L'Empereur de Paris

A missed opportunity, if you know Vidocq's 'real' story (itself probably half-fiction), his skill at disguises and undercover work for instance. As it is, we end up with a period action drama which gleefully ignores how long it took to load period pistols to allow a number of Western style shoot-outs and various hand to hand combat, as well as at least two beautiful women to add romance. The result is somewhere between "The Count of Monte Christo" and "Cartouche", with hints of early nineteenth century political intrigue scattered all through it. There are felicities - the opening promises an earthy brutality which quickly disappears, and the views of period Paris seem well-researched. It's also a surprise to discover Olga Kurylenko, whom many Bond fans will know, but whom I last saw playing a beautiful Cuban dancer in "Magic City" as a sulphorous baronne (speaking perfect French). I hadn't seen Lucchini for decades, so was taken aback by his age. A fun film in many ways, but not really a film I would have watched had I known it was going to so blithely ignore the source material.