With no Knives Out franchise film on view, it is up to The Wizard Ozon to provide us with a nifty souffle, a bon bon bon, a period murder mystery cum courtroom drama, The Crime is Mine, starring French superstars Isabelle Huppert and Dany Boon and an incredible wider cast including; Fabrice Luchini, André Dussollier, Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Rebecca Marder.

Set in  1930s Paris, The Crime is Mine tells the story of Madeleine, a pretty, young, penniless and talent-less actress, who is accused of murdering a famous producer. Helped by her best friend Pauline, a young unemployed lawyer, she is acquitted on the grounds of self-defence. A new life of fame and success begins, until the terrible truth comes to light.

Unlike the tiresome spate of Agatha Christie films recently, The Crime is Mine is a spritely stylish tongue in cheek piece of genre chicanery, with Ozon brilliantly making what is to all intents and purposes a parody into something the viewer genuinely cares about.

Very funny and very clever, THE CRIME IS MINE is a hugely entertaining homage to the Golden Age of both murder mystery and cinema. A slimy producer, an aspiring starlet, a faded star, a starry eyed suitor, a roguish entrepreneur, an incensed father, a perplexed prosecutor, a plucky defence counsel are part and parcel of this delirious caper.

And the décor is to die for. Stephanie Laurent Delarue has created a consummate look of the period for the film, a sumptuous feast for the eye in every frame.

Costumes by Pascaline Chavanne and Constance Allain are the ant’s pants and the cat’s pyjamas.

THE CRIME IS MINE is zany, crazy fun, a who dunnit with a who’s who cast having palpable glee with their deliciously diverting characters.

THE CRIME IS MINE – make it yours.