HPI S04E05, "L'effet râteau"

Episode: Haut potentiel intellectuel S04E05, "L'effet râteau" (The Rake Effect), runtime 55:23

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Midseason premiere. As this episode begins, Morgane is very pregnant now. She's still trying to build good karma, but it's tough for her to be selfless with Ludo and Afida still living with her and the kids. Also trying her patience is Karadec, who returns to work at the PJ brigade criminelle (Gilles couldn't be more thrilled), but doesn't remember having sex with Morgane. Thea is worried about child support, and schemes to acquire potential father DNA samples for paternity tests.

Myra Tyliann as Afida.

This episode's case concerns a woman found dead in her bathtub, electrocuted, and Morgane deduces it is murder, not an accident. Daphne runs the DNA evidence and gets a series of hits-- deaths of women stretching back several years, but ruled accidental. The group reopens the old cases, and soon the PJ office is jammed with detectives and officials wanting to get in on the action.

NOTES

CloClo (2'22") was the nickname of the multi-talented Claude Francois, a singer/songwriter/musician who died in 1978 due to an accidental electrocution in his bathroom. He may be best known as  co-author of the song "Comme d'habitude" ('As Per Usual,' 1967), on which Paul Anka based his later adaptation, "My Way." 

Morgane refers to the victim as a catoche (4'14"), which is Spanish for 'bad mood.' I have no idea what it means for the French, I can only imagine it's something like 'Dying can ruin your whole day.'

Interesting pronunciation thing: Instead of saying Je savais pas (I didn't know) in full (10'51"), Daphne shortens it, ever so slightly, to Je savais p'.

Daphne tells Morgane that she'll lose her good karma if she doesn't find Afida an apartment that is "at least a T4."  A T4 means a living room and 3 other rooms, PLUS bathroom and kitchen.

The banner Gilles has organized for Karadec's return reads Welcome Back in English (11'50").

Lille-Sud, 'Lille South' (17'18") is probably a reference to Solidarité Et Jalons Pour Le Travail, an employment training organization located in the Lille-South district. The Lille University Hospital Center (CHU) is also located here.

The OCRVP (25'02") is the Central Office for Repression of Violence Against Persons, a Judicial Police unit that is also involved in anti-organized crime work.

Arras (33'05") is a city of about 45,000 about 20 miles south of Lille. It was known as Nemetacum in Roman times. Arras was a major producer of tapestries in the 15th century; in Hamlet, Polonius was hiding behind an 'arras' when he was stabbed.

Morgane catches Thea and Eliott at the station, and he lamely claims, On fait in tri selectif (We're doing a selective sorting), for school (33'51"). Tri selectif means 'waste separation,' such as for recycling. I'm putting 'wastestream sorting.'

Meurtres a... "La malédiction du lys"

Meurtres à... “La malédiction du lys” (Curse of the Lily), runtime 1:32:14 Subtitles download link

This installment is set in Bordeaux, when it airs on MHZ it will probably be retitled Murders in Bordeaux 2, or maybe 3. It stars Erika Sainte (The Crimson Rivers) as Clémence Lacoste, and David Baïot (L'art du crime S06E01, "La nouvelle Olympia") as Antoine Rosy. Lacoste and Rosy are made to team up to solve the death of politically connected real estate developer Hervé Landry, whose murder (at his elegant mansion, discovered by friends arriving for his birthday party) bears similarities to old slave punishments-- naked, muzzled, and bound, a fleur-de-lis branded on the back of one shoulder.

David Baïot (L) and Erika Sainte.

Rosy is introduced as being with the Police Nationale's Domestic Intelligence unit, assigned just in case the murder was motivated by politics or terrorism.  Lacoste is headed back to work following time off after being shot while attempting to arrest a criminal named Goran, who she was able to kill. Or so everyone thinks.

Difficulties arise when Lacoste reveals her personal connections to Landry and his friends, and then when BLM activist Anta Gomis informs Rosy that Lacoste's ancestors are on a list (missing) of Bordelaise families who were involved in the African slave trade. 

