Disparue (2015) User Reviews (22)

Disappearing act

[Lejink · 8/10 · 25 June 2016]

This eight-part French remake of an earlier Spanish TV series became the latest sub-titled fix of my wife and I. After a succession of Nordic Noir programmes, this Lyons-set mystery thriller made for an effective change of pace and kept us gripped until the end. Centring around the disappearance of an apparently captivating 17 year old girl after she attends an outdoor pop concert on her birthday, what follows is part police-procedural, part whodunnit and part examination of the effects of grief and loss on individual family and friends connected to the girl.

Unsurprisingly, over eight one-hour episodes, other murders follow, but there is thankfully no serial-killer excess, with a plausible explanation for the subsequent deaths and a reasonable twist at the end, where my previously smug and apparently accurate selection of the killer was controverted, at least somewhat, by the concluding events.

Unlike the familiar Swedish - Danish shows of late, the style here is less dark and oppressive. There is an identifiable French take on events, from much of the action centring on the family restaurant to the seemingly national trait of infidelity with almost every adult character having affairs outside of their established relationships.

The main focus is on the pressures which overtake the marriage of the mother and father of the deceased Lea, the husband who becomes obsessed with finding the killer, harassing the pursuing detective team and setting up his own incident room in his cellar while his wife bottles up her emotions as she tries to keep her family together and marriage intact.

My only gripes would be that I found it hard to accept that a young girl like Lea could beguile so many men, both young and old, as she apparently does, plus I'm not certain the police would actually tolerate the seemingly ever-present attention of the crazed husband-father. Nevertheless, unshowily but effectively directed and excellently acted by almost every cast member, this was an intensely good production from start to finish.

Not quite enough material to justify the length

[paul2001sw-1 · 6/10 · 25 June 2016]

From 'Twin Peaks' to 'The Killing', we're all familiar with the basic template of 'The Disappearance': an attractive but apparently ordinary teenage girl suffers a grim fate, and the detectives have to understand her dark secrets to figure this out. Cue lots of grieving relatives, red herrings and nasty surprises in an extended format. Some series of this sort are even rather good, but 'The Disapperance' will not be joining my list of favourites. Somehow the characters just don't come individually to life, perhaps in part because everyone is beautiful. And a lot of the plot seems to hang upon the girl's father conducting a shadow of the police investigation in a way I found scarcely credible. Finally, the red herrings are all ultimately revealed to be just that, completely unrelated to the crux of the story. Perhaps the problem is simply that the story isn't sufficient interesting to sustain eight episodes. 'The Killing' had a political dimension whereas 'Twin Peaks' soon went off in its own, original direction. Without any novelty, 'The Disappearance', while nicely put together, lacks any elements to lift it above its genre.

The Disappearance.

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 19 June 2016]

This eight-part French drama opens with a sixteen year old girl, Léa Morel, going to a festival with her friends… she doesn't come home. At first it is just assumed she spent the night with one of her friends but it soon becomes apparent that she has gone missing. The police are called in and it soon becomes apparent that Léa had secrets and wasn't the 'good girl' her parents believed her to be; she had been taking drugs, had a secret boyfriend and was skipping school. As the investigation continues suspicion shifts from one family member or friend to another. Inevitably tension rises and tempers fray as Léa's parents have different ideas about how to deal with the situation. In the case of her father this rather annoys the police as he tries to investigate himself and in doing so interferes with their investigation.

Missing/murdered children has been a frequent theme of mysteries in the last few years with the likes of 'The Killing' and 'Broadchurch'… thankfully it hasn't become stale yet and this is solid addition to the genre. As with those series this concentrates on how the family deals with the situation as well as the police investigation. There is a good cast of characters and before the series is finished suspicion falls on most of Léa's family and friends. This does unfortunately mean we get a 'suspect of the episode' and by the end we can guess that the person behind Léa's disappearance will be one of the few people the police have yet to question… that isn't much of a problem though and there are a few twists before the end. The cast do a fine job making the characters believable as they deal with the situation. There are a few clichés and coincidences but these aren't enough to spoil the series. Overall I'd recommend this series to fans of subtitled drama.

