Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
An adventure set in the early part of the 20th century, focused on a popular novelist and her dealings with would-be suitors, the cops, monsters, and other distractions.
Luc Besson's adaptation of Jacques Tardi's beloved bande dessinée is a gleefully anarchic romp through early 20th-century Paris, blending pterodactyls, mummies, and Egyptology with a refreshingly deadpan heroine. Its Novelty is genuinely high — the film has a singular, irreverent voice and a distinctly French pulp-adventure sensibility rarely seen in mainstream fantasy cinema. Louise Bourgoin brings plucky charm to Adèle, and the production design evokes Belle Époque Paris with considerable flair. However, the plot meanders and prioritizes comic-book looseness over narrative coherence, and the ending feels abrupt and unresolved — clearly setting up sequels that never arrived, leaving the story frustratingly open. Cinematography is competent but unexceptional. Overall a fun, underrated curio that never quite fulfills its considerable premise.