NOTES

Yes, Hervé has named his urban renewal project New Port (0'41"), the English 'new' plus 'port' pronounced the French way.

What IMDB has done now

I have discovered that IMDB is no longer treating Muertres à... as a series, and is instead treating each episode as a standalone movie. This means you can't anymore go to a Muertres à series page and select the episode list. The reorganization (or unorganization) happened some time between August 9 and 20. As a result, Opensubtitles has automatically followed suit, and the series page is gone. The exception are the Unassigned Episodes, which are now listed together on pages for each season. 

This makes it harder to find Muertres à subtitles, now you have to know the correct title and use Opensubtitles Search, or use VLC with the VLsub tool installed. Of course a third option is this blog. 

Meurtres à... “Memoires à Vif”

Muertres à... "Memoires a Vif" (Raw Memories), runtime 1:28:55
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"Memoires a Vif" is a 2023 Meurtres à... installment set in Valbonne, a town north of Cannes in southeastern France. The cast features Stephane Freiss as Cmdr. Cedric Bonfanti, and Samy Naceri (star of the Taxi action films) as cafe owner Marwann. Meena Rayann plays Cedric's partner Cmdr. Leila Belhassen. The historical events, important both regionally and nationally, which are highlighted in the plot encompass colonialsim, immigration, racism, and factionalism.

Cedric (Stephane Freiss) and Leila (Meena Rayann)

I considered bailing on this episode when I learned it's going to be on Mhz in September, but I kept going because it's like a jigsaw puzzle, I can't quit.

* * *

It's another sunny day in the Côte d'Azur, but it's a vexing one for Cmdr. Cedric Bonfanti, who has two independent-minded daughters. Bonfanti is heading back to work in Valbonne after several months of compassionate leave, spent with his mother in Italy. Because Cedric's family were immigrants.

Cedric is called to a homicide: the deputy mayor has been found dead, floating in his swimming pool, and tied with barbed wire. He had been expected at the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the Harkis, French Algerian army veterans. Who had to emigrate to France (not fully their idea). Cedric discovers his 'temporary' replacement, Leila Belhassen (her family were immigrants), is already at the crime scene and shows no signs of going home to Nice.

Meurtres à Arles

Meurtres à... Arles (Murders in... Arles), runtime 1:28:09 Subtitles download link

Arles is a city of 50-55,000 located above the delta where the Rhone flows into the Mediterranean. The region is called the Camargue, and is known for its Roman antiquities, connections to Picasso, Gauguin, and Van Gogh, and the Camargue style of bullfighting in which the bull is not killed.

As the story opens, the annual Herdsmen's Games are underway in the two-millennia-old Arles Amphitheatre. As the new Arles Queen is being introduced by the lovely Dolores, a horse drawn carriage enters the arena-- carrying the bloody body of Julien Brunet, businessman and president of the festival organization.

The police immediately spring into action, because Capt. Sarah Cortes (Constance Gay of Face à Face) is in the audience. She calls in her partner and bestie Cmdr. Lucas Pujol (François-David Cardonnel, Hugues on Le Bazar de la Charité), and their snarky lieutenant Marianne (Elodie Poux), and the team is on the case. The suspects: Aline the new Queen; Julien's brother Rémy, a councilman; Isabelle, a sound technician; Aline's father Emile; and maybe Dolores herself. But what about suspects not on the list?

Sarah and Lucas (Constance Gay (L) and François-David Cardonnel) touch base with Marianne (Elodie Poux), who is hilarious.

NOTES

The Arles Amphitheatre (0'11") dates to 90 A.D.

Sarah and her boyfriend Alex are on their way to the capelado (0'49"), the ceremony honoring raseteurs (bullfighters) and gardiens (herdsmen). Capelado comes from an old word meaning hat; notice the hat Alex is wearing.

Meurtres à Bayeux

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.

Meurtres à... Bayeux (Murders in... Bayeux), runtime 1:32:01.

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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.

