L'Heure zéro is a 2007 French mystery film directed by Pascal Thomas and starring François Morel, Danielle Darrieux and Melvil Poupaud. It is an adaptation of the novel Towards Zero by Agatha Christie.
Synopsis[]
The film is a fairly faithful adaptation of the original novel with the setting transposed to Dinard in France around the turn of the 21st century (the year 2005 is seen on a tombstone). The French character names closely parallel the English ones in the original novel. Tennis player Guillaume Neuville visits his aunt Camilla Tressilian with his wife Caroline. Guillaume also arranges for his ex-wife Aude to be there as well, perhaps hoping the two women would become friends. Shortly after the house party begins, Camilla Tressilian is found murdered. Commissaire Martin Bataille who is in the area for a holiday, joins his nephew in the investigation.
Comparison with original story[]
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read)
The film is a fairly faithful adaptation of the original novel. Most of the important scenes are depicted in the same sequence as they occur in the novel.
- The gathering of lawyers and the discussion there is much as described in the novel. Trevoz gives his "towards zero" speech. Here, however, commissaire Bataile is present and it will later be revealed that he knows Trevos personally. In this adaptation Trevoz is a prosecutor. At the end of the scene, Trevoz gets a letter saying his usual vacation hotel will be closed for renovation.
- The scene at Sylvie's school follows the novel closely, except that Mrs Geoffroy did not play a word association game. Sylvie says the headmistress merely looked "right through her" and then spoke very nicely such that somehow Sylvie just felt she had to confess. Bataille believes Sylvie is not the thief, but there is no discussion of calling in the police and conducting a search and noting fingerprints. There is no Olive Parsons here.
- The attempted suicide of Ange Wether is depicted. Here there is a young couple sitting by the cliffs, which goes to explain how he is quicky found and rescued. The conversation between Ange and the nurse and "being at the right place at the right time" is the same as in the novel.
- There are a few short transition scenes in the novel which go to explain why certain key characters are in the area of the murder. These scenes are omitted:
- there is no interview between Lord Connelly and Angus and Angus' idea of going to spend a few days at Saltcreek/Dinard before departing for his Chilean job.
- nor is there a Rufus Lords who recommends a different hotel to Treves. Trevoz's presence in Dinard is explained more. simply. He tells Camilla Tresillian, whom he knows wells, that he is there because his usual hotel is under renovation. He does not explain how or why he chose Dinard.
- there is no discussion between Bataille and Mrs Bataille about ruined holiday plans in this adaptation. Bataille tells Sylvie that going to Italy with her mother, they will then join him in Brittany (Dinard) because she needs some sea air. Meanwhile he goes on ahead to to join his nephew Leca in Dinard. Why they split up is not explained.
- There is no preliminary meeting between Camilla Tresillian and Aude. Here Camilla calls her on the phone. We see Aude sprinkling rose petals on the grave of Adrien Rondeau.
- Thomas's arrival at Gull's Point is much as described. Mary/Marie-Adeline collects him from the station and they have a conversation about Audrey/Aude's stability. Thomas witnesses the magazine incident between Aude and Kay/Caroline. The bedroom argument between Caroline and Guillaume follows the dialogue described in the book but here there are some additional actions inserted for drama: Caroline attempts to throw herself from the window, Guillaume calms her down by dragginng her to the bathroom andturning on shower on her.
- At various points in the film, there are indications on Marie's interest in Thomas, muchmore so than in the book--she looks jealously as Thomas converses with Aude for example.
- The dinner episode with Trevoz and his later conversation with Camilla are much as in the book. His story about the boy with the bow and arrow comes earlier, at the dining table. Only a few slight changes to the gathering after dinner. Aude is shown playing the piano--in the book she had earlier told Thomas that she no longer played. Like in the book Caroline is doing most of the dancing. Here she also drags Trevoz into dancing with her--she pulls off his jacket and we see his natispray inhaler (used for heart conditions) falling out onto the floor and being swept away.
- Trevoz returns to his lodgings at the "Hotel des Mats Bleus" to discover the lift out of order just like in the book. However because the viewers saw the natispray falling out of his pocket, the impression is given much more strongly that his subsequent death is an accident because he might have used the spray to save himself.
