (the Crime à… series, Meurtres à Granville, many many more) as book publisher Julie Martial, and Stephane Freiss (Meurtres à Collioure) as Capt Marc Simon.
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| Florence Pernel |
Julie Martial runs her family's Paris publishing house. She receives anonymous letters describing crimes that match the MO in a pair of recent murders: a number is stamped on victims’ foreheads. Detective Marc Simon is unimpressed after interviewing Julie, but he changes his mind when she receives a third letter followed by a third killing.
Despite the numerals, profiler Alex (ex-vibes with Marc) says the MO doesn’t match the classic serial killer profile– this killer is carrying out a plan. Meanwhile, Julie comes to believe the killer is watching her, and begins to suspect all the men in her life. But a mysterious phone call warns her about a secret in her family’s past.
MISC
I only this out found recently, but in the 90s Florence Pernel starred in Florence Darrieu: La Juge Est Une Femme, which later changed leads and became Alice Nevers: LJEUF.
The minor character ‘Noemie’ is Julie-Anne Roth from Les Pennac(s).
My copy of the film is old, the audio is subpar– loud noises distort, soft dialogue has a lot of sibilance. I did my best.
NOTES
Pas-de-Calais (2’29”) is the French side of the Strait of Dover. .
3’02”: I’d forgotten how hard it can be to understand Stephane Freiss (see Meurtres à: “Memoires à Vif" aka "Meurtres a Valbonne"), the only thing I can make out here is il y a rien, ‘there’s nothing.’
4’02”: The rest of the anonymous note reads:
Before the sin, man had no angel of evil within him, because he had no covering around his soul. After the sin, the Eternal held back the angel of evil from penetrating him until the end. When the Book tells us that the Eternal made garments of skin, the Book is alluding to this covering that came to cover the soul and thus prevented contact between the soul and the body. The Eternal succeeded in making this covering of evil disappear to transform it into good, into a divine dunghill connecting the soul and the body. Garments of light…
Julie picks up the newspaper and reads the article aloud– but omits the middle third which concerns the murder of the Pas-de-Calais teacher, Genevieve Marchal. Marc Simon is reported as being with Crime, which must be short for Brigade Criminelle.
The French for ‘Born with a silver spoon in her mouth’ is Née avec une cuillère en or dans la bouche– ‘born with a golden spoon in her mouth’ (5’39”).
Julie’s cousin Guillaume (7’57”) is Nicolas Briançon, who was the ill-fated Cmsr Herville on Engrenages.
Gallimard (11’31”) is a real and longstanding French publisher.
I haven’t seen this one before: mobicarte (16’42”) means ‘burner phone.’
Fred says he’s going to talk to the husband of Victim 3, with the 6 on her head (17’02”), and Marc replies, Blah blah joue or Blah blah joindre. He might mean something sarcastic, like ‘Have fun.’ Or simply ‘I’ll join you.’ This is another example of a problem I had with Stephane Freiss’s enunciation (Meurtres a… "Memoires a vif" again). He’s got some kind of weird mumble-drawl.
Fred shows Mr Boisrond Julie’s photo (17’55”) and calls her a jeune femme (young woman). Pernel was in her mid-40s here.
18’33”: LCI is La Chaîne Info, ‘The News Channel,’ a real news organization. The anchor may be Melissa Theuriau.
20’01”: Hold on, how are Felix and Julie related? Are they in-laws who had a fling? Or are they referring to themselves in the third person? What?
At 20’23” they pour champagne and there’s an abnormally loud sound effect, like the foley artist turned up the fizzing to 11.
21’32”: Et lui c'est pourquoi es-tu? Et qui es-tu? (Is he why you are? And who are you?). I guess he’s waxing philosophical. I don’t get it, exactly.
29’56”: This is where the poor audio quality made me make an educated guess. It sounds like Jerome Gallois asks Isabelle (subject: Julie), Quelle récolte peut-etre ce classe maintenant? (What harvest can this class be now?). If I’ve heard correctly the main words are what, harvest, maybe, and now. Given the context, I’m going to interpret ‘harvest’ to mean ‘reap/earn/happen,’ and make the subject ‘Julie/she/her.’ Add the more common translation of peut-etre (maybe) and I come up with ‘What could have possibly happened to her now?’
Rue de Marseille (32’21”) is in the 10th, near the Jacques Bonsergent metro station.
Au fond (33’52”): fond means ‘back’ or bottom, I’ve decided au fond must be like ‘a while ago.’
Forensics guy Cosinus appears maskless for the first time (35’57”), so I added an ID in green.
Oh, he’s with Alex. Hmm.
Albatross (36'14") is a real company that makes inks and supplies for the printing industry.
Telling someone that they are d'une pile électrique, ‘of an electric battery’ (36’56”), is telling them ‘you’re wired.’
‘Elise Morange’ (37’43”) is played by Anna Gaylor, a renowned actor in theatre, film, and TV, whose career began in 1956. She appeared in Les Lionceaux, an episode of Patrick McGoohan’s Danger Man, the 1993 action comedy Les Visiteurs, and even Cheech & Chong’s: The Corsican Brothers. She died in 2021.
The digest below Viviane’s photo (37’49”) reads:
A woman was found dead at the base of her building, having been murdered on the terrace of her apartment and then thrown off. An incredible similarity to the signature [in the murders of] Geneviève Marchal and Fabien Danvers
Elise dials Information, the operator sounds like she answers m'allez aide peut?, roughly ‘Can I assist?’
Elise tells Julie the subject of her call is trop personnel/’too personal’ and something else which includes the word coup. I’m going to settle for ‘shocking.’
There is an Allee des Peupliers (Poplar Alley) in Gisors (39’49”), a town halfway between Paris and the English Channel, but there is no Number 24.
42’45”: Gendarmes arrest Julie. All the distorted shouting means I had to make educated guesses.
46’47”: Fred says tire tracks were made by Demi-Claire (Half Clear) ASX, I can’t find real tires with that name.
51’48”: I don’t get what suicide Cosinus is talking about, or if it’s some mechanic’s joke that the oil would destroy a truck engine.
Clichés (51’51”) are stereotypes– but also photos.
Keeping your French driving license (53’37”) involves a 12-point system. You lose points for infractions; you regain 2 points for each infraction-free year.
Marc asks a detective to see Julie to the door (57’27”), it sounds like he calls him Jonah.
‘Laid’ paper (59’00”) is a term meaning finely ribbed.
I had never heard of the Collège de France before (63’04”), it’s in the 5th next to the Sorbonne.
TS (73’08”) is tentative de suicide, ‘suicide attempt.’
75’37”: Flashback– it sounds like the German soldiers are yelling at the Jews to aufstehen, ‘up,’ or ‘get up.’ Lots of echoey, distorted, copy-of-a-copy-of-a copy audio here.
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