L'Empereur de Paris

Que se passe-t-il en France pour que les rôles principaux féminins soient tenus par une Ukrainienne et une Écossaise ? :-) Olga ne compte pas vraiment, car elle a joué dans une vingtaine de films français, mais ça me surprend quand même. Vidocq est un personnage qui semble garder les cinéastes intéressés et il y a toujours quelqu'un pour se lancer dans une nouvelle adaptation avec un nouveau visage. Dans notre cas, on est malheureusement plutôt embarqués dans une tornade d'action, de violence et de vengeance constante de quelqu'un envers quelqu'un d'autre ou quelque chose, et l'histoire se perd en cours de route. Pour moi, le moment fort était de voir Fabrice Luchini dans le rôle du redoutable ministre de l'Intérieur Joseph Fouché. (03/04/2024)

On the one hand, what I find disappointing is that the highly stimulating material of Vidocq’s life (furthermore, backed up by such a great cast, director and production design) is reduced to a mere dime-a-dozen adventure that lacks logic. On the other hand, we can be pleased that it is nevertheless a fine, uncompromising movie in which emotions are well portrayed. In fact, it inevitably seems like a successful adaptation of one of Xavier Dorison's albums. Whether that is a positive or a negative, however, is a completely different question. In my opinion, it is positive and not an insignificant one. (18/11/2019)

Jean-François Richet sometimes rushes a bit too much, and at other times he needlessly stalemates in an attempt to squeeze in some of those "sort of artsy shots", but Vincent Cassel and his crew are fine badasses, Paris is wonderfully nasty, and it has a fine Dumasian adventure story feel. If Vidocq comes back with a sequel, I'll be happy. (27/03/2020)

France, Vincent Cassel and the best historical film of this year. The main character is the dreaded Vidocq, a famous thief with a great reputation who is forced to work with the police due to adverse conditions and decides to clean the streets of murderers, thieves and similar vermin. Great period atmosphere, a breathtaking Vincent, great narrative pace, awesome sets and plenty of suspense and of course a piece of history. Good stuff. 85%. (08/08/2019)

It's not as harsh and gloomy as the famous psychedelic Phantom of Paris from 2001, where the title song was composed by Apocalyptica and it always starts to play in my head whenever I remember it. It’s still harsh and gloomy enough for today’s audience. This is mainly due to Vincent Cassel, who’ll probably play these tough, disheveled characters until the day he dies. But I like this. For many people here it is probably too old school to give it good rating; otherwise I can’t explain why a period-set mystery like this would be rated under 70%. If you know something about Vidocq’s historical importance, the ending of the film cannot fail to bring you joy. (15/11/2019)