... the "ligne claire" mystery.

In « Tintin et le mystère de la toison d’or », Capitaine Haddock inherits an old boat wreck moored in Istanbul, « la toison d’or », which a dubious shipowner seems determined to make his by any means.

Like a Tintin comic strip, the film is attractive in a deceptively low key but impregnating way. It can be dismissed summarily as mediocre, but is surprisingly much harder to forget, though « papyboomers » in the higher end of the 7-77 bracket are more likely to enjoy it than their grandsons fed on higher octane entertainment.

« Tintin et le mystère de la toison d’or » rewards spectators who have kept their capacity for merriment with the simple unadulterated pleasure of cinema : moving images in colour, in the same way as the Tintin albums offer their readers the charm of comic strips at its purest.

The film includes no special effects, its action scenes are limited to a motorbike chase and a touch of judo but no John Woo-style choreography, its sense of comedy to Capitaine Haddock’s antics, its thrills to a team of bad guys, some of them truly ominous if not scary.

Screenwriters were intelligent enough not to try and improve on Hergé ; the transfer of his paper universe of still drawings to flesh and blood action is faithful to the original.

Its on screen avatar also confirms that Hergé’s world is mostly realistic : the unique form of « réalisme poétique » which runs through the Tintin albums permeates « Tintin et le mystère de la toison d’or » and its tale of treasure hunt and Haddock’s loyalty to a friendship of his lost youth.

The film was shot in Greece and Turkey at a time when, like « L’homme de Rio »’s Brazil, both countries remained exotic and candidly ignorant of their mass tourism future.

Istanbul and the Bosphorus, the villages of the Greek countryside, the Mediterranean sea are still stunningly beautiful, no smog hangs over the Golden Horn and the Meteora region is richer in monasteries than in tourist buses.

Its settings endow the film today with a near elegiac quality. The movie is sun-drenched, its colours sharply contrasted, its skies and waters amazingly blue : the ecological legacy of a lost world, which, like an endangered species, could not be saved.

In every respect, « Tintin et le mystère de « la toison d’or » » is faithful to Hergé’s « ligne claire » -« clear line »- style of well-delineated characters and backgrounds, strongly separated colours, eminently readable drawings.

Greece and Turkey, as they appear in the film, are far and away from the Balkans Eric Ambler depicts in his novels and Jean Negulesco in his screen adaptation of « The mask of Demetrios ».

Ambler’s universe calls for black and white cinema, menacing shadows at night and ambiguous « heroes », Hergé’s « ligne claire » for the bright colours of full daylight, straightforward storytelling and characters.

Hergé’s world is simple and optimistic : the good are good, the bad not beyond redemption. It is a tolerant world which does not condemn Capitaine Haddock’s bouts of drunkenness and crude language. It is not a perfect world : Hergé, like Simenon again, is not above stereotypes and prejudices, which remind us his time is not ours.

Hergé’s stories translate the simplicity of his world : linear, they are as easy to follow as his strips, drawn at eye level, nearly all in the same format ; nothing hides behind « la ligne claire » : again, self-effacing art, the conscious and obstinate refusal of any artfulness.

Beyond its cinematography, « Tintin et le mystère de la toison d’or » achieves similar luminous straightforwardness in its shot selection and seamless editing, focused story line and structure, a chase which bites its tail like in Hergé’s « Le trésor de Rackham le rouge ».

Like with Tintin comic strips, the film apparent modesty and lack of self-consciousness are among its more appealing features : its only claim is to provide decent family entertainment.

« Tintin et les oranges bleues » was produced three years later, in 1964, again by André Barret. Jean-Pierre Talbot returned as Tintin, George Wilson, a respected stage actor safely hidden behind his beard and under his cap, as Capitaine Haddock, Milou as Milou. Director was Philippe « who ? » Condroyer.

The series stopped there. This is probably better. Jean-Pierre Talbot was losing his hair, like Sean Connery in the James Bond franchise, which, in the very same years, adapted to the screen, on a grander scale and no hint of pastiche yet, the adventures of Fleming’s 007 agent : « Dr No » was shot in 1962, « From Russia with love » in 1963, « Goldfinger » in 1964.

Sean Connery’s toupee did not prevent James Bond from saving the planet and killing his way to worldwide success ; a similar contraption would have been unbecoming for Tintin : James Bond was all gadgets and special effects, Tintin was all about ingenuousness ; an artificial tuft of blonde hair would have breached the character’s fiduciary duties towards millions of kids.

Jean-Pierre Talbot became the sports teacher he planned to be. He never tried to outgrow Tintin and play in other films : his humility was worthy of his screen model ; there may be a career after James Bond, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, not after Tintin.

Both Tintin live action films may have provided negative inspiration for Claude Zidi’s Asterix screen adaptation forty years later. While they were low profile, Zidi’s movie was all about star, special effects and budget power. Different times, different comic strips.

In the 1960’s, Tintin and Asterix were intimate competitors and bitter rivals, like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones or, in the French cycling world, Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor.

Kids belonged to a Tintin or an Asterix family ; few homes offered equal treatment to both characters, fewer welcomed neither. Asterix was the newcomer : witty, he was fun and liked puns, Tintin was ageless, i.e., to Asterix fans, boring and outdated, if not corny.

Asterix’s adventures took place 2000 years earlier, but were more contemporary than Tintin’s : Asterix commented on Gaullist France ; its small Gallic, if not Gaullist, village resisted the Romans, while De Gaulle closed US bases in France and left Nato.

The big nosed character’s more immediate and obvious charm was his major long term shortcoming against its older competitor : sociological and political commentary dies young ; René Goscinny, Asterix’s screenwriter, did too.

As much as his competitor, Asterix was Tintin’s mirror image : two odd couples, Tintin and Haddock, Asterix and Obelix, four characters without family ties, two asexual heroes, two bigger and heavier sidekicks, one addicted to whisky, one on an endless cure from « potion magique » hangover, two white wise dogs, Milou and Idefix.

A conscious tribute by the challenger to the holding champ : Hergé’s competitors played by his rules.