Hercule Poirot: why the works of Kenneth Branagh

In this in-depth analysis, we explain why Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot works and fits our times.

The film has arrived in theaters Murder in Venice, the third chapter of the Poirot saga created by Kenneth Branagh. We want to take advantage of the feature film release to explain because Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot works. The British director brought freshness to the character Agatha Christiemanaging to attract modern audiences with stories taken from iconic crime novels of the twentieth century.

Superhero and emotional detective

Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot trilogy debuted with Murder on the Orient Express, one of the flagship works in Agatha Christie’s literary career. The intriguing aspect of this adaptation, which drew comparisons to Sidney Lumet’s 1974 cult classic, was the ability to retain the classic inspiration while at the same time giving new life to the character of Poirot. Let’s look at Murder on the Orient Express by Kenneth Branagh. the director himself interprets the main character, using some typical features of Poirot (his inevitable wit), but also inserting something innovative, like almost unprecedented hostility and energy. At the time of Poirot’s release, Kenneth Branagh was described as a superhero of sorts (after all, we were in 2017, at the height of the cinematic wave). Throughout the film, and especially in the final stages, we see Poirot running, chasing characters, but also revealing anger, emotions, elements that set him apart from the standard Lumet film character.

At the time of its release, Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot was described as something of a superhero.

And as proof of the emotional impact that Kenneth Branagh intended for his character from the very beginning, in Murder on the Nile we find the most sentimental Poirot ever.. The character is shown in the initial stages in a prequel scene, where the secret of his inevitable mustache is also revealed. But there is something more to this moment: a feeling is born that Poirot will continue until he gets to the case involving Gal Gadot’s Lynnette Ridgeway-Doyle. This is the most emotional feature film of the trilogy, telling about love triangles and never-ending feelings, even negative ones. In all this, Poirot, working on his own case, will find a way to summon and exorcise his dormant love and somehow move forward. In Murder on the Nile, it can be said that Kenneth Branagh played loud and clear all the cards he intended to play for a character who revealed himself in the most modern sense, presenting himself on screen with a fragility never before seen in the character. Poirot.

Poirot: the story of a typical modern detective

But we are talking about a person who modernized the ideal of the detective Sherlock Holmes. While the character created by Arthur Conan Doyle was distinguished by his insight and the fact that he was beyond the feelings and emotions experienced in his affairs, when it comes to Poirot, we are talking about a distinctly twentieth-century figure. The year 1900 was the year when Sigmund Freud blossomed as an intellectual. At the end of 1899, the psychologist published The Interpretation of Dreams, beginning to delve into the human unconscious. In all this, Hercule Poirot is the perfect embodiment of the Freudian figure. We might describe him as a neurotic character, obsessed with the search for truth until the tragic epilogue in his last novel published by Agatha Christie, Curtain.

We are talking about a person who modernized the ideal of the detective Sherlock Holmes.

And this “Murder in Venice,” taken from “The Massacre of the Innocents,” confronts Hercule Poirot with the supernatural, or the refutation of everything the character believes. This is a film in which Poirot’s emotionality and neurosis could reach a complete collapse. After all, literary figures of the twentieth century are experiencing great crises that can reveal important new truths. Pirandello teaches this in One, Nobody, One Hundred Thousand. And the characters at the heart of Agatha Christie’s stories are just that: individuals seeking truth, capable of remaining troubled but also finding a new self in what deduction leads them to.. And Kenneth Branagh seems to have fully learned this lesson. His Poirot is a constantly changing character, a man of strong principles, but at the same time ready to be shocked as he plumbs the depths and dark sides of the human soul. Previous films in the Poirot saga, directed by Kenneth Branagh, have put the Belgian detective to the test, but Murder in Venice could be considered the title that could finally shake him off. And all this attracts viewers of the 2000s: they deal with thin figures and are looking for something to believe in and something to convey.

We conclude this exploration of Hercule Poirot and the reasons why Agatha Christie’s character works in Kenneth Branagh’s films by emphasizing that such a figure could not have been born without the insight and sensitivity of the English writer. We’re talking about an author who has created genre-defining works (from Murder on the Orient Express to Ten Little Indians to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd). The germ of Hercule Poirot’s ability to innovate and keep up with the times lies entirely in the genius and pioneering spirit of Agatha Christie, who already in the first decades of the 1920s managed to look beyond the boundaries of her era.

“Murder in Venice” can be seen in cinemas from September 14.