Capitaine Marleau, Candice Renoir & les femmes détectives
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the way female characters appear in the many mystery/crime series I watch - particularly the French series. There are two series I watch with very different female leads, “Captain Marleau” and “Candice Renoir.” “Candice Renoir” is a French crime series created by Solen Roy-Pagenault, Robin Barataud, and Brigitee Peskine and debuted on France 2 in 2013. There are eleven seasons and 88 episodes. It’s streamable in the U.S. on Acorn TV. The plot focuses on Candice Renoir, mother of four, and former Parisian police detective. She’s coming back to work after a ten-year absence during which she took care of her kids while the family traveled for her husband’s work. When she discovers her husband’s been cheating, Candice calls in some favors and gets a job leading the BSU (Brigade de Sûreté Urbaine) criminal investigations division of the Police Commissariat in Sète (Hérault), a Mediterranean seaside resort suburb of Montpellier. Initial conflicts arise between Candice and the macho detective Captain Antoine Dumas who’s sidelined from promotion by Candice’s arrival. The rest of the team isn’t overly impressed with Renoir either referring to her as “Barbie doll” behind her back. Renoir is played by Cécile Bois who is both gorgeous and has great comedic timing. Candice struggles to be taken seriously by her team and pretty much everyone in her life because she’s blonde, gorgeous, and presents as upbeat and very unconventional. And though her team quickly sees that her methods get results, she continues to struggle with her own self-image (early episodes have her constantly worrying about being “fat” - she’s not) and to balance care for her four children with the demands of her job. There are side plots with various love interests - including Captain Dumas and the return of her ex-husband at one point - and I find these much less interesting than that the interaction between Candice and her team and the actual solving of cases. There seems to be a suggestion in this and other French series that women can’t survive without a lover. There’s also an extended relationship with the arrogant and macho Commandant David Canovas from the BRI that ends in jealous rage and tragedy and becomes a major ongoing plot point. In Season 4 Candice has continual conflicts with another police officer Sylvie Leclerc (played by Nathalie Boutefou) and here’s where the series runs into trouble. By pitting the two women against each other and creating female characters that rely on physical stereotypes, the possibility of positive feminist narrative collapses. Leclerc is thin, wears skinny jeans, and a leather jacket. She has dark brown hair and doesn’t wear makeup. She’s ambitious to a fault, “steals” Candice’s cases, and generally makes fun of Candice’s femininity. When Candice has one too many personal tragedies, she dyes her blonde hair brown, swaps her favored colorful clothes and pink-hued makeup for a sort of Leclerc copy. Eventually through the support of friends and family, Candice reverts to her blonde and bubbly self but when she comes back from being in the hospital in a coma (yep,they went there), she discovers that not only is Leclerc now her boss but has taken her office. Leclerc’s character is generally shallowly written and it’s only when there’s a case that involves abortion rights that we learn that Leclerc had an abortion - are we supposed to assume that because she’s single, has no children, and is a skinny brunette that she’s necessarily nasty and ambitious? Or is it the other way around? Of course, we’re already fans of Candice by the time Leclerc shows up so it’s not possible for the viewer to really see beyond the “Leclerc is evil” structuring that the writers have set up. I’m currently taking a break from the series. Although I’ve enjoyed many aspects of the show including scenes of Candice on the homefront managing her four kids, Candice’s decision to sleep with Dumas again (!) and his betrayal of her again (!) left me rolling my eyes.
“Capitaine Marleau” is a series I discovered some time ago while staying in a summer rental in Nendaz. We watched an episode or two and although it took some time for me to find a way to watch the show in the U.S. (it’s on MHz Choice), I’ve watched three seasons now and have mixed feelings. It’s entertaining and generally each mystery is solved in one episode and I do like the lead actress (Corinne Masiero). But there’s a whackiness that starts to really detract from the forward motion of the plots - and lots of language jokes that I don’t think translate well. There’s also a very troubling structuring of femininity that deserves critique. Where Candice is (nearly) always well turned out, Marleau generally wears the same clothes, no makeup, and her hair in braids. She stomps around in workboots and a variety of ridiculous hunting caps. While we can appreciate how little she cares about outward appearances, there are some episodes where she stares into a mirror (and a pond) and references how “ugly” she is (she’s not). There are several jokes about her physical appearance that are even harsher than the “fat” comments in Candice Renoir. The series was created by Elsa Marpeau, directed by Josée Dayan, and debuted on France 3 in 2014 (it’s now on France 2). Capitaine Marleau serves as a special investigator for the National Gendarmerie. This means she travels around a lot doing deep dives to solve murders. There’s a lot of beautiful scenery and settings include Dunkirk, Guadeloupe (she was on vacation in this one), Corsica, and so on. Marleau combines various tropes from other detectives including the “just one more question” (she jokingly refers to herself as ‘Columbo’ a few times), and even the opening shots of the lone detective running that shows up in so many Brit Crime series. Marpeau supposedly based Marleau on Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson (Fargo), Chandler’s Marlowe, and Columbo. She’s brash - even rude - has no time for social niceties, and seems to like to swim a lot. That she’s a brilliant detective is clear in the way she solves cases no one else can but the solutions are often frustrating - surprise culprits or - and here’s where again I run into issues with the show - the jealous girlfriend, the jealous lesbian lover, the insecure stepmother, and so on. In some cases female characters are only introduced so they can be killed or be the murderer. It’s frustrating in a series that has so much potential. There are various celebrity cameos (Gerard Depardieu, David Suchet, Christopher Lambert) which, aside from Suchet’s nuanced performance, don’t seem to add much. Several episodes in, there’s a surprise that allows both Marleau and Masiero (the actress playing her) to go deeper. Marleau is called in by a friend to see a body that could be her twin, It turns out that the body IS her long-lost twin and Marleau decides to go undercover - changing into a glamorous businesswoman and discovering troubling secrets about her past. The depth of emotion and a chance to see Marleau out of her usual outfit is refreshing. Overall, both series are entertaining as mystery/crime series and, arguably, are making an attempt at rewriting the script of the mystery where women so often show up only as a naked body at the beginning and rarely as the detective.