The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adèle Blanc-Sec (Cinema)

I arrived at Rough Trade to see Tennessee band Mona do an in-store only to discover they hadn’t turned up. The guy at the counter said a sore throat meant they had to cancel the performance so they agreed to do a signing instead. Except they later decided they couldn’t be bothered with that either so cancelled that too. With Mona resolutely inked into my black books I cast around for something else to do…

‘The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adèle Blanc-Sec’ is the latest offering from the occasionally patchy hand of French Director/Visionary Luc Besson. Fortunately this movie is up there with his best work. It’s a comic-fantasy-adventure melding the quirky humour of ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’, the excitement of ‘Raiders Of The Lost Ark’ and the fantastical vision of Besson’s own ‘The Fifth Element’ (I wonder if the Aziz in this film is the father of the “More light Aziz” character from The Fifth Element?!?!?). Since these are three of the greatest movies ever made I had allot of fun watching this. The CGI characters are lifelike and funny, Louise Bourgoin is heart-stoppingly gorgeous as Adèle and the cliffhanger that sets up a possible sequel is a masterstroke!

The film is based on the long running French Comic book by Jacques Tardi.  I will have to try and track down some copies of the few volumes that have been translated into English.