This is the second time I'm creating this post, and I no longer have half an hour to search for that photo of the Place des Vosges, where Simenon lived (at #21).
Suffice it to say, when we were there we were awed at having set foot where M. Simenon went every day. His Inspector Maigret seems quintessentially Paris in a raincoat, aware of everything, making sense of everything at the end. As his books are republished under various titles, perhaps various translations, it's possible to read quite a bit of one before the deja vu sensation sinks in, but having read it before does nothing to diminish the pleasure of reading it. My own favorite so far -- of the admittedly too few I've read -- is MAIGRET AMONG THE MILLIONAIRES, which seems to capture exactly right the attitude of entitlement so frequently seen in millionaires.
Maigret was portrayed onscreen by Jean Gabin (Simenon's favorite), Harry Baur, Charles Laughton, and, on TV, by Michael Gambon. I haven't seen any of the Gabin or Baur movies, but have seen Laughton in The Man on The Eiffel Tower (based on MAIGRET'S WAR OF NERVES) three times. In the credits, one of the stars is "The City of Paris." By the way, that's not a studio recreation of the Eiffel Tower but the real thing. Seen from that vertiginous height, as well as at street level, that star steals the show!
As a P.S. Georges Simenon sent a fan letter to my husband, Bernard St. James, saying that his mystery novels of Napoleonic Paris (APRIL THIRTIETH and THE SEVEN DREAMERS) brought the era to life. I wouldn't have added this shameless domestic plug if it didn't relate to Simenon!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment