The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec is a 2010 French fantasy adventure film that Luc Besson wrote and directed. It was also titled Adèle: Rise of the Mummy in Malaysia and Singapore. It is loosely based on the Jacques Tardi comic book series The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec and, like the comic, follows the titular author and several recurring side characters through a series of unbelievable incidents in 1910s Paris and elsewhere. This episode centers on parapsychology and extremely advanced Ancient Egyptian technology, which pastiche and subvert the adventure and speculative fiction of the time. The predominantly live-action movie, which was shot in Super 35, heavily relies on computer animation to convey its fantastical components and modern action movie special effects in the style of the classic adventure movies they have largely replaced.
Plot
The film “The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec” is an adaptation of the comic books Les aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec by Jacques Tardi. This film had its world premiere at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival on April 9; it is a bundle of energy as it blends old-fashioned adventure with villains, mummies, and a pterodactyl and a thoroughly endearing lead performance by the impressive Louise Bourgoin. Foreign language adventure films frequently struggle to find an audience, but this one offers entertainment and has a chic marketing campaign to accompany its release.
Professor Espérandieu, working on telepathic experiments in Paris around 1912, accidentally hatched a 136 million-year-old pterosaur egg in the National Museum of Natural History. This leads to the death of a former prefect (scandalously riding in a taxi with a showgirl from the Moulin Rouge), which, seen only by the inebriated Chopard at the time, causes an epidemic of reports of sightings of the beast. The case is given to the inept Inspector Albert Caponi despite the President of France ordering that it be handled with the utmost urgency by the National Police.
After returning from Egypt, where she was looking for Ramesses II’s mummified physician Patmosis, Adèle Blanc-Sec, a well-known journalist and travel writer, finds herself engaged. She asks Espérandieu’s assistance in reviving the corpse so the physician might save her sister Agathe, unconscious after a tragic tennis mishap involving a hatpin. She fights off her adversary, the enigmatic Professor Dieuleveult, for a short while, then takes the mummy back and heads back home. Espérandieu being on death row after being accused of being responsible for the pterosaurs’ attacks, Inspector Caponi, and celebrity large game hunter Justin de Saint-Hubert failing to kill the animal itself complicate her job even more. The pterosaur can be lured into hiding by Andrej Zborowski, a researcher at the Jardin des Plantes who is fascinated with Adèle. Espérandieu is saved by Adèle while riding the pterosaur just before his execution. Adèle determines that she requires a getaway to relax. The name RMS Titanic is made apparent as she steps onto the vessel. Then Dieuleveult appears, mockingly wishing her a “nice journey.”
In a scene during the credits, Ménard, still furious that Saint-Hubert shot the pterosaur, pursues Saint-Hubert with a rifle. Caponi takes Ménard into custody while two gorillas menacingly eye Saint-Hubert.
The film The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec has a rating of 6.3 out of 10 on IMDb. If you are a fan of adventure films, then you must give it a try.
