Monsieur Hire on France 5: three things to know about crime fiction with Michel Blanc

This adaptation by Georges Simenon by Patrice Leconte in 1989 was originally written for another actor…

Almost two years to the day after the death of Michel Blanc, France 5 is rebroadcasting this Friday evening Mr Hirea landmark role in the actor’s career. This film, directed by Patrice Leconte, will be available for free streaming the next day on the France Télévision website.

The third adaptation of Engagement of Monsieur Hire

Mr Hire features a lonely, disturbing man, seemingly the obvious culprit of the murder of a young woman in his neighborhood. And who, while the investigation progresses, spends his time observing his neighbor with whom he falls in love and whom he will try to conquer while she loves another and a police officer watches for his slightest pranks. This Monsieur Hire was born in 1933 from the pen of Georges Simenon in his novel The Engagement of Monsieur Hire. And before Patrice Leconte, he had already worn it twice in the cinema. First in 1946 by Julien Duvivier with Panic (photo below) in which Michel Simon and Viviane Romance played the main roles. Then the following year with the Spanish-Portuguese film Barrio directed by the Hungarian Ladislao Vajda. And it is by seeing for the first time Panic – without knowing then that it was an adaptation by Simenon – in 1983 Patrice Leconte promised in the back of his mind to make a remake.