- The beach scene is much as described. Subsequently, Trevos is reported dead. Here, however, Camilla Tresillian actually goes to the hotel to take a look at her late friend. There she meets Bataille. His nephew has just collected him from the station and brought him to the hotel.
- The events leading up to the murder of Camilla Tresillian are much as described in the book, but the subsequent investigation is compressed somewhat, remembering that by the time the murder begins, we are already one hour into the show, and there are only 45 minutes left.
- The same investigative leads show up as in the novel: the golf club, Barrett was drugged, the blood stained blue jacket. Bataille challenges the maid Emma who admits that she heard Guillaume and Camilla quarrel.
- The interviews with the people in the house also faithfully follow the original. In the original, they consider arresting Guillaume but don't get round to it. Here, they actually arrest him, but when driving away in the police car, they get a call: Barrette has woken up from her drugged state and gives Guillaume his alibi. Latimer also has an alibi, provided by a "client" of his in his hotel.
- The search of the rooms yields a couple of original plot elements: Aude has a dream journal--it talks about running to a cliff and then being saved. Also the rhyme (from the original novel) "Step into my parlour, said the spider to the fly...." Caroline's room has a number of books on making money.
- Over at the hotel, the police are able to establish Latimer's alibi because he was with a "client". The police leave the hotel and we now see that Ange Werthe is staying there, we are not told why he decided to come here. He's reading with great interest about the murder case.
- Bataille now recalls something that in his mind would have displeased Poirot--the lack of symmetry in the cleanliness of the knobs on the fender. Poirot is also mentioned in this context the book. Bataille tells Leca he himself is also obsessed by symmetry. The same lead about blood on the knob surfaces. A search of the room also yields a glove in the ivy outside. Aude tries it on and it fits her.
- The next few scenes follow the book closely. Marie-Adeline tells Bataille about what Trevoz said at dinner the night he died. A letter from the lawyer tells the police the Guillaume and Aude will inherit and Marie-Adeline and a few others will also benefit, so various suspects have motives, but Bataille believes the motive is not money but hate.
- Then we see Aude trying to throw herself off the cliff. Ange is there and he stops her. And he vows that she would not be hanged for the crime,
- Bataille comes to arrest Aude and she does not protest and in fact appears relieved that it is over. Her demeanour and behaviour however reminds Bataille of his daughter--we see the same behaviour from Sylvie in a flashback--and like in the original, this give Bataille an insight in the pyschology of what is happening.
- Ange Werthe comes to see Bataille and asks if the police found a rope in the house. All this is very sudden. In this adaptation, Latimer does not mention of a bad stench in the billiard room. There is no Diana Brinton and Angus who helps her remove a bad smell from her dog. There is no mix up in the dry cleaning of his suit. So unless the viewers are familiar with the novel, they will be puzzled why Ange should suddenly mention a rope. Here, also, he does not search and find a rope with Mary Aldin. He is taken to a room where a French police woman had found a rope earlier on. Like in the book, Ange points out that the rope is not dusty like everything else in the room, and it is damp. He then tells Bataille what he saw: someone swimming across the bay and cimbing into the house by a rope.
- From here we move to the denouement which takes place on the ferryman Brezounec's boat. What transpires tracks the original novel very closely.
- The ending deviates slightly from the original: in the book it is suggested that Royde loves Mary Aldin but doesn't know it yet. Here, we see them coming together definitively: Rondeau tells Marie he wants to take her away with him. Aude does not end up with Ange Werther: we don't see Ange again after the denouement on the boat. All that happens is that Bataille tells Aude that after her suffering, she needs to let herself go. Aude talks about how she felt drawn in and forced to confess to her guilt, the the spider talking to the fly. Bataille says he has seen it before, in his daughter. Like in the book he also mentions how fortunately it was that Guillaume confessed. Ange's testimony was most expedient, considering it was a moonless night and it was raining.
- Leca turns up, with Bataille's daughter and wife. Leca has a distubing realization that has kept him up all night: it was a moonless and raining. Bataille tells him so he finally realizes that some lies tell the truth, not just in poetry but in police work also.
