The Maigret Collection

The Maigret Collection

The Maigret Collection
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DVD details

Actor: Michael Gambon
Brand: Koch International
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Dubbed)
Format: Box set, Color, Content/Copy-Protected CD, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 646 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-07-12
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: KOCH VISION
Product features:
  • Michael Gambon brings Georges Simenon's astute student of human behavior and world detective Inspector Maigret to life in this collection of two MAIGRET miniseries. Using his powers of deduction to sort out a string of sordid crimes taken straight from the pages of Mr. Simenon's popular novels. Contains MAIGRET and MAIGRET II. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating:&n

DVD Reviews of The Maigret Collection

DVD Review: A very enjoyable 12 episodes of the famous Chief Inspector.
Summary: 5 Stars

Jules Maigret, Chief Inspector (Commissaire) of the Paris police department, is the popular creation of the prolific and hugely popular French author, George Simenon (1903-1989). Simenon produced more than close to 200 novels, something like 150 novellas, and other works. Together, these works have global sales of around 550 million copies. Maigret is the subject of 75 of those novels and 28 of the short stories written between 1931 and 1972.

Maigret has been the subject of a number of dramatizations and this 12 episode version was done over two seasons in 1992 and 1993. Michael Gambon, whom I always enjoy, does a fine job in bringing the detective to life. The series seems to place all the stories in a post WWII Paris and other parts of France that still feel the strain of recovery. Now, the stories were written in various decades including before the war. But you know how one must adapt things for a television series. The twelve episodes (and the year the novel was written) are:

Disc One
The Patience of Maigret (1965)
Maigret and the Burglar's Wife (1951)
Miagret Goes to School (1953)

Disc Two
Maigret and the Mad Woman (1970)
Maigret and the Home Ground (1932)
Maigret Sets a Trap (1955)

Disc Three
Maigret and the Nightclub Dancer (1950)
Maigret on the Defensive (1964)
Maigret and the Minister (1954)

Disc Four
Maigret and the Hotel Majestic (1942)
Maigret's Boyhood Friend (1968)
Miagret and the Maid (I could not identify story this episode comes from)

Maigret is a very smart, humane, and effective inspector. He smokes his pipe, enjoys his drinks (particularly hard cider), and food as he works through his cases. Maigret is a very patient man and does things his own way, but not in a way that will lose the support of his very bureaucratic superiors. He understands the politics of the civic bureaucracy, but dislikes it intensely and is usually able to manipulate it effectively. His junior officers are fiercely loyal and also quite effective. They know their jobs and do them with the kind of professional efficiency we admire. Maigret is also fair to the criminals and treats them as people who have made mistakes rather than as evil incarnate. His primary technique for exposing the guilty party is to get them to keep talking, to keep telling falsehoods until they trap themselves. Miagret often shows sincere affection for some of the long time professional criminals who know the rules and do their "jobs" with their kind of professionalism. The inspector even ponders the reality that he likes his gangster he is trying to catch more than the bureaucrat he serves.

Violence is generally shown by its effects and rarely onscreen. When it does occur it is shocking to the characters and their shock effects us even in our violence soaked age. The seediness is also handled rather modestly by today's standards. The atmosphere of the series is the kind of dark and smoky world of detective novels. Remember, these stories are as much about the little things in life, the ambiance of their times, as much as it is about being a detective story. I think the series was filmed in Eastern Europe somewhere.

The cast is very good. You may know Gambon as the Dumbledore who took the role after Richard Harris died. It turns out that Harris had also played his own strange version of Maigret years before Gambon took this turn as the French Detective. Two women, Ciaran Madden and Barbar Flynn, play Maigret's wife and I have no idea why. Both do a good job with a role that helps us understand the personal side of Maigret. She also helps him with his cases at times by considering some of the emotional motivations of those involved.

Terrific, entertaining, and a wonderful break from the silly sex and violence nothings that fill the tube nowadays. Very much recommended.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
More The Maigret Collection reviews:
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Description of The Maigret Collection

One of the bestselling authors of all time, Georges Simenon is most famous for his more than 100 novels and short stories featuring Chief Inspector Maigret of the Paris police. Concerned more with "why" than "who," Maigret?s profound perception of the realities of human behavior and extraordinary psychological insight make him one of fiction?s most interesting and unique sleuths.

Michael Gambon brings the timeless, tantalizing exploits of Georges Simenon?s legendary detective to life in twelve episodes of mystery and intrigue. From Montmartre to the remote French countryside, Maigret encounters the dark side of the human psyche. Yet he manages to maintain both compassion and a sense of humor as he explores the complex motives that lie behind every crime.

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