The Maigret Collection
List Price:
Our Price: $50.49
You Save: $49.49 (49%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $50.48 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Maigret CollectionDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Dubbed)
Format: Box set, Color, Content/Copy-Protected CD, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 646 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-07-12
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: KOCH VISION
Movie Reviews of The Maigret Collection
Movie Review: A very enjoyable 12 episodes of the famous Chief Inspector.
Summary: 5 Stars
Jules Maigret, Chief Inspector (Commissaire) of the Paris police department, is the popular creation of the prolific and hugely popular French author, George Simenon (1903-1989). Simenon produced more than close to 200 novels, something like 150 novellas, and other works. Together, these works have global sales of around 550 million copies. Maigret is the subject of 75 of those novels and 28 of the short stories written between 1931 and 1972.
Maigret has been the subject of a number of dramatizations and this 12 episode version was done over two seasons in 1992 and 1993. Michael Gambon, whom I always enjoy, does a fine job in bringing the detective to life. The series seems to place all the stories in a post WWII Paris and other parts of France that still feel the strain of recovery. Now, the stories were written in various decades including before the war. But you know how one must adapt things for a television series. The twelve episodes (and the year the novel was written) are:
Disc One
The Patience of Maigret (1965)
Maigret and the Burglar's Wife (1951)
Miagret Goes to School (1953)
Disc Two
Maigret and the Mad Woman (1970)
Maigret and the Home Ground (1932)
Maigret Sets a Trap (1955)
Disc Three
Maigret and the Nightclub Dancer (1950)
Maigret on the Defensive (1964)
Maigret and the Minister (1954)
Disc Four
Maigret and the Hotel Majestic (1942)
Maigret's Boyhood Friend (1968)
Miagret and the Maid (I could not identify story this episode comes from)
Maigret is a very smart, humane, and effective inspector. He smokes his pipe, enjoys his drinks (particularly hard cider), and food as he works through his cases. Maigret is a very patient man and does things his own way, but not in a way that will lose the support of his very bureaucratic superiors. He understands the politics of the civic bureaucracy, but dislikes it intensely and is usually able to manipulate it effectively. His junior officers are fiercely loyal and also quite effective. They know their jobs and do them with the kind of professional efficiency we admire. Maigret is also fair to the criminals and treats them as people who have made mistakes rather than as evil incarnate. His primary technique for exposing the guilty party is to get them to keep talking, to keep telling falsehoods until they trap themselves. Miagret often shows sincere affection for some of the long time professional criminals who know the rules and do their "jobs" with their kind of professionalism. The inspector even ponders the reality that he likes his gangster he is trying to catch more than the bureaucrat he serves.
Violence is generally shown by its effects and rarely onscreen. When it does occur it is shocking to the characters and their shock effects us even in our violence soaked age. The seediness is also handled rather modestly by today's standards. The atmosphere of the series is the kind of dark and smoky world of detective novels. Remember, these stories are as much about the little things in life, the ambiance of their times, as much as it is about being a detective story. I think the series was filmed in Eastern Europe somewhere.
The cast is very good. You may know Gambon as the Dumbledore who took the role after Richard Harris died. It turns out that Harris had also played his own strange version of Maigret years before Gambon took this turn as the French Detective. Two women, Ciaran Madden and Barbar Flynn, play Maigret's wife and I have no idea why. Both do a good job with a role that helps us understand the personal side of Maigret. She also helps him with his cases at times by considering some of the emotional motivations of those involved.
Terrific, entertaining, and a wonderful break from the silly sex and violence nothings that fill the tube nowadays. Very much recommended.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
Summary of The Maigret Collection
One of the bestselling authors of all time, Georges Simenon is most famous for his more than 100 novels and short stories featuring Chief Inspector Maigret of the Paris police. Concerned more with "why" than "who," Maigret's profound perception of the realities of human behavior and extraordinary psychological insight make him one of fiction's most interesting and unique sleuths.Michael Gambon brings the timeless, tantalizing exploits of Georges Simenon's legendary detective to life in twelve episodes of mystery and intrigue. From Montmartre to the remote French countryside, Maigret encounters the dark side of the human psyche. Yet he manages to maintain both compassion and a sense of humor as he explores the complex motives that lie behind every crime.
