“Crime in the Village – The Bride Wore Red” is a crazy Austrian crime TV movie that follows the wacky investigation of a cop who is as frumpy as he is clumsy…
It’s a criminal investigation like no other which could well be the surprise of the week. This Friday, January 24, at 8:55 p.m., Arte has scheduled the Austrian TV film Crime in the village – The bride wore reda fiction straight from the country of Sissi which does not lack bite.
Starring Thomas Stipsits in the role of Inspector Sifkovits, this feature film plunges us into the heart of a sordid news story that shakes the town of Stinatz. The day after a wedding, the lifeless body of the young bride is found in a field. To elucidate this crime, the investigator is dispatched to the site. But in Stinatz, it’s not just anyone: the whimsical Commissioner Sifkovits comes from this village which he had left years before.
As soon as he arrives at the wheel of his old harp, the somewhat quirky inspector finds his bearings and his old acquaintances. Because here, everyone has known him since his childhood, starting with his own mother and his friends, nicknamed “the scarf mafia”. A trio of grannies fond of gossip of all kinds, they know more than Google and Facebook combined about the lives of the inhabitants. Enough to support – or not – Sifkovits in his investigation.
Crime in the village – The bride wore redhilarious and grating
In the casting of Crime in the village – The bride wore redwe also find the inspector’s sister, played by Sabrina Reiter. A relationship which could prove embarrassing since the young woman frequented the murdered bride. Sifkovits will have to investigate his own loved ones and dig into a past that bothers him, while dealing with old resentments and stubborn rivalries between villagers. A sharp rural chronicle on the darkness of the human soul, shrouded in corrosive humor.
In the direction, Daniel Geronimo Prochaska does not hesitate to force the line, portraying a gallery of colorful characters, each more suspicious than the last. Between the bereaved groom, played by Gerhard Liebmann, an ex-boyfriend of the deceased still in love, grieving parents and friends in shock, the Austrian director paints a small world far from postcards. Here, behind the peaceful appearance of a village like any other, lie dark secrets that Sifkovits will have to bring to light, whether he likes it or not.
A reference to Columbo quite well seen
But beyond the well-executed detective intrigue, Crime in the village – The bride wore red enjoys subverting the codes of the genre. In the lead, Inspector Sifkovits himself, an absolute fan of a certain… Lieutenant Columbo whom he meets every Monday on television. In his faded raincoat, with his awkward gait and his eternally bewildered air, the Austrian commissioner is reminiscent of the late American investigator. A claimed and enjoyable nod to the cult series worn by Peter Falk.
Like Columbo, Sifkovits is an outstanding investigator despite appearances. He will end up solving the criminal enigma by shedding harsh light on the small and big failings of his contemporaries. But the interest of this Crime in the village – The bride was in red is best to be found in the the blunders and blunders that he will continue to accumulate throughout the investigation. To the point of regularly losing your service weapon! A magnificent loser character, made endearing by the performance of Thomas Stipsits.