Fellow travelers

Capitaine Marleau #38, “Compagnon” (Companion), runtime 1:34:36
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Marleau is called to an unusual vocational school, where locksmithing student Antoine Bardet has been found dead beside the scattered pieces of clockmaking student Maëlle’s juried project. The school is run by the Compagnons des Oeuvres (Companions of the Works), a 12th century order.

There are a number of potential suspects, and Marleau immediately focuses on Maëlle. But Bruno the provost is a liar, Mimi the caretaker knows more than she’s saying, and Yoann the thief/builder certainly has motive. And what about Bruno’s secretive wife Sandra, who clearly married down? Is there a cover up? More than one?

Corinne Masiero with Fleur Fitoussi (L) and Andranic Manet

MISC

Anyone wanting the best version of my subtitles should probably wait until a couple of days following the first post, I update when I notice issues on subsequent views. 

Companions of the Works is based on Compagnons du Devoir du Tour de France (Companions of Duty Traveling France), a group which originated during the Middle Ages. They train and network artisans and craftspeople who travel around France practicing their skills.

The Companions’ bastion/citadel is played by the Abbaye Royale du Moncel, a wedding venue in Pontpoint.

Helena Noguerra starred with Stephane Freiss in Meurtres a Collioure.

Fleur Fitoussi plays Maëlle, I expect she’s the latest member of the Fitoussi acting family to emerge. Her dad is Marc Fitoussi, a writer/director. How they’re related to Gregory and Mikael Fitoussi, I have no idea.


NOTES

Ah ça y est (00’23”) is voila’s weird cousin, it can mean ‘Here you are,’ but also ‘I’ve got it,’ ‘There you go,’ and ‘Here we go.’

The role of the clockwork walker (1’00”) is played by an automate, ‘automaton,’ a kinetic sculpture made in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland, a village long associated with the artform.

South of the Border: HPI S05E08

Haut Potentiel Intellectuel, “Supernova,” runtime 1:09:09
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The series concludes.

It’s the big day of Morgane’s oral exam to join the police, and after a shaky start it… doesn’t get better. Until she manages to interest the interview panel in a post-Bruges investigation: the death of physicist Manon Boutière– so into the recent past we go, narrated by Morgane…

Morgane and the brigade follow leads to coworkers at Manon’s science lab, and they flush out an undercover counterintelligence agent, who suspects the lab is a nest of spies— meaning Morgane couldn't be more thrilled to go spyhunting.

Audrey Fleurot takes a bow. With Feodor Atkine (2nd from L), Jean Luc Piraux (R), and Mehdi Aireche (2nd from R). 

This is a special episode, so I’ll end the plot description here. As Morgane would say, ‘hold onto your underwear,’ this episode is 69 minutes long.


MISC

Feodor Atkine (‘Prof Letellier’) has been acting for over 50 years. American audiences might know him best as ‘Major Ducos’ in Sean Bean’s Sharpe TV films.

Jean Luc Piraux (‘Zizou/Montcreuset’) has only a handful of movie credits, but has been a respected stage actor/director/playwright for decades.

NOTES

Scratch (2’38”) is Velcro.
      Diapers ça s'en file, ‘they’re a set,’ doesn’t align with the English meaning, so I’m putting ‘they’re fitted.’

5’25”: A bâton de colle is a glue stick, but I don’t know what a bâton qui colle (sticky stick) is exactly or why she would say it is carré (straight/square). A candy stick sweet at one end and sour at the other is a bâtonnet acidule; the ones I’ve seen are gummy-flexible though.

In Bruges: HPI S05E07

Haut Potentiel Intellectuel, “Il faut qu'on parle” (We Need to Talk), runtime: 58:58
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The penultimate episode opens with Morgane much relieved: not only does she get to move on to the oral section of the police exam, Judge Lefolet has closed the Laëtitia investigation. But she’s quietly opened a file on Karadec.

The squad is in the woods, and it’s not a metaphor, responding to a call about a drowning. They don’t want the case because the victim is lying on the border with Belgium, shades of The Bridge. As luck would have it the victim managed a luxury hotel in Bruges, so guess who gets to go ‘investigate’ it.

Morgane brings the hotel staff up to date

The episode ends with Karadec facing the consequences for his well-intentioned but unnecessary and premeditated actions to cover for Morgane. Will the series conclude with roles reversed, Morgane the cop and Karadec on the outside?


MISC

‘Justine’ is the terrific Carole Weyers from Double Je/Alter Ego. Automatic guest villain? Why no….


NOTES

Gilles mentions a family reunion at Phare Aventura, ‘Aventura Lighthouse’ (4’09”), which doesn’t seem to exist. I’m thinking it’s supposed to be Fuerteventura, which is one of the Canary Islands.

