Skip to content
Dom Robinson reviews
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 2NDVD 3096
- Running time: 76 minutes
- Year: 1989
- Pressing: 2006
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 16
- Sound: Mono (Dolby Digital 2.0)
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Widescreen: 2.30:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: None
Director:
- Patrice Leconte
(The Fun of the Fair, The Girl on the Bridge, The Grand Dukes, The Hairdresser’s Husband, Intimate Strangers, L’Homme du Train, La Veuve De Saint-Pierre, Le Parfum d’Yvonne, Love Street, Monsieur Hire, Ridicule, Tango)
Producers:
- Philippe Carcassonne and René Cleitman
Screenplay:
- Patrice Leconte and Patrick Dewolf
(based on the novel by Georges Simenon)
Music:
- Michael Nyman
Cast:
- Monsieur Hire
Alce: Sandrine Bonnaire
Emile: Luc Thuillier
Inspector: André Wilms
I first saw the encapsulating Monsieur Hire at the Keele Film Society, in my first year there, in 1990. It’s a tale of a short, balding man (played impeccably by Michel Blanc) who lives alone and who nobody likes. People stare at him as he walks down the hallway towards his apartment and kids bang on his door at random times.
But then they don’t like him because they don’t *know* him. He doesn’t engage in conversation and likes to keep himself to himself, doing just what he wants when he wants and without involving anyone. He’s a very closed person and is wary of anyone he lets into his world. Apart from the fact that we learn in one scene that he’s an expert ten-pin bowler, nobody knows anything about him.
Hence, it’s no surprise that when a young woman is found dead in a nearby wood, he’s a prime suspect in a community that’s more insular and narrow-minded than he is. And there’s no-one who seems so sure of his guilt than the local inspector (André Wilms), a quietly nasty bastard who clutches at any straw to attempt to secure a conviction on the titular character, even by harrassing him by getting up close and whispering, “How long since you came inside a woman?”
Monsieur Hire is an insomniac who doesn’t spend a great deal on electricity, and as such spends his evenings perving across the street into a nearby apartment at a woman of 22, Alice (Sandrine Bonnaire), who is the same age as the aforementioned murder victim, having a wash in her bathroom while stood in her underwear. He doesn’t actually want to harm, or even touch, another woman, but just wants to watch, to be a voyeur on the world.
So what to make of the situation when the day comes that she spots what he’s doing? It’s going to be a trip to Embarrassment City for him, or so you’d expect. However, she feels strangely drawn to him, sometimes playing along for his pleasure and making excuses to her boyfriend, Emile (Luc Thuillier), so she can meet him for lunch. As things progress, she wants him to see her in public, while he wants her to know he’s there, but to the masses no-one knows anything about their unconventional relationship. What a couple of control freaks they are 🙂
Monsieur Hire is a wonderful film, only spoiled in content by its very short running time of just under 75 minutes before the brief closing credits kick in. The ending also leaves you with a few questions to work out in your own mind. Michael Nyman provides an engaging score throughout while the frequently-used piece of music, Brahms’ Quartet in G minor, opus 25, underpins scene after scene.
As stated above, the movie was released in 1989 so it’s been a long time coming to DVD. You’d hope it would be given the treatment a classic like this deserves, but no.
The picture on this DVD is crisp and clear but, sadly, it’s framed at approx 2.30:1 instead of the correct 2.35:1. Small difference, some might say, but there really is no excuse for this and it is actually noticeable as director Patrice Leconte fills the entire width of the frame with the extreme edges used from time to time, thus lessening the necessity to purchase this release.
Particularly this is the case because it’s been put out at a full retail price of a penny just under £20 and there isn’t a single example of supplementary material to be found. The mono sound can be excused because that’s how it was originally made and doesn’t make the Brahms piece any less effective. There are also subtitles in English only, but these can’t be turned off which would prove off-putting for French-speaking purchases as subs shouldn’t be compulsory, but then there’s not a massive amount of dialogue compared to most films.
All that said, there are 16 chapters spread throughout which is better than most films you can expect on DVD on a pro-rata basis over the same period of length. The menu is static and silent.
Overall, if you can find this DVD for under a tenner then it’s worth getting whether or not you’ve seen it before. Until such time, then I can’t recommend shelling out for this disc that has so little on it and shame on Second Sight for sanctioning such a release.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
0 OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.