General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Belphegor (2001 film)

Belphegor (2001 film) is a French fantasy film directed by Jean-Paul Salomé, released in France on 4 April 2001 under the original title Belphégor, le fantôme du Louvre (internationally Belphegor: Phantom of the Louvre). It adapts Arthur Bernède's phantom-of-the-Louvre story for the cinema, with Sophie Marceau as the possessed Lisa, Michel Serrault as the retired inspector Verlac, Frédéric Diefenthal as the electrician Martin, and Julie Christie as the Egyptologist Glenda Spender.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Original / international title	Belphégor, le fantôme du Louvre / Belphegor: Phantom of the Louvre¹
Director and writers	Jean-Paul Salomé; screenplay by Salomé and Jérôme Tonnerre, from Arthur Bernède's work¹
Release	France, Belgium and Switzerland 4 April 2001, then ten further territories through 2002¹
Running time	97 minutes¹
Production	Les Films Alain Sarde and TF1 Films Production; distributed by Bac Films¹
Budget	15,990,000 euros³
French admissions	1,958,978 (Allociné) or 2,032,144 (JP Box-Office), roughly 2 million³^•⁴
Music	Bruno Coulais¹

Spoilers

Plot

In the Paris of the year 2000, renovation work at the Louvre leads archaeologists to a sarcophagus holding an enigmatic mummy, buried without jewels or name, contrary to Egyptian tradition. The mummy is that of the Egyptian prince Neb-Mes, victim of a spell that denies him eternal rest. His malevolent spirit, Belphégor, escapes at nightfall to haunt the museum's galleries, attacking guards and eluding the most advanced electronic surveillance systems, and takes possession of the young woman Lisa, who had wandered into the museum's underground passages with the electrician Martin. Under Belphégor's influence Lisa tries to kill Martin and drives a Louvre employee to suicide. Martin, inspector Verlac, and Miss Spencer try to solve the mystery and learn that they must recover a group of seven lost amulets to free the prince.⁵^•⁶

Cast and crew

Sophie Marceau plays Lisa, who becomes Belphégor's vessel; Michel Serrault plays Verlac, the gruff old investigator who takes up quarters among the Louvre's reserves; Frédéric Diefenthal plays Martin; Julie Christie plays the Egyptologist Glenda Spender; and Jean-François Balmer plays Bertrand Faussier.²^•⁷ Juliette Gréco, the star of the 1965 television series, makes a brief cameo appearance in a cemetery, a nod to the earlier production.³

The screenplay is credited to Jean-Paul Salomé and Jérôme Tonnerre, with Danièle Thompson also credited by Telerama; the score is by Bruno Coulais, who had written the music for Harrison's Flowers and Les Rivières pourpres the year before.¹^•²^•⁷ Jean-François Robin was the cinematographer and Sylvie Landra the editor.¹

Production

Filming at the Louvre. The museum had refused permission to the television team of Claude Barma for the 1965 series, but it admitted Salomé's feature crew, which had applied far in advance. Salomé said he did not know how the film could have been made without the Louvre, though the museum's administration was not enthusiastic when told the project was Belphégor.⁸ The 1965 series had been shot in studios.⁹

Special effects. The ghost was brought to the screen by Alain Carsoux and a team of 20 animators, graphic artists, and compositing artists at the company Duboi.⁸ A contemporary review described the resulting phantom as a rubbery, luminescent skeleton that amused more than it frightened.¹⁰

Place in the Belphégor cycle

The character comes from Arthur Bernède (1871–1937), a popular author who was successively opera singer, librettist, journalist, playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Belphégor first reached the screen in 1927 in a silent film: JustWatch and AlloCiné attribute it to Henri Desfontaines, while La Dépêche calls it a silent film by Louis Feuillade. The 1965 black-and-white television series directed by Claude Barma for the ORTF, starring Juliette Gréco as the mysterious Laurence, became a social phenomenon in France, and a theatrical compilation, La Malédiction de Belphégor, followed the same year.⁸^•¹¹^•⁹

Salomé's film is a deliberately free adaptation. Where the 1965 series cultivated psychological fear and left the ghost's nature in doubt, the 2001 film takes a more explanatory approach, mixing thriller, the supernatural, and modern technology: Belphégor becomes a clearly identified Egyptian entity, at the cost of some of the original mystery.¹¹ Salomé said he was inspired by American adaptations of television successes such as Mission: Impossible and Charlie's Angels, and that the film centers on the theme of possession rather than remaking earlier versions.⁹ The film also deliberately avoids suspense, since the audience knows from the start who Belphégor is, and aims instead at a droll supernatural register.⁹

Reception and box office

The film was one of the expected large French productions of the 2001 season, but critics received it coolly. Telerama's review judged that the mystery had gone stale; Ciné-Feuilles called the result thin and preferred the black-and-white small screen; Krinein gave it 2 out of 5.²^•¹⁰^•¹² On Rotten Tomatoes the Tomatometer stood at 27 percent from three reviews, and the IMDb rating is 4.5 out of 10 from about 5,500 votes.¹³^•¹⁴

Audience turnout was nonetheless respectable for French fantastic cinema: about 2 million admissions in France, with 375,646 in the Paris region, against a budget of 15,990,000 euros.³^•⁴ Abroad the film earned $2,863,896 worldwide with no domestic United States release, led by Spain ($1,896,486) and Mexico ($826,005).¹⁵ In Italy it sold 373,398 admissions through 01 Distribution.¹⁶

The film has remained available on video and streaming, and the myth returned to television in the mid-2020s with a new four-episode adaptation for HBO Max and M6.¹¹

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026