Arsène Lupin is a 2004 French crime thriller film and an adaptation of the classic Arsène Lupin stories. It was directed by Jean-Paul Salomé and stars Romain Duris as Lupin, Kristin Scott Thomas as Joséphine Pellegrini-Balsamo, Pascal Greggory as Beaumagnan, and Eva Green as Clarisse de Dreux-Soubise. Its production values make it the most lavish Lupin adaptation to this day.
The film follows Gentleman Thief Arsène Lupin from a small boy, through the death of his father, and his adult years when he meets a strange woman, Joséphine Pellegrini-Balsamo, who appears to be immortal and uses a hypnotic drug to enslave people to her will. Arsène's ethos is to steal from the rich and deserving crooks. He comes up against two parties, a secret society and Joséphine herself, who are intent on gathering three crucifixes which will reveal the secret of a lost treasure.
The film does its best to incorporate a lot of Lupin lore, despite there being enough for a saga-with-the-final-movie-in-two-parts, but in a way where it steals bits and pieces of important plots from across the literary canon to weave into its focused narrative.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Amalgamation: Includes elements from stories "The Arrest of Arsène Lupin", "The Queen's Necklace", "Herlock Sholmes Arrives Too Late", and novels 813 and The Countess of Cagliostro.
- Costume Porn: Costume Designer Pierre-Jean Larroque created about five hundred different costumes, including twenty for Romain Duris and eighteen for Kristin Scott Thomas. He took his inspiration from Real Life historical figures such as the Countess of Greffuhle, Luisa Casati and Countess Virginia Oldoini of Castiglione.
- Deadly Dodging: When he's unmasked and chased onboard the cruise ship, Arsène dodges a bullet shot by one of the sailors by jumping overboard and it's another sailor who ends up shot as a result.
- Disappeared Dad: Arsène's father dies when he is still a child.
- Establishing Character Moment: Arsène's first notable heroic action consists in impersonating a customs inspector on the spot to save a cruise ship waitress from being groped/sexually assaulted by her superior.
- Femme Fatale: Josephine.
- Gentleman Thief: Another incarnation of the Trope Codifier, of course.
- High-Class Glass: Arsène puts a monocle on when checking the jewels the ladies wear at the party onboard the cruise ship. He loses it and puts it back on several times. His first notable action is saving a cruise ship waitress from being groped/sexually assaulted by her superior.
- Historical Character's Fictional Relative: In this story, Arsène's great-grandfather had an affair with Marie-Antoinette, who then gave him her (in)famous diamond necklace.
- Hollywood Heart Attack: Arsène's mother has a sudden and brutal heart attack that kills her when a group of gendarmes tries to take her away, right under her son's eyes as he's hiding under her bed.
- Land in the Saddle: When escaping the gendarmes coming to arrest him at the beginning, Arsène's father jumps from a window (first floor, not very high) onto a horse.
- Like Father, Like Son: Arsène becomes a thief, like his father before him.
- Lovable Rogue: Arsène, of course. He's got Sticky Fingers, and he's very charming. So charming that one of the ladies he talked to while stealing her jewels onboard the cruise ship doesn't mind, smiles at him and even helps him escape.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The film starts in Arsène's childhood, with his father, who trained him in savate (a French martial art close to kickboxing) being hunted down for thievery then getting killed.
- New Year Has Come: The cruise that follows the Time Skip where Arsène steals several jewels happens on a New Year's Eve.
- Secret Identity: Arsène uses several aliases and disguises throughout the film.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Arsène is played by Guillaume Huet as a child and by Romain Duris as an adult.
- Time Skip: Following the death of Arsène's father in Arsène's childhood, there's a skip to fifteen years later.