Cast[]
In end credits order[]
- François Morel as Commissaire Martin Bataille
- Danielle Darrieux as Camilla Tressilian
- Melvil Poupaud as Guillaume Neuville
- Laura Smet as Caroline Neuville
- Chiara Mastroianni as Aude Neuville
- Alessandra Martines as Marie-Adeline
- Clément Thomas as Thomas Rondeau
- Xavier Thiam as Frédéric “Fred” Latimer
- Hervé Pierre as Ange Werther
- Vania Plemiannikov as Pierre Leca
- Jacques Sereys as Charles Trevoz
- Paul Minthe as Heurtebise (butler)
- Valériane de Villeneuve as Emma (maid)
- Carmen Durand as Barrette
- Dominique Reymond as Mme Geoffroy - school principal
- Camille Balsan as Sylvie Bataille
- Ariane Rousseau as Mme Roger -manager of Hotel des Mats Bleus
- Hassen Brahiti as Dr Lazerbi
- Bernard Marcatte as Loïc Brezounec (boatman)
- Héloïse Wagner as a policewoman
- Chantal Millier-Legrand as a lawyer
- Joséphine Le Gouvello as a lawyer
- Clarisse Merel as a lawyer
- Philippe Veisse as the magistrate
- Marion Bartherotte as the nurse
- Catherine Schneider as the forensic examiner
- Emmanuelle Coutellier as female lover at the cliffs
- Valentin Morel as male lover at the cliffs
- Elena Manso as La femme de chambre
- Yannick Peyrony as tennis player (during match with Gullaiume)
- Benoit Gaudiche as musician on the carousel
- Audrey Goldberg Goldberg as musician on the carousel
- Michel Goldberg as musician on the carousel
- Gaël Le Bozec as musician on the carousel
- Jérôme Sifferle as musician on the carousel
Uncredited but listed on IMDb[]
- Nathalie Larcher as client of Latimer
- Tilly Mandelbrot as La petite fille diabolique
- Serge Panel as an investigator
- Pascal Thomas as doctor/medical examiner (uncredited)
Mentioned[]
- Adrien Rondeau
- Mathieu Tressilian
Filming locations[]
- Dinard
- Villa la Garde - Pointe-aux-Mouttes (Gull's Point)
- Pointe de Moulines, Dinard - external of Hotel du Phare. The name of the hotel is on the cliff wall of the headland. But....
- Later Latimer is seen on a balcony. This shot is not in any of the villas on the Pointe de Moulines but from a balcony of the Hôtel et Résidence le Crystal. The Villa Ker Willy can be seen in the background behind Latimer.
- Dinard beach - Bataille is on the phone telling someone on the phone that he doesn't want to take the case. The Hotel Reine Hortense can be seen in the background.
- Dinan
- Gare SNCF de Dinan - train station, arrival of Thomas and later of Bataille. Although the platform sign says St Brieuc when they alight, the interior of the station hall is clearly that of Dinan, including a detailed shot inside the ticketing hall of the wall mural showing the train network in the region.[1] Platform A where the passengers alight is also clearly from Dinan. The engine or cargo shed can be seen across the tracks and the doors match. St Brieuc has many more tracks an island platform. Why there should be a sign that says "St Brieuc" is not clear--it is not even the nearest station to Dinard. Dinan is nearer.
- St Coulomb
- Plage de Guesclin
- Marie-Adeline picks Thomas up from the station and they then drive along a road next to a beach and then stop the car, alight and then walk along the beach. At this point, the car is travelling away from and not towards Dinard!
- Also the final scene where Bataille talks to Aude on the beach.
- Plage de Guesclin
- Cancale
- Plage du Petit Port - beach scene on the morning just before Trevoz's death is reported
- spot on cliffs near 48.6990867, -1.8873461. There's a Google Maps photosphere here. Spot where Ange jumped off the cliff. Later, Aude goes there intending to jump off herself. Ange arrives in time to save her.
- Moncontour, Vienne
- Cimetière de Saint-Chartres (46.8373 -0.0085) - likely location of scene of Aude at the cemetery. The Église Saint-Cyr-et-Sainte-Julitte de Saint-Chartres can be seen in the background at one point.