The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (2010)

I’m over a decade late to this, but this film, based loosely on a French comic book character, and directed by Luc Besson, has me obsessed. It has that slow burn like I got with my other Luc Besson favorite film, “The Fifth Element.” For me, both films seemed to start off a tad over-stylized and choppy, but soon wove everything together with such style, humor and charm. In addition to a whacky story, amazing set design, wonderful actors, and a beautiful score, the costume design is gorgeous. Available to rent on Amazon and other streaming services or to view free with ads on Tubi. Stick with the Director’s Cut in French with subtitles. Some versions have been trimmed, and others may be dubbed. Non non!

Louise Bougoin as Adele Blanc-Sec

Adele (Louise Bourgoin) and her sister Agnathe (Laure de Clermont) get up to some tennis shenanigans

Phillippe Nahon and Nicolas Giraud as the professor and Andrej with-a-J-as-in-jaguar