These comments are based on watching the series in French with English subtitles.

Gripping French television mystery series

[robert-temple-1 · 10/10 · 30 December 2016]

This 8-part French TV series is called in the original DISPARUE ('disappeared'), and is available with English subtitles on DVD. It is truly amazing, and you cannot stop watching it. You simply have to sit through every episode continuously, always on the edge of your seat. It deals ostensibly with the disappearance of a young French girl on her 17th birthday at a late-night pop concert in a park. But the series is really far more complicated than that. The story is set in the French provincial city of Lyon. Has the girl been kidnapped, or murdered, or has she merely run off? A very dour French detective (played in a restrained and sombre fashion by Francois -Xavier Demaison) sets about the complex task of investigating the disappearance. But unlike most series of this kind, the detective is not the main character. The main ones are the girl's family, and even more extraordinary, one of them is a ten year-old girl who is the younger sister of the girl who has disappeared. This amusing little girl is played by a child actress named Stella Trotonda, and she really is a main character, not just a supporting actress. She provides the light relief for a very tense story. The script was written in such a way as to give her many of the best lines of dialogue, many of them hilarious. Who on earth would direct a TV mystery series with a child as a main character? Well, the answer is that the director must be a woman, and she is. Her name is Charlotte Brandstrom. 'Born in France but raised in Sweden', this tri-hybrid can direct films in English, French, or Swedish, being fully trilingual, and speaking also some other languages. Her direction is inspired, but never intrusive. She must have an incredible capacity for rapport with actors, because I have rarely seen such harrowingly intense performances in a series stretching over so many hours, and that must owe a lot to her. One does not know which to praise more, Alix Poisson who plays the mother, or Pierre-Francois Martin-Laval, who plays the father. They are both so brilliant than they are way up in the stratosphere of performers. The range of emotions they are required to portray in the course of the unfolding drama is immense, and by the time the 8 episodes are over, I would say they have deserved several Oscars each. We do see the disappeared girl a lot in the first episode, before she disappears. She is marvellously well played by a very beautiful creature named Camille Razat, who before this had only appeared in one 19-minute film. She is quite a discovery, and portrays a girl so irresistibly charming that everyone's grief at her disappearance is thoroughly convincing. Having someone like her around, who would ever want to lose her? Her first cousin Chris, played by Zoe Marchal, conveys a marvellous air of despondency and mystery throughout, and also does a superb job. Every actor in the series is good, and what with an inspired director and a fantastic original script written by a pair of women (Marie Deshaires and Catherine Touzet), this series is simply sensational. There are so many dizzying twists and turns that one is agasp at it all. The series is a profound study of the inconsistencies, untrustworthiness, mendacity, vacillation, duplicity, and unreliability of an extended family and those connected to them. During the series we discover that everyone is lying about something, everyone is concealing something, and the ground is not solid beneath anyone's feet. This is an exercise in humanology, the science of humans, those strange creatures who cannot be trusted. So much treachery, so many lies, and yet when one first meets them, they all seem so normal, friendly and well-meaning. At one point the mother says, in a moment of reflection on her evident maternal failures: 'I know I did something wrong. I just don't know what it was.' And that is all part of the tragedy: the characters are so flawed but seem unaware of how. The study of all these people close up, warts and all, is absolutely spellbinding. And the mystery goes on and on, a new surprise every few minutes for eight hours. How sad, how strange, how human. And what a brilliant series!

I never planned watching the entire 8 hours without a break

[rebeccax5 · 10/10 · 23 April 2017]

One of best taut drama, suspense, series I've seen. On a free trial of "Acorn TV" on Amazon, I decided to give this a try and was immediately drawn in and couldn't tear myself away. Great mystery, story, characters, acting, direction, and locale in Lyon, France.

