Meurtres au champagne is the 2nd episode of series 2 of the French TV series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie.[1] It is an adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel Sparkling Cyanide.
Synopsis[]
During the shooting of her latest film, a famous movie star dies after drinking champagne at a dinner. Everyone is convinced that it is suicide but Laurence is not so sure and proceeds to investigate. Meanwhile Alice is offered the chance to take over the part of the movie star on the set. From here she helps Laurence with the inside track of all the goings on. The husband of the movie star re-enacts the dinner a few days later with the same guests and he also drops dead. This is now clearly murder and as Laurence surmises, everyone at the table has a motive.
Comparison with the original story[]
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read)
- Although set in Northern France and in and around a film set, this adaptation is remarkable faithful to the original.
- Most of the main characters in the original novel have parallels but in this case, their lives are more tightly woven together. Most of them are working on the film set where a movie is being made.
- The character of Lucilla Drake is not paralleled. Victor Lebrun (Victor Drake) gains prominence quite early on as we see Laurence warning him to lay off blackmailing someone (unrelated). He is also seen getting money from various people such as Georges Leroy (George Barton) and Elvire Morenkova (Rosemary Barton). Quite early on, Alice spots him having a relationship with Babette (Ruth Lessing).
- The two dinners are closer together, probably only a few days apart. They take place in the restaurant of the Hotel Royal where most of the senior people involved in the film are staying.
- Most of the action in the original have parallels:
- Elvire has affairs first with Jules (Anthony Browne) and then with Daniel Hartman (Stephen Farraday).
- Hartman is directing his first film. His career is being pushed by his loyal wife Claude Kerrigan (Sandra Farraday), a famous novelist who is writing the script for the movie.
- At the first dinner Elvire, like Rosemary, has a headache. Claude gives her a sachet of aspirin in the powder room.
- After Elvire's death, her sister Violette (Iris Marle) discovers her "leopard" love letter.
- Everyone believes it is suicide at first. But Georges gets an anonymous note telling him it is murder.
- Georges confides in Violette about the note, as Barton does with Iris.
- After Georges' death, a sachet of "aspirin" is found on the floor near the table. Jules steps on it but Alice spots him doing so. Later Violette admits that the sachet was in her purse. It fell out when she was taking something out. This is similar to the original.
- Like in the original, Violette tells Victor that Jules has proposed to her. This gives a sense of urgency to Victor and Babbete.
- Alice comes to the film set at the beginning in order to request a special feature on the making of the movie. Pierre Tussaud, one of the actors takes an interest in her. He invites her to dinner and so she is present at the first dinner but at another table. In this adaptation, Elvire dies while alone at the table. All the others are dancing.
- After Elvire's death, she is offered a chance to take over role in the show. This allows her to overhear and fill Laurence in on the interplay of relationships between the main suspects.
- At the second dinner, she is actually invited by Georges as a "mystery guest" (Chloe West). Unlike the original, Alice actually turns up, dressed and made up to look like Elvire.
- The others are still on the dance floor. Georges goes to the place next to Alice. Unlike the original, he has time to tell everyone that one of them killed his wife and puts the anonymous note on the table. He then proposes a toast to the truth, drinks it and dies.
- Going back over the events, Alice recalls a waiter picking up Violette's shawl and replacing it on the chair but she concluded that he didn't have time to poison the champagne.
- The breakthrough comes when Laurence and Alice are having lunch at the same restaurant. She sees a woman at the next table who looks like Elvire (she was probably sitting at the same table Georges used). She sees the woman's full profile but at that dinner, she only saw Elvire in three quarters profile. Continuing the reasoning, Laurence deduces that when the waiter replaced the shawl, he put it on the wrong chair. When Alice made her entry as the mystery guest, she worked out her seat from the position of the shawl and sat in George's place. Georges went to Violette's place and drank the champagne intended for her. The sachet in her purse was meant to suggest she had committed suicide.
- They rush to Violette's place and rescue her just in time. As in the original, Victor had tried to gas her.
- Alice had spotted Victor's blue car driving off. Laurence pursues and catches up with Victor and Babette at the film set where the denouement takes place.
- This adaptation also explains how the first murder took place. Claude had offered Elvire the sachet of aspirin. Babette offers to put it into Elvire's bag, but she puts in a different one. Elvire poured the powder into her glass herself.
- As for the second murder, there is no plot element of Victor posing as a waiter. Babette poisons the drink herself.
Cast[]
- Samuel Labarthe as Swan Laurence
- Blandine Bellavoir as Alice Avril
- Élodie Frenck as Marlène Leroy
- Élodie Navarre as Elvire Morenkova (Rosemary Barton)
- Jean-Philippe Ècoffey as Georges Leroy (George Barton)
- Claude Perron as Claude Kerrigan (Sandra Farraday)
- Antoine Oppenheim as Daniel Hartman (Stephen Farraday)
- Luis Inacio as Victor Lebrun (Victor Drake)
- Alexis Michalik as Jules Lavigne (Anthony Browne)
- Valentine Alaqui as Violette (Iris Marle)
- Hélène Médigue as Babette (Ruth Lessing)
- Jean-Maximilien Sobocinski as Pierre Tussaud
- Christophe Piret as Jourdeuil
- Sophie Descamps as Simone
- Remy Gence as the server
- Dominique Thomas as Tricard
- Nicolas Cornille as First Assistant
- Moïra Conrath as the singer
Mentioned[]
Filming locations[]
- Salons Caquant, Tourcoing - restaurant where Laurence and Alice have lunch.[2][3] The logo on the door says Royal Hotel, so it is likely this same place was used for the hotel restaurant in the two murder scenes.
- 721 rue Riche, Bouvignies (50.4423805, 3.2474534) - house of Victor Lebrun and where Violette lodges.[4]
References[]
- ↑ Episode homepage on France 2
- ↑ See this blog by someone who played an extra on the episode. The article says the salons are in Mouvaux but actually the address is in Tourcoing.
- ↑ See this listing for Salons Caquant, an events space in Tourcoing.
- ↑ Bouvignies : le tournage d'un polar d'Agatha Christie