The series A posteriori le cinéma is intended to be an opportunity to celebrate the 7the art by revisiting flagship titles that celebrate important anniversaries.
To this day, Agatha Christie's name remains one of the best known in literature. Within his work, certain titles stand out more than others. Murder on the Orient Express (The Crime of the Orient-Express) is one of them. When it was published in 1934, this novel offered a plot with unprecedented twists leading to one of the most surprising outcomes in the detective genre. For the record, while a snowdrift blocks the famous train, the no less renowned detective Hercule Poirot tries to unmask the person responsible for a murder that occurred on board the first class car. From this great novel, Sidney Lumet made not only a great film, but one of his most important professional and personal triumphs. It was 50 years ago this month. Disclosure notice…
“You know very well that until the last minute, I consider everyone to be suspect”: we will return at the end to these very apt words that Poirot formulates in the novel. A novel that three events inspired in Agatha Christie: the kidnapping and assassination, in 1932, of the baby of Anne and Charles Lindbergh, the renowned aviator; the blizzard which temporarily buried the Orient-Express in 1929; and a trip aboard said train, in 1931, during which the novelist met various eccentric passengers who later served as her models.
As Michael Dirda recalls in the Washington Post in 2017: “By the time of her death in 1976, at the age of 85, Agatha Christie had become the most popular fiction writer in the world, and Murder on the Orient Express was his most popular work. »
However, scalded when it came to adaptations, Agatha Christie initially refused to sell the rights to the novel for the cinema.
Au Guardianproducer Richard Goodwin reported in 2017: “It was difficult to convince Agatha Christie to give up her rights […] But she trusted us. Sidney Lumet directed, even if his agent tried to dissuade him. She called it a “stupid train movie”. »
Why was Lumet so determined to achieve Murder on the Orient Express ? For artistic reasons. With the glamour nostalgic (the vaporous photo direction of Geoffrey Unsworth, the fabulous costumes of Tony Walton) and the witty humor inherent in the project, the filmmaker saw an opportunity to finally broaden his palette.
“I have a big problem in my work, which I have been aware of for years: a certain lack of charm. There is a kind of lightness that is extremely difficult to achieve. In the theater, the best example is high comedy, like The Importance of Being Earnest [L’importance d’être Constant]. Of course, I am first and foremost a dramatic director, and I think I always will be, but what I am talking about is a degree of color that is absolutely necessary to have for, among other things , counterbalance the drama. When I read Paul Dehn's script, I knew that, stylistically, that was exactly what I was desperately trying to accomplish,” the filmmaker explains in the collection of interviews Sidney Lumet: Interviews.
Stars, politics and ambulance
However, some were surprised that the most New York of filmmakers, still crowned by the success of Serpicowould have liked to take the helm of an “exotic” production shot in a studio in England.
You should know that Lumet had already gone to film there, and wanted to repeat the experience. One of his “English” films, The Offence (L’offense), starred Sean Connery, who was the first to sign for Murder on the Orient Express (He and Lumet had also collaborated on The Hill [La colline des hommes perdus]filmed in Spain, and The Anderson Tapes [Le gang Anderson]filmed… in New York).
Once Connery was “on board”, other big names of the time followed: Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Michael York, Vanessa Redgrave, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins… Without having invented the formula, Murder on the Orient Express brought back into fashion productions where the smallest role was played by a star.
Obviously, who says stars says, potentially, ego. In this regard, we wondered, upon release, if the filming had been slowed down by some whim of an actor or actress.
After indicating that the film only cost 4.5 million US dollars, Richard Goodwin specifies in The Guardian : “Were there any divas? No, everyone behaved, even though Lauren Bacall insisted that her shoes be made in Paris. Albert Finney was paid the most, because his Hercule Poirot had most of the lines, and Sean Connery received a percentage of the takings, because he was the biggest star. The others were all paid the same: $100,000 each. Vanessa Redgrave spent all her lunches trying to convert the workers, giving them political speeches in the canteen, while the rest of the cast sat around Sir John Gielgud listening to his fascinating anecdotes. Finally, the guys in the canteen told us to ask Vanessa to go talk to others. »
Overall, the only complications were technical and logistical. For example, the exterior setting where the stopped locomotive was to be shown was devoid of snow. Miraculously, a huge broadside fell just in time.
There was also the question of Albert Finney's transformation into Hercule Poirot. In the documentary about the making of the film, Sidney Lumet reveals that applying the prosthetic makeup took four hours. Except that after the day of filming, the actor played in the evening in a West End play and went to bed late. Every minute had to be taken advantage of.
“We hired an ambulance, which would pick Albert up from his home early in the morning, still in his pajamas. During the 35-minute ride, we started applying her makeup — not the finishing touch, but the base, like the fake nose. He slept through the whole process. »
International reputation
The critics were generally won over, and the public even more so. The film received six Academy Award nominations, and Ingrid Bergman won for best supporting actress.
In his biography of Sidney Lumet, Jay Boyer insists on the importance of the film within the work of the filmmaker, who went on to produce masterpieces Dog Day Afternoon (A dog's afternoon) et Network.
“If I had to choose a single film that established Lumet's international reputation as a premier director, this film would probably be Murder on the Orient Express. Lumet had been directing for almost 20 years when the film was released. Virtually all of his earlier films were respected, and some praised, both at home and abroad. However, it is Murder on the Orient Express which fully established him in the international film community. »
Additional Velvet: Agatha Christie approved of the result. In The GuardianRichard Goodwin says: “We showed her the film and she loved it. She was truly a keen observer: nothing escaped her. »
Hence the ingenuity of his intrigues, including that of Murder on the Orient Express. For the record, Poirot will rarely have been so justified in considering until the last minute that “everyone is suspect”, since in this case, everyone is guilty. What the vast majority of moviegoers knew from the start in 1974, the popularity of the novel obliges. Why then was the film such a success? No doubt because, to remain in the images of circumstance, what matters here is not so much the destination as the journey.
The movie Murder on the Orient Express is available on VOD on several platforms.
