Le miroir aux alouettes: A foggy maritime mystery

Should you watch Le miroir aux alouettes today? That depends on how much patience you have for movies that feel like they are constantly fighting their own budget. If you love classic maritime capers where everyone is a suspect, you might get a kick out of it. If you need your pacing snappy and your mysteries modern, you are going to be checking your watch every five minutes.

The whole thing takes place on a ship traveling between Marseille and Istanbul. There is this emerald necklace that goes missing, and suddenly everyone is acting suspicious. It is a classic setup, really. But the movie carries this weird, dusty atmosphere that is hard to shake.

It is worth noting that this was filmed at the same time as Lockvogel. You can almost feel that weird split-focus energy in the performances. It’s like the actors are trying to stay in character while also checking if the other version of the set is still standing. Edwige Feuillère is doing some heavy lifting here. She has this look in her eyes during the dinner scene that feels way more intense than the script actually warrants. I dig it.

Some random notes I scribbled down:

• The ship sets are tiny. You can tell they are made of plywood if you squint just right.
• Raymond Aimos has a way of walking into a room that makes you think he is about to steal the furniture, not just a necklace.
• The transitions between scenes are… aggressive. They just slam you into the next room without any warning.

I kept thinking about The Widow from Monte Carlo while watching this, mostly because of that same weird, stiff-collared vibe. It’s not that they are identical, but they share a certain kind of polite tension. You know the kind—where people are shouting, but they are still holding their tea cups perfectly steady.

There is a moment near the middle where a character stares out at the ocean for way too long. The camera just hangs there. It’s not poetic, really. It just feels like someone forgot to yell 'cut.' It was almost funny, watching the actor try to figure out if they should keep looking or just walk away.

Honestly, the plot about the emerald is a bit of a mess. It stops mattering halfway through, and the movie just becomes about these people hating each other in cramped hallways. It is not exactly high art, but it has a weird, twitchy pulse. Probably skip it unless you are really into ship-bound dramas.