Netflix’s French thriller Lupin is set to return with its five-episode Part Two in a global release on 11 June, once again bringing the charming gentleman burglar to our screens.
Author Maurice Leblanc created the famous thief and master of disguise Arsène Lupin in 1905, who made his debut through serialised short stories in the French magazine Je sais tout. Lupin’s increasing popularity quickly made him a formidable French adversary to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s English Sherlock Holmes, and after much controversy, the detective did in fact appear in Leblanc’s works like Arsène Lupin contre Herlock Sholmes (with his name changed, of course) classically pitting the Frenchman against the Englishman in a battle of wits and deception.
But what makes Dans L'Ombre D'Arsène (In the Shadow of Arsène), the first part of the Netflix series created by George Kay and François Uzan as a contemporary story inspired from Leblanc’s works, so deliciously binge-worthy is hard to pinpoint. So much so that even as this essay was being written, the editor asked of the writer, “What’s different?”
Perhaps it is the romanticism of Paris, the City of Light, which viewers across the world can experience from the comfort of the couch especially now, as travel continues to be restricted.
In a Deadline interview, the lead of the series, Omar Sy, attributed this aesthetic that captures the scenic, historic, and political imagery of Paris to director Louis Leterrier, who made the city a prominent character in the show. “Lupin and Paris are inseparable so it was important to shoot Paris in a certain way, but also our Paris,” Sy said, “The Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, okay, but also Montreuil, prisons in Paris… not just the postcard version.”
Lupin Part One released in January 2021, and quickly became the most watched Netflix show of the first three months of the new year. It tells the story of Assane Diop (Sy), a Senegalese immigrant whose father is accused of a crime he did not commit. This incident turns young Diop’s life upside down, and some 25 years later, he returns to seek revenge against the powerful Pellegrini family that framed his father. So far, predictable.
However, for someone unfamiliar with the works of Leblanc, the series stands out for Diop’s execution of this revenge, inspired by the works of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar. Perhaps it is this constant, nail-biting thrill of not knowing what is going to happen next, wherein lies the allure of the show. Introduced to the gentleman burglar by his father, Diop is fascinated by this conman early on and picks up some of Lupin's best moves from the stories putting them to use in his contemporary adventure.
The bicycle chase in particular – in which Diop, a master of disguise himself, dresses up as a deliveryman in an orange uniform, and followed by detectives, heads into a park – is so simple, yet so well-crafted that it is not until a number of other deliverymen dressed in the same bright orange start arriving at the park, that the sheer simplicity of the plan becomes apparent to the viewer.
So too, there is a sense of satisfied pleasure in watching the young detective, Youssef Guedira (Soufiane Guerrab) on Diop’s tail finding something eerily familiar in his moves and being a fellow Lupin enthusiast putting together Diop’s aliases, all of which are anagrams of Arsène Lupin. The trailer of the second part of the series does tease a conversation between the two, but whether they team up will remain a mystery until Friday.
The success of Lupin also lies to a large extent in Sy himself, and his brilliant portrayal of the debonair gentleman burglar who might just nick away a bracelet on your wrist while holding a door open for you with that familiar sweet smile on his face. To watch him at one of his tricks is to be mesmerised by a magician’s illusion in a performance that unfolds on the cobbled streets of Paris.
At a time when hyper-masculine, perpetually swearing, and notoriously sketchy anti-heroes flood the screen, Diop is a refreshing respite. He is not simply a suave conman fighting the good fight but also a sophisticated villain on the wrong side of the tracks whom you would do good to be very wary of.
Despite the seriousness of the story and the tragedy buried in Diop’s past, Sy also manages to bring a touch of light-heartedness to his character even as he explores serious concerns like racism, inequality ,and parenthood. While nicking a rare Fabergé egg from an old white Frenchwoman, he nods to the establishment listening silently as she narrates stories of the 'good old days' when her husband extracted diamonds from the Belgian Congo – and he robs her blind.
But, for all its cleverness, Lupin would be incomplete without the French element underlying the sheer sophistication and elegance of Sy as well as the other characters.
For those of us who have attended French lessons and tried to master the ‘r’ sound, the appeal of the show lies also in this delectable French-ness of its making. With Leterrier on board, the series has just the right amount of Hollywood drama that highlights everything right from the sublime gentility of the police who investigate Diop to the quintessential French reverence for art and the environment.
And honestly, is there any speech more musical than a Parisian talking in French?
The first part of Lupin ends on a cliff-hanger which sees Diop’s family fall into grave danger. With everything on the line, he must gear up for a dramatic showdown, as the police chase at his heels and Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre), the man who tricked his father, plays a dangerous game.
With Part Two around the corner, the anticipation for the new episodes is a graceful stirring contrary to an excited flutter, which is possibly one of the major reasons for the show’s popularity. Lupin comes at a time when so many of us sit anxiously at home watching the coronavirus crisis bring the world tumbling down. But its smooth and collected excitement produces an almost a soothing effect in the viewer, becoming the perfect escape from the current crisis and the resultant isolation.
Lupin: Part Two will stream on Netflix from 11 June.
source https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/with-part-two-of-netflixs-lupin-around-the-corner-demystifying-the-allure-of-the-suave-gentleman-burglar-9694841.html