An absolute must for fans of Georges Simenon's beloved sleuth, Inspector Jules Maigret, the four-volume Maigret Collection is the finest detective series from Britain's Granada Television since the late Jeremy Brett gave us his definitive portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in the 1980s.
Included in this collection are the first 12 episodes from the series, originally broadcast in 1992 and starring the masterful British actor Michael Gambon (now Sir Michael Gambon) as Maigret of the Paris Surete. Among the programs is "Maigret and the Burglar's Wife," which does honor to Simenon's compassionate tale of a retiring thief whose accidental encounter with a corpse sets in motion one of Maigret's most intense psychological duels. The equally compelling "Maigret's Boyhood Friend" finds the detective on a case drawing suspicion to an old school chum, while "Maigret Sets a Trap" is a wonderful production of Simenon's puzzler about a serial killer whose patterns of motivation and action must be deciphered before he can be caught.
Gambon is the latest in a long tradition of familiar leading men (from Jean Gabin to Richard Harris) who have played Simenon's blunt but humane, occasionally whimsical, and magnificently insightful investigator. Yet Gambon is perhaps uniquely suited to the part: a popular star with none of the baggage of a brand-name icon or the self-effacing obligations of a character actor. He captures perfectly Maigret's measured but hardly inscrutable presence in the eruptive underworld of Paris crime. --Tom Keogh
Mystery & Suspense DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in Georges Simenon Sampler!
The Maigret CollectionRelease date: 2005-07-12; DVD
Best price: $51.29
Price in other shops:
Maigret and the Killer (Maigret Mystery Series)by Georges Simenon
Harvest Books; Published: 2003-06-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.90
Maigret's pickpocket;by Georges Simenon
H. Hamilton; Published: 1968; Unknown Binding; Book
The Outlawby Georges Simenon
Harcourt; Published: 1987-04; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
The Rules of the Gameby Georges Simenon
Harcourt; Published: 1988-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.99
Price in other shops:
Maigret on the Defensiveby Georges Simenon
Avon Books; Published: 1987-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Maigret and the Man on the Boulevard (Inspector Maigret Mysteries)by Georges Simenon
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-12-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.05
Price in other shops:
My Friend Maigret (Inspector Maigret Mysteries)by Georges Simenon
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-12-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.55
Price in other shops:
Inspector Cadaver (Inspector Maigret Mysteries)by Georges Simenon
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-12-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.27
Price in other shops:
The Bar on the Seine (Penguin Mysteries)by Georges Simenon
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2006-12-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.11
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries - Series 6Release date: 2008-09-02; DVD
Best price: $14.21
Price in other shops:
The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, Set 1Release date: 2004-02-08; DVD
Best price: $31.44
Price in other shops:
The Last Detective - Series 1Release date: 2006-04-25; DVD
Best price: $21.27
Price in other shops:
Midsomer Murders Set 9Release date: 2007-09-25; DVD
Best price: $27.35
Price in other shops:
Midsomer Murders - Set EightRelease date: 2007-03-27; DVD
Best price: $24.04
Price in other shops:
Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, Set 2Release date: 2006-02-07; DVD
Best price: $32.55
Price in other shops:
Foyle's War - Set 4Release date: 2007-07-17; DVD
Best price: $35.92
Price in other shops:
Midsomer Murders Set 11Release date: 2008-10-07; DVD
Best price: $32.20
Price in other shops:
Midsomer Murders, Set 10Release date: 2008-03-25; DVD
Best price: $29.41
Price in other shops:
Foyle's War: Set 5Release date: 2008-08-05; DVD
Best price: $26.35
Price in other shops: