General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Arsène Lupin (2004 film)

Arsène Lupin is a 2004 French adventure film directed by Jean-Paul Salomé, adapted from Maurice Leblanc's novel La Comtesse de Cagliostro and starring Romain Duris as the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, with Kristin Scott Thomas, Pascal Greggory, and Eva Green in the other leading roles.¹^•² It was released in France on 13 October 2004 with a running time of 125 minutes.²

Key fact	Detail
Director and writers	Jean-Paul Salomé, who co-wrote the screenplay with Laurent Vachaud; Nicolas Saada is also credited as co-screenwriter by French-cinema databases²^•³
Source	Maurice Leblanc's novel La Comtesse de Cagliostro, the first episode of the Lupin series¹
Lead cast	Romain Duris (Arsène Lupin), Kristin Scott Thomas (Joséphine, the Countess of Cagliostro), Pascal Greggory (Beaumagnan), Eva Green (Clarisse de Dreux-Soubise)⁴
French release	13 October 2004; 125 minutes; distributed by SND²^•⁴
French box office	1,171,703 admissions in France⁴
Budget	21,610,000 EUR per AlloCiné; Kinopoisk lists €23,000,000⁴^•⁵
Recognition	One nomination at the César 2005 ceremony, in the best costumes category³

Spoilers

Story

The film follows the youth and early career of Arsène Lupin, the gentleman burglar created by Maurice Leblanc. A prologue set in the 1880s shows the boy Arsène being taught fencing by his father Théophraste Lupin at the château of his mother's family, the Dreux-Soubises; when the police move to arrest Théophraste for thievery, he persuades the young Arsène to help him steal a necklace that once belonged to Marie Antoinette, and after the theft is discovered the family is cast out.⁷

As an adult, Lupin robs the Parisian aristocracy with charm and audacity. His encounter with the enigmatic adventurer Joséphine, the Countess of Cagliostro, transforms the novice pickpocket into a master thief, and he is drawn onto the trail of the lost treasure of the kings of France, which an obscure royalist brotherhood also seeks.⁴ The set pieces include an attack on a train at full speed, a chase through the Paris catacombs, and a spectacular theft at Rouen cathedral, while Lupin's blind passion for the poisonous countess disrupts his quest.⁴ In the plot as summarized by IMDb, Lupin saves the Countess when a gathering of royalist plotters condemns her to death, and the two become bound together, sometimes as lovers and sometimes as enemies, as the search for the treasure proceeds.⁷

Production

The film was written and directed by Jean-Paul Salomé, a French filmmaker whose 2004 credits include both the screenplay and the direction of this picture.⁶ It was produced by Stéphane Marsil through Hugo Films, with co-production from TF1 Films Production, M6 Films, Vertigo Films, and Rai Cinema, and international sales handled by Studio TF1 Distribution.²^•³ Pascal Ridao was the cinematographer, Debbie Wiseman composed the score, Marie-Pierre Renaud edited, Françoise Dupertuis designed the sets, and Pierre-Jean Larroque the costumes.²

Casting. Salomé and Vachaud chose Romain Duris early for the title role. The director described organizing genuine screen tests, filmed in 35 mm, in costume, on a set, using a scene Vachaud had written specially for the audition.⁴ For Eva Green, then a newcomer who had just appeared in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers, the role of Clarisse was her second film part; Salomé called her the ideal counterpoint to the dark character of the Countess.⁴

Release and reception

The film opened in France on 13 October 2004 and rolled out across Europe over the following year: Belgium on 20 October 2004, the Czech Republic on 7 April 2005, Hungary on 28 April 2005, Spain on 13 May 2005, Poland on 3 June 2005, Italy on 2 September 2005, and the United Kingdom on 9 September 2005.² Distributors included SND in France, 01 Distribuzione in Italy, SPI International in the Czech Republic, and Vértigo Films in Spain.²

Commercial performance. AlloCiné records 1,171,703 admissions in France against a budget it lists as 21,610,000 EUR.⁴ Kinopoisk lists a budget of €23,000,000 and worldwide gross receipts of $9,661,028, with about 1.2 million spectators in France, 78,700 in Spain, and 38,000 in Turkey.⁵

Critical response. On AlloCiné the film holds a press score of 3.1 out of 5 from 17 reviews and a viewer score of 1.8 from more than 5,800 ratings.⁴ Kinopoisk users rate it 6.4 out of 10.⁵ The film received one César nomination, for best costumes, at the 2005 ceremony.³

Place in the Lupin screen tradition

The 2004 film is one of many screen adaptations of Leblanc's character, who first appeared in the magazine Je sais tout in 1905 and went on to fill 17 novels, numerous novellas, and plays.⁸ Earlier French cinema versions include Jacques Becker's Technicolor The Adventures of Arsène Lupin (1957) with Robert Lamoureux, and an erudit.org survey of Lupin adaptations identifies the Salomé film with Romain Duris as the character's most recent screen appearance before the 2021 Netflix series.⁸^•⁹ TIME's overview of the character's adaptations likewise cites the 2004 French film as the most recent direct adaptation preceding Netflix's Lupin, which is guided by plot points from the books rather than being a direct adaptation.¹⁰

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026