Sat 11 Jul 2015
Made for French TV Mini-Series Review: ANTIGONE 34 (2012).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[7] Comments
ANTIGONE 34. Made-for-TV mini-series; 6 x 60m episodes. Mascaret Films-France Télévision, France 2, 2012. Anne Le Nen, Claire Borotra, Bruno Todeschini, Aubert Fenoy, Hammou Graïa, Lionel Erdogan, Bruno López, Fred Tournaire. Creators: Alexis Nolent & Brice Homs. Directors: Louis-Pascal Couvelaire & Roger Simonsz (3 episodes each).
Perhaps because this well-filmed mini-series originated in France and not this country, you can find a lot of false and misleading information about it on the Internet.
I hope that in my comments that follow I don’t say anything more that isn’t true, but IMDB, for example, says there are four episodes, whereas there really are six. Some sites spell the name of the main character, police detective Léa Hippolyte (Anne Le Nen), incorrectly.
Nor is Antigone 34 a newly created task force to fight crime, as some sites say. It’s an ordinary police station in Montpellier, a mid-sized town in southern France on the Mediterranean Sea, but as such it still manages to have its hands full of murders to solve as well as the usual thefts, felonies and misdemeanors that plague every city in every part of the world.
At least one review calls the series nothing more than an American police procedural transported to its French locale. I think if you watched only the first episode you might get that idea. A young female medical student is murdered, then another. The police think at first it was a hazing session gone bad, then a drug deal gone sour (a corpse being dissected in the college is found to have a package of white powder inside him), before coming back to a Castle type twist at the end.
But wait. It’s not the end at all, but only the beginning. A scene that follows suggests that there’s more to the story, and indeed there is. The six episodes constitute one long story line, punctuated by single stories along the way: a missing video game designer, a hit-and-run driver with a fake ID, a robbery at a tuna warehouse, a pizza delivery hit man, and a plastic surgery gone bad.
Each of these individual cases are somehow connected, however, with Léa Hippolyte at the center of whatever larger intrigue is occurring in Montpellier, usually a bright and sunny town, but darker elements exist seemingly with every twist of the tale, including, Léa suspects, within the police force itself.
Assisting her are a Hélène de Soyère, a newly hired police psychologist, and Victor Carlier, a doctor newly out of prison whose daughter was the first victim in episode one, a case thought to be closed, but he does not think so. The psychologist’s first duty, by the way, is to clear Léa for duty again, after her previous partner committed suicide. She’s fine; other members of the police force still seem to have problems with it.
The setting is often gorgeous, especially along the shore, but on occasion the story also heads off to some inner parts of the city and places where you and I might not care to find ourselves in at night. The series is shot almost continually with handheld cameras, even while listening in on ordinary conversations, then with fast action camera movements while making scene shifts.
Because perhaps the series was filmed in French, even with subtitles I felt I missed sizable chunks of the story. Not enough to cause me worry or pain, you understand, but I do think there were some issues that were left unresolved, perhaps held over for a second series, of which there has been and will be none.
The star attraction, however, as far as I was concerned, was the performance of Anne Le Nen, previously involved in fashion design and a student in the martial arts, particularly when it comes to self-defense for women. She was 41 when this series was made, a brunette with piercing blue eyes, a very athletic build and a beautifully expressive face showing resolve, anger, frustration and confidence in equal proportion. It’s too bad there was no follow up to this series. As I sad, she is the star attraction. All eyes are on her whenever she’s in a scene.
July 12th, 2015 at 2:38 am
Worth looking for, and just from the photos and description I kept thinking what an interesting Modesty Blaise the star would make.
I haven’t followed French television for a while other than Arsene Lupin episodes on YouTube and a serial or mini series here and there. This one sounds worth trying to find though.
July 12th, 2015 at 9:18 am
MHz Worldview has imported and broadcast this one in the US…is that where you’ve caught it, Steve? Slight typo on the date, otherwise pls share your time-travel method…
July 12th, 2015 at 3:56 pm
David
I think you’re right. Anne Le Nen doesn’t quite have Modesty Blaise’s face, the way Jim Holdaway drew her, but in all other regards, I think she’d do, any day of the week.
I don’t know why her acting career has been so limited. Here’s a list of her credits, a la IMDb:
Papa ou maman (2015) …. La monitrice de Krav-Maga
“Y’a pas d’âge” …. Donnassieux (1 episode, 2013)
– Pour s’engager en politique (2013) TV episode …. Donnassieux
“Platane” …. Médecin Clinique (1 episode, 2013)
– La fois où il a travaillé avec fififty cents (2013) TV episode …. Médecin Clinique
“Antigone 34” …. Léa Hippolyte (4 episodes, 2012)
– Episode #1.3 (2012) TV episode …. Léa Hippolyte
– Episode #1.4 (2012) TV episode …. Léa Hippolyte
– Episode #1.1 (2012) TV episode …. Léa Hippolyte
– Episode #1.2 (2012) TV episode …. Léa Hippolyte
Mon père est femme de ménage (2011) …. La prof
… aka “My Father Is a Cleaning Lady” – USA (literal English title)
To Die of Love (2009) (TV) …. Mlle Duschesne
… aka “Mourir d’aimer” – France (original title)
All About Actresses (2009) (as Anne Lenen) …. Elève cours de théâtre
… aka “Le bal des actrices” – France (original title)
… aka “The Actress’ Ball” – International (English title)
Musée haut, musée bas (2008)
… aka “A Day at the Museum” – Europe (English title) (festival title)
July 12th, 2015 at 4:04 pm
Todd
Thanks for catching the typo. I’ve fixed it. There wasn’t any time travel involved, sorry to say. I wish there was, but all that happened was that I scrambled a couple of digits around. (Once I do have my TT machine perfected, though, I know exactly what to do with it.)
But getting back to more mundane matters, though, we don’t get the MHz Worldview channel through my local cable company> The trailer I added at the end of my comments I discovered on their website. Luckily most of the overseas crime series they show in the country are also available on DVD, which is how I was able to see this one, and I’m glad I did.
July 13th, 2015 at 9:25 am
Steve, MHz Worldview is a broadcast network, albeit one with only about 35 affiliates around the US, but it also streams its programming across the web…and it might’ve been the label that distributes the program on DVD here in the US (I haven’t double-checked that yet).
http://mhznetworks.org
They do so for most of their international drama, and have also for the fine Peabody Award-winning BORGEN, which is cable-cast (except in LA, where it’s broadcast as well) on the Link TV channel (KCET in LA and Link are the same corporate entity these days…I only wish KCET would either syndicate or make available on home video many of their anthology productions over the decades they were a PBS powerhouse.)
April 17th, 2016 at 10:15 pm
I’ve been watching this on Mhzchoice streaming. I totally agree that size able chunks appear to be left out of each episode so continuity becomes a problem. It’s often not clear how the story gets from point A to B. This makes understanding what’s going on quite challenging. Hopefully this will be addressed in season 2 as it leaves viewers with a sense of frustration when the story line and editing are both so choppy.
April 17th, 2016 at 11:03 pm
Here is the first episode from YouTube where it is in French with no subtitles. But you can see the visuals and moving camera Steve mentioned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgrKZXbGBKA
And a subtitled trailer from MH2 YouTube site.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIGrH0fxYvk