Maigret - Set 5

This is the second Maigret I have purchased, along with he first set. To be brief, Series 5 continues the tradition of Maigret's methodical approaches as well as the compelling viewings first and all the time. As in my other review, these discs are played on Region 1. This means you will not be able to play them unless, you have a Region 1 player (North America), or a DVD player that can play all regions. If you are in Europe, but the PAL region discs which have been out for some time now. Also, when you buy this set, there are two DVD cases which contain three discs each. It should be noted that the three discs are literally right on top of each other. If it is plausible, I recommend separating the discs, so as to prevent any scratching which after a while makes the film "jump" in certain spots, (as with all other discs). Again, these films are extremely worthwhile if you are looking for a detective film which is methodical and undisturbed. The ambiance of each film is extremely well made, with all the films set in post-world war II setting, which are for the most part in France.Personally, what brought me to the Maigret series was what was aforementially said and a little more. I actually started viewing mysteries on MHz networks on my local station. I had first watched their other mysteries, such as Montalbano and, Neck, Wallander and so forth. However, in those detective mysteries, the protagonist always loses his composure, just for the sake of solving the mystery going as far as to berate his friendly allies. In another of them, the protagonist is unfaithful, even sleeping with the victim, who ends up at the end of the episode to actually kill another suspect, and have used the detective the whole time, (One of the later Montalbano episodes). The Beck and Wallander episodes are less worse, but still have many flaws. Beck is good to watch, but his violent deputy partner seems to be a running gag that gets tiring, at least to me. The Wallander episodes are OK, but if you do view them, do not get the sets with the British portrayal, or the Rolf Swedish version. The Rolf version is painful to watch, as he literally has health problems that severly hamper his detective work, in addition to health. He also gets extremely violent and always seems to be at odds with everybody in the station. In the last episode, he actually corners the main villain who has killed many people including Wallnder's family, but refuses to pull the trigger. The man laughs and runs away, while Wallander balls up and starts crying like a child. I would have to say out of these three, choose Beck, because it is the most focused of the bunch, but no as much as Maigret.So, in conclusion. the Maigret episodes are much better, because none of the problems listed above happens at all. Their is no unfaithfulness, health problems, or mental in capacities the Maigret holds. If you have been offended, by those statements and like those aforementioned series, please do not take any offense. I just thought it would be fitting for me to state why I liked the Maigret set more, and why a select few might as well. I will most likely post this review to the Set 1. If so I am doing this to save time, so please do not mark it as spam.

My favorite detective, Jules Maigret does a lot of travelling in this batch of exciting crime episodes, faithfully reconstructed from the original Georges Simenon classic novels. He's off to the south of France, a French outpost somewhere off the coast and even Belgium. Of special note is the story "Maigret versus Mr. Cadavre" based on the 1944 novel "L'Inspecteur Cadavre" (Maigret's Rival) where Simenon returns to his native Belgium with Maigret pitting his wits against a mysterious and dubious colleague from the past in an off the record investigation. "Mrs. Four and Her Children" has Maigret uncovering a possible serial killer. As in most of the Maigret episodes, composer Laurent Petitgirard has provided an excellent score and this one features one of his best.Georges Simenon was often accused of being a notorious womanizer but you have to give him credit for writing great female characters and every one of these French dialog episodes features strong female roles. And let's not forget the wonderful Bruno Cremer who will be forever immortalized as Inspector Maigret.

There is no censorship unlike PBS version which blurs out mature content such as any nakeness even for paintings and statues. The video quality is OK - a bit grainy/hazy, nothing to brag about. The stories are very good.However, subtitles are rather large and you can't make them smaller - very annoying.Waiting to buy series from producer another than Mhz because of subtitle implementation and a 1.5 aspect. When series was televised on French tv the aspect was 1.77 and the video quality was just as good as Mhz.09/18/2015Koba puts out a remastered maigret on DVD, but subtitles are in french but are not embedded. There are 5 releases so far available from amazon.fr. The video aspect ratio is 1.7 sound is stereo. Video is good.

In Europe you can buy sets of Maigret films with Bruno Cremer, but set 6 (European version) only has the first two programs with English subtitles. These sets in America are made up from a selection of the originals, but not in the same order, and with less discs in each set, so the set numbers bear no relationship to the European sets. The English titles rather than the French on European discs completely fooled me into thinking that the American DVDs had put English subtitles on all the programs. But not so. Anyway, these films are fantastic as long as you don't mind reading subtitles, which is fine for me. Anyone with a good knowledge of French can listen without the subtitles. Highly recommended.

Episode 21 in Maigret Set 4 appears to be defective. The program seemed to be operating fine until it reached approximately3/4 to the end. The program stopped abruptly and would not restart. I had my DVD player checked by the Tech Services Dept. where it was purchased. They applied a series of diagnostic tests to the player. The result was that the DVD player operated correctly. I wish to return Set 5 and have it replaced with all fully functioning discs. I was unable to get a proper link under the "Help" option.

Very good stories.Some films well made. Some stories were not made to be films.But, Heil, Simenon!

Cremer captures perfectly the intent of Simenon. This series of DVDs is excellent throughout; you should try to obtain all versions now available (if you are a lover of Maigret and Simenon!). I enjoyed all of these performances immensely and except to relive that enjoyment from time to time. Highly recommended!

This series is an excellent representation of France and Belgium in the 1950s. Bruno Cremer plays Maigret as patient, serious, understanding of people's motivations and foibles and even sometimes angry. The music for the series by Laurent Petitgirard is compelling, especially--of course--the Maigret theme. The subtitles are easy to read but not intrusive.