L’étoile du Nord **** (1982, Simone Signoret, Philippe Noiret, Fanny Cottençon) – Classic Movie Review 7054

Director Pierre Granier-Deferre’s 1982 French crime drama film adaptation of Georges Simenon’s thriller novel The Tenant (Le Locataire) is highly agreeable.

Simone Signoret stars in L’étoile du Nord as Madame Louise Baron, a Thirties Belgian landlady looking after her tenant, the aimless French  dreamer Edouard Binet (Philippe Noiret), who has blotted out the memory of a murder aboard a train.

The novel gets a thorough working over in Jean Aurenche, Michel Grisolia, Pierre Granier-Deferre’s script that perhaps will not entirely please Simenon’s fans. But the film’s screenplay is solid yarn-spinning, and the Thirties re-creation is almost as satisfying as the magical star pairing.

Also in the cast are Fanny Cottençon as Sylvie Baron, Julie Jézéquel, Liliana Gerace and Gamil Ratib.

L’Etoile du Nord is directed by Pierre Granier-Deferre, runs 124 minutes, is made by Sara Films and released by Antenne 2, is written by Jean Aurenche, Michel Grisolia and Pierre Granier-Deferre, Georges Simenon’s novel The Tenant (Le Locataire), is shot in Fujicolor by Pierre-William Glenn, is produced by Alain Sarde, is scored by Philippe Sarde, and is designed by Dominique André.

It was Signoret’s last theatrical release before her death on 30 September 1985, aged 64.

Signoret had collaborated with Granier-Deferre on two other Simenon adaptations, Le Chat [The Cat] and Le Veuve Couderc [The Widow Couderc], in 1971.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7054

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com