The very real anguish of a family, after the disappearance of their teenage daughter and the gradually building nightmare gathers steam hour after hour, keeping you guessing right up to the end. A +++

Not too fine imitation of Scandinavian noir

[BeneCumb · 7/10 · 3 May 2017]

If considered separately, particularly, then Disparue is definitely not bad - the story is in place, tensions and twists available, most of performances and characters sustained... But, having comprehensive knowledge of similar Scandinavian creation, then you might want to declare that the final solution is too trivial, there are several scenes providing no additional value to the course of events, and that the French-specific qualities (e.g. friskiness, inconsistency, fast talking) do not fully fit in the background, requiring more balanced and reasoned approaches and actions (instead of Lyon - although a fine place - the location could have been a city in Northern France where Belgian/British "calmness" is more visible). Moreover, female performances excel the male ones, and as for some suspects, it was evident right away that they cannot be offenders in this case, event taking into account the past actions.

But still, if you have not seen e.g. Forbrydelsen, then Disparue is a unquestionably a worth-watch, preferably within short interval, in order to main the thrill between the episodes.

Very good but I'd love to watch the Spanish original

[crltct · 9/10 · 23 May 2020]

Was hooked from the first episode. Then found out it was actually a remake of a 2008 Spanish TV series set in Madrid and that won many awards. Would love to watch the original in Spanish now!

Attention-Grabbing Drama about a Disappearing Teenager

[l_rawjalaurence · 7/10 · 21 June 2016]

LA DISPARUE contains a fair share of clichés associated with the detective drama. Shot in the east central city of Lyons, it depicts the urban landscape as threatening, with streets peopled with citizens largely indifferent to one another, and a nightlife full of potential criminals - drug-dealers, pimps and predators looking for available partners. By day the city has its beauty-spots such as a local park; but by night they become sinister places for murders and other crimes to take place.

Other clichés include a chief investigating officer Morel (Pierre-François Martin-Laval) who is divorced and has to shoulder the responsibility of a looking after a rebellious teenage daughter Rose (Myra Tyliann). Neither he nor his ex-wife know quite what to do with her.

Nonetheless Charlotte Brändström's production does have its redeeming factors, most notably its portrayal of an apparently happy family torn apart by the disappearance and eventual death of middle daughter Léa (Camille Razat). We discover a tangled web of intrigue; of rivalries, political affiliations; sibling struggles; and the vain attempt of Léa's parents (Pierre-François Martin-Laval, Alix Poisson) to maintain a normal life in the face of almost unendurable pressures.

The chief attraction of the story lies in the rivalry between Morel and Léa's father Julien. While Julien is almost obsessively concerned to find out what happened to Léa, even resorting to illegal behavior in his quest, Morel has to balance an obvious concern for the family with professional ethics. For the most part Morel manages the task successfully, although he admits on one occasion to sidekick Camille (Alice Pol) that he has been severely emotionally affected by the investigation.

The plot is engagingly complex, with each episode ending on a cliff-hanger, culminating in the final episode that contains an unexpected plot-twist. LA DİSPARUE is definitely worth a look.

Brilliant!

[shirlcox · 10/10 · 7 September 2019]

Had me hooked from start to finish! Great cast. Just wish my French was better!

French-TV Mimics Nordic Noir

[chazview · 7/10 · 10 July 2016]

Nordic crime mystery-thriller stuff one of my favorites when it comes to genres. It's interesting to see another country attempt to copy the formula, especially when it isn't a remake.

While "The Disappearance" isn't a remake, it is definitely a copy. A girl disappears, then the carousel of suspect family members and acquaintances. They each take their turn in custody and interrogation while those waiting their turn to be brought in express suspicion of those currently being questioned. Hints that the primary investigator has something in his past that he'd rather not talk about. Lots of borrowed plot elements.

