The Crime on the 3rd Floor

The duo of actors forms a strong team in this suspenseful, humorous, and cinematic investigation.

Published on: March 11, 2026 at 06:00

Reading time: 5min

The director of “The Mystery of Henri Pick” (2019) and “A Stroke of Malice” (2023) returns with an 8th feature film in which he tells the story of a couple at the end of their tether who find new life by diving into a police investigation. “Le Crime du 3e étage” hits theaters on March 11, 2026.

Colette (Laetitia Casta), a film professor, and her husband François (Gilles Lellouche), a writer of historical romance novels, form a couple lacking inspiration. Like Belmondo in “The Magnificent”, the writer (here in a swashbuckling novel version) stages himself as a hero. But in real life, he lets himself go, and the plots of his books – often inspired by the life he fantasizes with his wife – have lost their flair, as his editor reproaches him.

Their neighbor on the 3rd floor, Yann Kerbec (Guillaume Gallienne), a bad theater comedian playing Hamlet to empty audiences, invites them to see his show. Colette, who observes him from her window, one day believes she sees this unsettling character kill his deaf wife. Initially reluctant to adhere to Colette’s theories, François eventually gets caught up in this investigation, which turns out to be more dangerous than they had imagined. This event and those that follow will offer them the chance to inject some excitement back into their lives.

Behind the detective plot is also a story of romantic reconquest being told here. “If François ultimately decides to follow Colette in her far-fetched investigation, it is mainly so that she will look at him anew,” explains the director.

Rémi Bezançon takes advantage of his plot and this story of romantic reconquest to pay homage to a great master of suspense. The character of Colette is an obsessive specialist and admirer of Hitchcock, and by observing her neighbors from her window, like James Stewart and Grace Kelly in “Rear Window”, she embarks on this investigation. The director has fun transposing the plot of this cinematic masterpiece into a burlesque comedy. He sprinkles in quotes and winks, plays with genre codes in staging, sets, accessories, and music.

“Beyond the investigation and the reconquest, this film is also a declaration of love for cinema. It is sprinkled with playful references to directors I admire, winks that will make cinephile viewers smile… There are also some allusions to my own films, which I have always imagined as a great treasure hunt,” explains Rémi Bezançon.

If the film struggles a bit to get started, one eventually gets carried away by this well-balanced adventure of dramatic tension and humor. In an amusing mise en abyme, Rémi Bezançon offers us a lesson in film noir in the footsteps of the great Alfred Hitchcock, who, in off-screen on the images of the unfolding intrigue before our eyes, delivers the recipes for a successful suspense.

With this light-hearted comedy, carried by the sparkling duo with great comic potential composed of Gilles Lellouche and Laetitia Casta, the director of “The First Day of the Rest of Your Life” showcases through these two dreamer characters the virtues of fiction, imagination, and thrills to spice up our lives.

Genre: Dramatic Comedy, Crime
Director: Rémi Bezançon
Cast: Gilles Lellouche, Laetitia Casta, Guillaume Gallienne
Country: France
Duration: 1h 44min
Release: March 11, 2026
Distributor: SND

Synopsis: Colette, a cinema professor specializing in Hitchcock’s work, suspects her new neighbor opposite of having murdered his wife. Reality or professional delusion? Her husband, François, a writer of somewhat dated historical crime novels, is initially skeptical of Colette’s obsession with this alleged crime. However, he gets caught up in this far-fetched investigation, and as the clues accumulate and the mystery thickens, this ordinary couple transforms into a pair of outstanding detectives. So, was there really a crime on the 3rd floor?