Posé un lapin, ‘posed a rabbit’ (6’32”), means to stand somebody up.

Haut Potentiel Intellectuel S05E06

Haut Potentiel Intellectuel, “Tequila Sunrise,” runtime 60:13
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A body is found in a park, and Celine’s son Matteo happens to be nearby and is arrested. Celine goes rogue to help him, enlisting Morgane. They are led to a possible witness to the crime who has her own skeletons in the closet. Matteo is not the stoner he appears to be and pushes Daphne’s insecurity button. Oddball Judge Lafolet is assigned to investigate what happened to Laëtitia– and her phone’s contents lead straight to Karadec and Morgane. Then Celine has the whole team over to her place to work on Matteo’s case, thinly disguised as a murder mystery party.

Morgane has a noir daydream

The romance everyone has wondered about

but no one asked for is put on the table.

Buckle up, this episode is a full 60 minutes.


NOTES

Morgane says either que/qui son erreur or fait son erreur (1’33”), which means ‘he/who made a mistake?’ or something like ‘how did he go wrong?’

2’28”: It sounds like Morgane says est pour fous foutre, literally ‘is for crazy fuck.’

Juriste en herbe, ‘budding lawyer’ (4’10”), works as a pun in both French and English.

Haut Potentiel Intellectuel S05E05

Haut Potentiel Intellectuel S05E05, “Crack, Pshiiit, Haaaa,” runtime 59:52
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The concluding season resumes.

Morgane has gone through with her impulse to live in Serge’s RV. She and Ludo and the kids are set up in a parking lot– shades of The Rockford Files. This week the squad starts out investigating the murder of a semi-pro e-sports player, which becomes the murder and attempted murder of an e-sports team.

The Morgane-Karadec chill eases a notch, in that she's talking to him. Celine tries to sell Morgane on a change in job description. Ludo makes a bid for his freedom. We learn who the Mysterious Woman from episode 4 is and what she wants, and we see her shocking exit.


NOTES

They’ve tapped into a pilon (pylon) to get power (1’10”), which means ‘stick’ but also ‘pole,’ I guess it’s a power pole with a transformer at the top.

Excuse me for a moment while I RANT AT TV SHOWS THAT EXPECT VIEWERS TO READ TEXT THIS SMALL (1’48”)!!!

2’00” c.f.: I’m calling it ‘Sound of’ shouting, barking, and gunshots because SPOILER they’re not real. None of the cops realized there were no actual flying bullets?

5'45":  I've got it— Gilles is Scooby-Doo.

Transmets (8’56”) of course means ‘transmit,’ but also ‘send,’ ‘convey,’ and ‘pass on.’

Follow (2023) Ep 5 and 6

Follow Episode 5, runtime 37:40
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Léna is on the run after putting herself back in the frame. The killer gets all of Parisian cyberspace involved by releasing a video threat read by an AI Léna, and now Real Léna has to hide from vigilantes as well as the police. Samir hopes to find her before she gets publicly lynched, and not metaphorically.

Marie Colomb, with Vincent Heneine as Samir

NOTES

Educated guesses about things starting with pist: Ludo says Léna was était pistonné/pistonner, literally ‘well connected’ (8’05”), which could mean a lot of things but does include ‘had contacts/could pull strings’— and it was established she was hired as a favor to someone. But it can also mean ‘phoning it in,’ which also seemed to be true at first.
      Then it sounds like Médard says Léna was était pistolet, ‘was a pistol’ (8’10”), which is an English expression too though probably antiquated. I guess it fits the context, but… Maybe it’s a joke that Médard is old and thought Ludo meant pistol.

The chatroom threat (17’27”) reads:

She was right under your nose from the start and you did nothing, as usual!
We'll have to take care of her…
If we find her, we'll smoke her!

AI Léna’s line, ‘I'm going to do something to help you understand,’ which we just saw at 16’22”, is missing when the manifesto is replayed as an interstitial (20’30”).

Follow (2023) Ep 3 and 4

Follow Episode 3, runtime 41:30
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The killer tries to be helpful to Léna by taking care of her Bastien problem. She comes clean, eventually, and Samir is sure she’s the killer. But her time in the frame is thankfully short: Agathe points out that Léna’s on CCTV in the Metro at the time Bastien died, so maybe Samir should stop fixating and ask her for help. The clues lead to an influencer from, as Léna calls it, ‘the beginning of social media,’ who tried to visit the surviving victim in the hospital. He could have a grudge against the victims.