The carousel-recipe, regardless of country, isn't my favorite. It's almost lazy writing, as it could be anyone — just depends on when the carousel stops. When it does stop, a backstory explaining guilt is abruptly created. I prefer the genre variation where the viewer is shown the perpetrator early on and the story that unfolds is how they are found out.

"Disparue" would be great if it were the first of a kind — but at this point it's been done over and over, and often better, in other countries. "Bron/Broen" and the UK "Broadchurch" are examples of 'better'. That being said, "The Disappearance" is engagingly watchable while waiting for the next addictive Nordic Noir crime thriller to come out.

Solid French mystery crime drama on par with BBC

[robertemerald · 8/10 · 5 June 2019]

This is a good crime show. There is a very unreliable timeline, many unreliable characters, and the cops are worked into many red herrings before finding the right path, and that path is cleverly never quite clear until right up to the end. Disparue has a well-thought out story and script, and may be compared to dramas such as Missing, also set in France. It's an honest investigation into people's reactions, their priorities, their embarrassments, their flaws, as well as their strengths and insights. I have no problem giving Disparue an 8, mainly because I enjoyed watching it and it achieved its goal of making me desperate to have the mystery unravel itself by the end. If you have seen a lot of BBC dramas or Nordic crime from the same genre, you may feel, like I did, that the story is a little paint by numbers here, not really displaying anything revolutionary in the way of similar shows. Once again we see a poor family struggle to retain themselves under a most tragic and unwelcome cloud. It must be said, however, that Disparue displays such drama extremely well, and needs to be recommended on that score.

Over the Top

[Cilica · 7/10 · 24 March 2019]

Another drama where you have the grieving making accusations at the police, because they think they're not doing their jobs correctly. Blame Blame. Oh and wait 'loud outbursts'.

While I thought it was over the top it still drew me in. I knew who the killer was in the 1st 30 minutes. What kept me watching was they were to be caught, with the twists and turns.

Weak and predictable

[nessalomiva · 5/10 · 21 March 2017]

The show looked promising, and the first episode had me hooked, thinking it was going to be really interesting. It wasn't. It disappointed me. The story was weak, they worked too hard to point us in the wrong direction, but to me it was pretty obvious who did it from very early on. They should have hid it better. Shame really, cause the cast was good.

Maudlin series

[satxfan · 21 March 2017]

The cinematography and lighting are lovely and the cast is made up of good-looking actors, but the script is filled with implausible points, there are too many useless sequences that don't propel the story and maudlin emotional scenes that don't ring true at all. I don't recommend this film.

To name a few implausible points: - How could a young woman who lives with her parents have a side career as a race car driver and have affairs with two men without someone wondering why she's never home? Instead, the film portrays a happy family. - How did it happen that the daughter of the police officer was the one to discover the body? A silly script coincidence. - The scene with Flo in the bar saying she'd just had her fifth cocktail. Really? A slender woman has had five and is still talking and laughing? - The scene at the park with Romain and Lea having sex in the car. Why? They have a room at Romain's house and permission from his parents. It seems a bit implausible, not to mention the silly earring discovery. And many more.

Wasted time and sequences would include -- Flo swimming (what's the point of several of these sequences?), -- family dinners and restaurant meals that don't add anything to the story line -- The overly long sequence in the morgue, -- Too many scenes in the basement with Julien printing pictures -- Flo's night out getting drunk If this film were well-edited, it would be much shorter and a good thriller.

In the maudlin category --- There are too many sappy scenes of characters trying to look sad or pensive or thoughtful with a techno pop soundtrack. Yuk.