Les Pennac(s): Mort d'un chef & Mort d'un fantôme

"Mort d'un chef" (Death of a Chef), runtime 49:16. Found copy included audio description. Subtitles download link

A chef who has just won his first Michelin star is found dead in his kitchen. What the Pennacs discover about his private life is at odds with his Gordon Ramsay-like public persona. Concerned about Hannibal's health, the Pennacs put him on a diet.

I was delayed on this and the following episode by unforeseen circumstances: (1) Nikse released Subtitle Edit 4.0.7. After installing the new version the subtitles for Mort d'un chef went out of sync by about 10 minutes. I also noticed the waveform now flowed in a jumpy, arhythmic way, making accurate placement of subtitles almost impossible. It took a couple days to completely resync everything, and then I reverted to version 4.0.6; (2) I was away from home for a week on family business. It's been a busy summer.

NOTES

An AVC is a stroke (1'32"), and stands for Accident Vasculaire Cérébral. Hannibal must have had his in the pilot I haven't seen.

In this video file the audio waveform goes out of sync at 5'50".

David refers to ornery loved ones like Hannibal as bestioles, 'beasts, creatures, or critters' (9'58"). I'm translating it as 'lifeforms.'

Les Pennac(s): Mort a chant du coq and Mort d'un étudiant

Episode: "Mort a chant du coq" (Death at the Cock's Crow), runtime 52:03; the copy I found includes audio description. Subtitles download link

The murder of a court-appointed mediator leads Hannibal and Annabelle to the doorsteps of warring neighbors. Hannibal's presence in the neighborhood is finally out in the open; Annabelle has declared the move back to Reunion is on; Hannibal plays secret matchmaker for her, thinking having a boyfriend will cause to her cancel the move. A humorous episode featuring comedy greats Quentin Baillot and Sofiane Belmouden.

NOTES

Eric says [crosstalk] digestion de merguez, votre gallinacé, '...digest your chicken like a merguez' (5'10"). A merguez is a North African spicy sausage-- but lamb or beef, not chicken.

If it's all regional dailies Annabelle is referring to (7'24"), then that's dozens of newspapers with many millions of readers.

Boeufs carrots (Beef and carrots, 9'04") is slang for Internal Affairs, because they turn up the heat on cops and make them simmer.

Et cerise sur le gateau (23'46") is 'And the icing on the cake.' Even though cerise = cherry. It can also mean 'And the cherry on top.'

Fait bouillir la marmite (31'13"), 'Keeps the pot boiling,' means 'Bring home the bacon.'

At 38'32" some funky things happen with the video file: (1) the episode speeds up and returns to normal several times. After the first time, the Subtitle Edit waveform goes out of sync with the actual audio. (2) Then at 41'39", simultaneously: The video portion freezes for 3 seconds, the audio description is 3 seconds early, while the program audio continues normally. Later at 41'58" the audio description seems to (now) be about 6 seconds late. Hopefully all copies out there are the same way and everything will sync up.

Sofiane Belmouden (L) and Quentin Baillot

Abdel says Je suis alle m'en griller une, I went to toast/fry one up (49'04"). In the succeeding flashback he clearly has a regular cigarette, so I translated it as 'I went to light one up.' If it had been a joint I would have used 'I went to get baked.'

Now safe, Adam tells his parents something that sounds like faire rot, 'Made belch/rotten' (50'16"). This phrase isn't a thing in French, so I'm putting it down as 'I was bad,' because it fits with what Laila says next.

Episode: "Mort d'un étudiant" (Death of a Student), runtime 51:14. My copy of this also included audio description. Subtitles download link

A medical school party leads to death when a student falls from a construction crane. The planned move to Reunion leads to cold war between Annabelle and Léa; Annabelle prepares for a Facetime with her old boss on Reunion; Hannibal investigates changes in Léa's behavior.

NOTES

The 'old Infantry School in Figuerolles' (0'19") is a large urban renewal project in the Figuerolles suburb on the southeast edge of central Montpellier. The school moved to the location in 1967 and left in 2010.

Redevelopment project sign at the Infantry School site. -Google Streetview

This might be the first time I've heard a character say fin de semaine (2'05") instead of 'Weekend.'