Marilyne Canto as Agathe Ruffin

NOTES

RATP (4’08”) is the government-owned transit company.

20’42”: Navigo is a refillable transit pass. If you used your Navigo pass you a bipé, ‘beeped’ it.

Léna and Agathe are discussing the history of a past influencer, and Agathe asks La fou, Léna?, ‘the crazy, Léna?’ (23’38”). The official subs say the line is L’info? The context calls for this going one of two ways: either she’s asking, in effect: ‘what happened that it all fell apart?’ or ‘Get on with it!’

I absolutely love it that Samir rhymes amies, ‘friends,’ with ennemies (23’49”).

C'est pas pour demain, 'It's not for tomorrow' (30’55”), means ‘Ain’t gonna happen’ or ‘Don’t hold your breath.’

Follow Episode 4, runtime 38:55
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Paris is going nuts from the panic over the killings amid a countdown to the first curfew since COVID, so the government is putting pressure on the Prefect and Agathe. So, she’s having Samir pressure Marc Durant for a confession ASAP. Léna is positive they’re on the wrong track– and the killer agrees, threatening Léna’s latest dating app match. She hatches a dangerous plan to steer the squad in a different direction.


NOTES

Taking trois plombes, ‘three forevers’ (8’02”), means it took ages.

In earlier questioning Marc Durant never called Julie intime (11’58”). He said Julie rapprochait (moved closer to) and touchait (touched).

Même à fond (26’47”) means ‘at full speed.’ I think ‘at full steam,’ or even ‘had a full head of steam,’ is better in this context.

Follow (2023) Ep 1 and 2

Follow is a mystery/thriller set in Paris and its social networks. I started watching it when it was on France.tv in 2024, but stopped because of the myriad smartphone popups. Now that I have a little time before the start of HPI Season 5-B, I’m going to subtitle these popups. I have machine-translated subtitles for everything else, I’m going to just clean those up instead of doing a full translation from scratch.

Marie Colomb

Follow Episode 1, runtime 41:05
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Léna Martinet (Marie Colomb, OVNI(s) / UFOs) is a social media intern at the Police Prefecture in Paris– we see her beginning her day checking her dating app matches, shopping at an online vintage store, looking at Life (this reality’s version of Facebook), and fending off Bastien her stalker ex. At the office, her persnickety coworkers seem more interested in lunch than work.

Over in the Judicial Police section of the building, somber Cmsr Agathe Ruffin’s group has a hot potato of a case: a pair of murders with the same MO which threatens to turn serial. In researching the victims, detective Samir (Vincent Heneine) discovers the killer has his victims’ phones, and is re-upping old photos on their Life accounts.

De Sang et d’Encre (2008)

De Sang et d’Encre (Of Blood and Ink), runtime 1:28:05
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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.

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.

Candice Renoir: “Ailleurs l’herbe est plus verte”

Candice Renoir: “Ailleurs l’herbe est plus verte” (The Grass is Always Greener), runtime 1:35:44
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Candice Renoir is back for its third special following the end of its 10-season series run. For those unfamiliar, Candice (Cecile Bois) is Commander Renoir of the Police Nationale, who has a love for fashion (especially the color pink) and fast cars, and is possessed of a disarming and deceptive beauty queen-like persona.

Bois (L), with Baillot

Once a star of the Paris Crime Squad, Candice was on an extended ten-year leave as she followed her businessman husband to different parts of the world. About to be divorced, she returned to France with her four children and accepted assignment to the Riviera port city Sète, becoming head of a local station’s detective squad. Things were rough at first, Candice’s colleagues seeing only a flighty dilettante who must be behind the times policing wise– until her brilliance won them over.

Over the next ten seasons squad members came and went, and sometimes returned, but the constant was Antoine, in whom Candice discovered a rival, critic, a source of irritation, confidant, fan, and– because it’s France– romantic partner.

Raphaël Lenglet as Antoine

When we last saw Candice she had decided to leave the police and set herself up as a private investigator. As “Ailleurs l’herbe est plus verte” opens, she’s working on a B story divorce case, featuring none other than the hilarious Quentin Baillot (Alexandra Ehle). Business hasn’t been going well, we learn Candice has moved out of the office Antoine helped her rent and into a small office above a nail salon. She’s selling clothes online for extra money. But then a client appears: a veterinarian reporting an attempt on her life. She’s helping a rich lady create an animal sanctuary, and suspects the woman’s jealous daughter. But Candice discovers it’s more complicated than a daughter protecting her inheritance.

(L-R) Olivier Cabassut as Marquez, Marie Vincent
as Nathalie, Christophe Ntakabanyura as Ismael,
Yeelem Jappain as Val