Great series, could have been the first french global soap

[simmsmaggy · 10/10 · 20 March 2021]

What a shame that the writers missed the opportunity to extend this storyline into a regular slot. When you consider the plot, location and characters it has all the makings of the classics: Corrie, Eastenders, Neighbours ie intricate family relationships, juggling jobs and family pressures, suspicions, arguments, reconciliations, and in this instance, a couple of killings as well. Hindsight is an amazing science, but had the collateral murders been part of a longer soap-type plot woven around the lives of the neighbourhood you could have kept me watching for years, and I'm not a soap fan. Part of the attraction for me was its setting in and around Lyon. It was like my kind of city break, without the trouble of Lyon-St Exupery airport (don't get me started). The series gave an intense, satisfying hit for people like me who rather than the litany of 'doing the tourist spots' also crave knowing about the lives inside the courtyards, behind the tall windows, and in the gated high-rises - even if it is this fantasy version.

Magnificent thriller.

[davidtartcenter · 10/10 · 19 May 2020]

A magnificent, taut, tense crime thriller revolving around the disappearance of a teenage girl in the picturesque French city of Lyon. Superb performances, direction, cinematography and script. François Xavier-Demaison, as the lead detective, is particularly brilliant. The grieving parents are excellent too. Superb performances in general.

Too much drama

[lyu-21909 · 6/10 · 1 February 2021]

It started well and then became so over dramatic. Focused on parents pain it became chaotic, too much drama, less crime/detective. Family relations somehow not believable. At certain point it was clear who's the killer. The long shots of the swimming mother - extremely boring. The girl died from to blows on the head, so Jean's version was clearly a lie, but the cops didn't realize it??? Instead they wondered why he confessed so fast???

Top notch all the way around

[mybeloved-bb · 10/10 · 9 August 2018]

This mini series captivated me with its winding expansion of mystery, of pleated layers in character development somewhere in the early episodes I found myself with a feeling I was there with them I was surprised how I felt I knew these people the beauty here is being witness to how a tragedy a huge tradgedy affected a small community affected a family the acting was superb I never knew where it might end up there were so Many twists and turns this tragedy is lived out in such a raw display of real ness that I felt endeared to this cast and the excellent way they brought this story to us in a true authentic way I loved every episode, in the end my heart and soul were deeply moved hate for it to end

Spoiler - Plot based on The Killing by Søren Sveistrup but not attributed

[MDeMeoMD · 7/10 · 22 August 2016]

I enjoyed it, however, I knew who the killer was from episode two because I had watched and thoroughly enjoyed "The Killing" which was based on a book by Søren Sveistrup (also the producer).

Curiously, this production acknowledges that the story is based on a Spanish TV show but does not seem to acknowledge it follows the same plot line as "The Killing" while simply rearranging some of the characters.

Plagiarism? Watch the much better written "The Killing," originally produced by AMC and decide for yourself? Stay with this one for a more Soap Opera version.

It is a remake...

[nemesis-1981 · 8/10 · 19 May 2022]

User chazview wrote: "isn't a remake". It is a remake of Spanish 2006 series frame by frame... so, even if he original series is not Nordic, this is a remake... I've read several reviews of people praising the story... well the story is not original in this series. It's Patricia Marcos: Desaparecida, from Spain, 10 years earlier... I've enjoyed the series, but without knowing it was the remake of Patricia Marcos: Desaparecida, at minute 25 of first episode I realized... Not only Nordic series get remakes done...

Brilliant andgripping series

[nicholls_les · 10/10 · 24 December 2020]

Why cant we make good thrillers like this one? Despite some of the annoying overdone and some seemingly unnecessary scenes this was brilliant. OK the Father was too shouty and could have seriously hindered the investigation, the mother acted in a very hard and selfish way for someone who's daughter was missing and we guessed who had done it very early on. But it was generally well acted with enough tension to keep us gripped. There were a few attempts to throw you off the scent and suspect someone else but this was all well done. The actors playing the Police detectives were both excellent and the actress playing the little daughter was brilliant. I gave this 10 because it knocks the spots off most so called drams produced here in England.

I love this movie

[roxlovesthecopsever · 10/10 · 13 May 2021]

I love this movie because it has police looking for her.