Movies / Comics Movie Reviews

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec

By Hervé St-Louis
September 7, 2013 - 11:11

Jacques Tardi’s adventuress Adèle Blanc-Sec has been adapted for film by celebrated French director Luc Besson. Adèle is a reporter on a quest to find and revive Ramses II’s physician so that he may help her cure her own sister who is in a prolonged coma. Along the way, She must rescue Professor Espérandieu, a scientist who possess the secret of how to revive the dead. But before he Espérandieu can help Adèle, they have to recover a revived pterodactyl roaming the skies of Paris. Will Adèle be able to save her sister?

The release of The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (Les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec) by Shout! Factory is a risk for the distributor as the film is French and relatively unknown in North America. Adèle Blanc-Sec is a popular character in European comic books with limited translations available in English. The best way to describe Adèle Blanc-Sec, although is not very original but accurate, is as a female Tintin living in the first decades of the 1900s. Her adventures are as fantastic, elaborate and wacky as Indiana Jones, except for her Type A personality. Extremely confidant and resourceful, Adèle, played by relatively unknown French actress Louise Bourgoin, works through every single problem standing between her and the revival of her sister, no matter what the costs and who gets hurt in the process.

Bourgoin succeeded in making us believe in Adèle’s selfish approach and lack of reflexivity by making it very funny and wacky. The film was released with the original French language score which I recommend for those who want to savour every nuances of the film. Since English subtitles are also available, it should be a treat for most viewers. Of course, the English score is decent, although I found the narrator too haughty. My one problem with the film was the bad visual effects for the pterodactyl. It almost felt as bad animatronics instead of digital animation. The compositing of the various elements into current day Paris to transform the set as a period piece worked quite well though. The bird is really my main complaint about the film.

Extras include several deleted scenes and a comprehensive interview with various actors, Luc Besson and Jacques Tardi about the film. The making of feature was in French but had English subtitles I really hope that more people will discover this funny film, which by the way features a strong female protagonist and will entertain the whole family.

Rating: 7.5 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12