BELPHEGOR, PHANTOM OF THE LOUVRE (2001)

1935 EGYPT. 

An archeological expedition led by Pierre Desfontaines finds the tomb of an unknown mummy and his artifacts which are brought back to the Louvre in Paris.  On the ocean voyage, all but one of the ship's passengers meets with a strange death.  Back in the present day, the Louvre antiquities boffins decide to catscan the mummy to see if they can learn anything about it.  This causes a ghostly mummy ghost to fly out of the mummy and enter into the electrical system of the Louvre.  Meanwhile, British museum scientist Glenda Spencer (Julie Christie) is brought to the Louvre to help with the investigation of the mummy artifacts.  From a "scrap" of fabric, they recreate the Egyptian ceremonial robes of the time which pairs with a black mask worn on the mummy's face. 

The ghostly Mummy ghost flits about like something out of Disney's Haunted Mansion and eventually takes over the body of Lisa (Sophie Marceau) who lives in the apartments which she shares with her Granny (Patachou) that happens to be across the street from the Louvre.  Electrical havok ensues in the apartment so Lisa calls the SOS Electrical Service company and young Martin (Frédéric Diefenthal) shows up to repair it.  There's an attraction between Lisa and Martin and they soon start seeing each other. 

Unfortunately, Granny soon drops dead and Lisa begins acting strangely; she also develops strange magnetic/electrical quirks as in the phone will rings when she puts her hand near it.  Meanwhile in the Louvre, a strange figure wearing the recreated ceremonial robes of the ancient Egyptians (looking a lot like the figure who visits Mozart in AMADEUS) stalks the halls bumping people off and nicking the seven artifcacts that were found in it's tomb.  Because, of course, the Mummy we come to know as Belphegor the demon/devil is under that costume.  

This movie is a remake of a French TV mini-series from 1965 and, by all accounts, is nowhere near as good.  Juliette Gréco starred in the original 1965 version and also has a cameo here as an enigmatic woman in a cemetery that stops to smile at Lisa.  This new 2001 version of the story is rather tepid and clearly meant to cash in on the recent MUMMY movies starring Brendan Fraser.  There is, of course, no way this French production could compete with the almighty dollar of Hollywood and it doesn't.  I've sadly not managed to catch up with the 1965 version but, even without having seen that, this version is still no great shakes.  As stated before, the Mummy ghost zips around in the air like something from a Disney movie and the CGI is only barely passable; even for 2001.  The Mummy Belphegor/Phantom of the Louvre creeps/floats around the darkened museum at night quite nicely half the time and the other half is poorly CGI'ed.  The entire plot concerning what Belphegor is and what he's doing in the Louvre is seriously underbaked and I'm still not sure what the whole point of it all was. 

The best part of the film actually is the chemistry between actors Sophie Marceau and Frédéric Diefenthal as Lisa and Martin; they are wonderful to watch interacting together and I think I would have preferred seeing them together in a romantic comedy than this French mummy movie (and knowing me, that's saying A LOT!!!).  Patachou as Lisa's Granny Genevieve is wonderful and leaves the movie all too soon.  Julie Christie is OK but is probably just cashing a check here; although she does give it a good go without phoning it in.  I'm not sure how good Christie's French is but I highly suspect her voice was dubbed for the French dialogue which never does a performance any good.  All in all, this is a film you could easily pass on.  I will say this film gets an additional half a star just for Sophie Marceau's hotness.  I'm still on the lookout for the original 1965 one since, by all accounts, that's a real winner!