David Suchet on the Orient Express/ Murder on the Orient Express
                                                                                                        
David Suchet on the Oreint Express
Director: Chris Malonel
Year: 2010
Rating: 6.0
From now on I want to travel with Sir David Suchet. Not just because he seems to be such a positive person with stories to tell, but also because he is treated so well. When he arrives in France to board the Orient Express, the entire train's staff are out to greet him like royalty. I love trains in theory. I read about this one, about one that crosses China, the ones that cross America and I think I would really love that trip. But I wonder.  How long can the passing scenery fascinate you, how long till your fellow passengers annoy you, how long till you want privacy and a lovely hot shower and your bed.



But the Orient Express is quite amazing. I would definitely not feel at ease in my shorts and t-shirts that have become a second skin for me since retirement. But this is glorious - a quarter of a mile long, three restaurants, a cocktail bar, staff that spoil you - at least if you are Sir David Suchet. Suchet is on this train of course because of playing Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express. He talks about this, the history of the train and all the details of the train. It stops in Paris, Venice, Prague where he gets off. Not sure if it still goes on to Istanbul as it did in the film. A lot of changes since Christie took the train and wrote the book in the 1920s and 30s - a world war, the Iron Curtain, economic issues. Once Suchet says the passengers on the train were well-known people in government or entertainment or royalty. Today they are just your average person treating themselves to a lovely trip. Not me in all likelihood, but it looks grand.


Murder on the Orient Express
Director: Philip Martin
Year: 2010
Rating: 6.0
This being I think the fourth version of this Agatha Christie novel that I have seen, there is no mystery for me and I expect most of the movie-going world. Just curiosity at how it plays out differently than the others. And who they got for the cast. In this case a few known names. Hugh Bonneville, Barbara Hershey, Eileen Atkins, Jessica Chastain, Toby Jones and as Hercule Poirot the wonderful David Suchet. They saved perhaps Christie's most famous book (though there is also And Then There Were None) for the 12th season of Poirot. It is a very odd take on it with Poirot as we have really never saw him in the series. Intense, surly, impolite and fucking angry. At one point he prays and thanks God for making him a Catholic. But he still figures it all out. As a murderer says "It was just bad luck that you were on the train".



Two short events take place before Poirot boards the train. He solves a case for the military and the guilty party commits suicide in front of him. Then he witnesses a stoning of an adulteress in Istanbul and does nothing. These put him into a place of darkness in which he seems to question his faith and his sense of justice. His rage at the end is astonishing. Not the affable subdued Poirot that we are used to. It feels a bit hurried at 90-minutes, but for the most part is the story we know so well.