Hannibal mispronounces Nadine Smercesky's name 'Sercmesky' (8'08"), a callback to a minor gag in Mort d'une poucave.

Marie-Sohna Condé (L) as Nadine, with Julie-Anne Roth.

As officers collect the students' phones, Annabelle barks Taille (8'36"), which I'm leaving as-is because it seems to mean a lot of different things. Then it sounds like Hannibal says, Toi, réveille, 'You, wake up' (8'40").

Lycée Arago, the Arago High School (9'46"), is a real school in Montpellier. It was named after François Arago, who discovered rotary magnetism in 1824.

Chou blanc, 'White cabbage' (11'55"), means 'draw a blank,' 'came up empty,' 'fail,' etc.

I've translated ma fois (18'22") as 'My word' because it's slightly less dated than 'My faith.'

Rouler la pelle, 'Roll the shovel' (23'13") is a euphemism for a kiss using tongue. And that's how I'm translating it, I'm not putting 'French kiss' in a French person's mouth, so to speak.

Concours, 'competition' (24'13"), is what they call final exams in French med school at the end of the first year. Those like Anais who don't have the grades don't go on to the second year.

Anais talks about what would happen if she drew a bon numero ('good number') for 2nd year medicine (24'18"). Places in 2nd year are awarded by lottery.

As with Mort a chant du coq, the Subtitle Edit waveform once again goes out of sync with the actual audio, due to a problem with the file, this time at 28'05". The video visibly speeds up briefly (you can hear the audio, which is normal speed); when it returns to normal the waveform is out of sync.

HPI S04E04, "Cheval de Troie"

Haut Potentiel Intellectuel S04E04, "Cheval de Troie" (Trojan Horse), runtime 58:46
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In this episode: The brigade investigates the stabbing death of a Tristan Devallet, whose job is to service vending machines. The pregnancy cat is finally out of the bag; Fred has been gotten out of the way; Celine is stressed out; Marie shows up at Morgane's house--with a friend; Karadec and his partner from the Finance squad horn-in on the investigation; Morgane may have a future as a labor organizer; High Voltage Jerome is back!

Notes

ITT (1'02") is Incapacite Temporaire de Travail, Temporarily Incapacitated for Work. It's like Disability.

Morgane and Gilles laugh at the bra company's name, Bonéné (3'14" and 23"), because Bon Néné means Good Boobs.

Morgane rallies the workers at Bonéné

Gilles gets caught up in the spirit of the wildcat strike (5'53"), yelling what sounds like Vrai, True. I've put 'Right on!' in order to reflect the energy of the moment.

Morgane makes her point about buttons with the help of one of the models in a poster, calling him Avec taire, With silence (6'25"). I've translated it as Motormouth so that it's sarcastic.

When Celine tells Adam to go au quatrième, To the fourth (13'56"), she likely doesn't mean 4eme arrondissement (4th district) because all of metropolitan Lille is considered one Lille arrondissement. Even though she doesn't say etage, she may mean the 4th floor.

Morgane is surprised by Marie and yet another former friend from prison, Afida, who it sounds like greets Morgane with Salut, ninja! (15'00") That's just silly.

Afida wants to move in. "D'où?" Morgane asks (15'08"). This is a tough one, because it translates as Hence or Where from, neither slides neatly into this dialogue. What Morgane means is something like 'Where did you get that idea,' which is too long here. So 'Since when' it is.

Morgane encounters Karadec waiting for Daphne on the roof (20'32"), so Celine did mean the 4th floor, where he can get a signal and there's no 15-minute alarm.

The Patrick Swayze quote from Dirty Dancing that Morgane adapts (21'38") is: "This is my dance space. This is your dance space. I don't go into yours, you don't go into mine."

Morgane gets in trouble with Ulysse's parents, and Celine tells her On est a deux doigts a proces, We're two fingers to a trial/lawsuit (27'45"). Hold up two fingers = 'this close'!

A VTC (40'25") is a Vehicule/Voiture de Tourism avec Chauffeur, a Tourist Vehicle with Driver, which is a kind of taxi or car service.

