Georges Simenon's taut, slim novels are perfect companions for summer vacations. His stout Inspector Maigret, pipe clenched between his teeth, has investigated hundreds of crimes, less obsessed by chasing clues than motivated by Simenon's own motto, “to understand without condemning.” Working intuitively, with vital breaks to enjoy food and drink, Maigret inhabits a criminal's character, empathizing with the reasons why they act as they do. Written between the moneymaking Maigret mysteries, Simenon's darker romans durs, or psychological novels, detail how ordinary lives derail, whether through weariness, weakness, or deluded dreams.
While in no way approaching Simenon's own prolific output, a number of mysteries, thrillers, and melodramas have brought his prose to the screen. Although Simenon was skeptical about cinema adaptations, directors Julien Duvivier, Marcel Carné, and Claude Chabrol in France; the lesser-known Phil Karlson and Henry Hathaway in the United States; and, most recently, the Hungarian Béla Tarr have all paid fitting cinematic tribute to Simenon's unique understanding of human frailty. Akira Kurosawa, too, was a fan, writing an homage to Simenon and then adapting it to film. Read the books, join us to see a rich array of movies, and spend the summer understanding the darkness that lies within.