11/06/2003 - The new film by Bruno Podalydès is on release from today: it’s about the adventures of Rouletabille, on the trail of a mystery killer. The cast includes Sabine Azéma and Olivier Gourmet

The third film by the French director, Bruno Podalydès, called Le Mystère de la chambre jaune, is being released in cinemas in Belgium from today. It is produced by Les Films du Fleuve and RTBF for Belgium, and by Why Not Productions and France 2 Cinéma for France. It’s a new adaptation of the detective novel with the same title by Gaston Leroux and the film stars the French actors Denis Podalydès (the director’s brother), Sabine Azéma and Pierre Arditi, and from Belgium, Olivier Gourmet and Julos Beaucarne.

The film is about the famous adventures of the character called Rouletabille, who has already been brought to the big screen by Maurice Tourneur in 1912, Marcel L'Herbier in 1931 and Henri Aisner in 1948. After the attempted murder of the beautiful Mathilde, the daughter of professor Stangerson, the young reporter, Joseph Rouletabille, heads off to Glandier castle to shed light on the mystery. Who is the perpetrator? And how did they escape from the yellow room, which was locked from the inside?

The film is distributed in Belgium by Cinéart, and it will also be released at the same time in France, in 200 prints (distributed by UFD). The director won a César for Best First Work in 1998 with his film Dieu seul me voit (“Only God Sees Me”) and is riding high following the success of Liberté Oléron. He’ll be carrying on with Rouletabille’s adventures, with the adaptation of Le Parfum de la dame en noir, by Gaston Leroux.