Hang On To Your Love (40'32") was released by Sade in 1984.

Eva describes Matthieu as absent (40'52"), which means the same as in English, but in a positive way. The closest synonym is 'faraway,' so I went with the phrase 'off in his own world.'

Here's a new one on me: agio (43'04") is from Greek and means 'exchange rate.'

Il n'y a pas 36 solutions (43'13"), There aren't 36 solutions, means 'you don't have much choice.'

Alors votre place (46'19") means Then in your place/In your place. The syntax feels weird either way, so I've translated it as 'Stay in your lane.' As for what sounds like poupouille, it's close to poupee, Doll, so that's what I put, it fits.

Pet peeve: You're not being 'filmed' if it's digital (48'59", 50'03", 50'28").

HPI S04E03, "Penicillium Brevicaule"

Haut Potentiel Intellectuel S04E03, "Penicillium Brevicaule," runtime 55:39
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The team responds to the murder of a retired novelist in a nearby village, and Morgane uses her imagination to link clues found in the house to mysterious deaths that took place there in the distant past. Gilles is onto Fred's self-aggrandizing nature. A fellow inmate of Morgane's from Season 3 is a suspect, creating tension between Morgane and Fred.

Notes

Penicullium brevicaule is the old name for Scopulariopsis brevicaulis, a fungus which can create a type of arsenic from arsenic-containing compounds, and is also resistant to antifungals.

After the family pesters Morgane about telling the potential fathers, she replies Bon, OK, m'avez saoulé la, Fine, OK, you got me drunk there (1'59"). That's the literal, the figurative is 'I'm tired of this.' I've put 'you wore me down.'

Bouzy-en-bière (2'10") doesn't seem to be a real place. There are two Bouzys, neither near Lille, and there is no Bière for it to be en.

The expression à lutter, Struggle/strive, appeared in Recto-verso, and shows up again here (3'48" and 58"). However, the official TF-1 transcription has been giving it as l'autre, Other. This makes me wonder whether TF-1 is using a YouTube-style autogenerated transcription method. If so, it's been pretty good so far, nowhere near as bad as YouTube's, Britbox's, or AcornTV's.

I've since decided that l'autre is often a contraction of tirez/enlevez l'autre, 'pull the other one.'

Hiftu Quasem as Misha in AMC/AcornTV's Ten Percent.
The line is supposed to be 'she goes running every morning
on Hampstead Heath.'

Fred addresses Dr Bonnemain as mon Lensois de cœur, Lensian of my heart (6'34"), or My dear Lensian. Lens is a city of 30,000 in the Calais area, southwest of Lille. The two cities have been football rivals since 1937. The Lens team is known as 'the blood and gold,' as in the cold open of Capitaine Marleau: Á contre-courant.

Fred refers to the victim's injuries in his ultra-hip/caj way as gros bobos, Big owies (7'10"). I've translated it as 'big boo-boos' because alliteration is more caj. The other meaning of bobos doesn't fit here: 'Bourgois-bohemians.'

Marie (8'16") first appeared in Season 3's 18 Carats (although I don't think the character had a name at that time).

I translated la clacque as Slammin' (9'14"), the way Prince used it in You Got The Look. And I'm assuming that David's vmail announcement (9'42") would be written a vous cho', as in a vous choix, Your choice.

Doudou Masta as David

The zon in Souers de zon (10'32") is probably an abbreviation of mai-zon i.e. maison. 

One of the characters in Antoine's novel is 'Jean-Luc le boiteux' (26'19"). Keep in mind this part is a flashback to the '70s. Boiteux can mean lame, cripple, halt, gimp, and blind. That last one is the only unobjectionable one today, so I went with that. 

Croustillant (40'14") literally means Crispy or Tidbit. In this case I've put 'tasty morsel.'

Si t'es droit dans tes bottes, You're right in your boots (47'59") means being certain one is right.

Morgane has a hallucination of Karadec, who tells her, 'Forget me, right now!' (50'51"). But later she recalls it wrong, 'Forget me, Morgane' (54'07").