shard, freeing all the souls trapped inside the mask. Vidocq impales the Alchemist with a shard of mirror and throws him into a river. Although the others insist the Alchemist is dead, Vidocq is unnerved by the lack of a body. At Nimier's funeral, as the characters walk away, the Alchemist's laugh can be heard in the distance, accompanied by the glimmer of his mirror mask. Cast Gérard Depardieu as Vidocq Guillaume Canet as Étienne Boisset Inés Sastre as Préah André Dussollier as Lautrennes Édith Scob as Sylvia Isabelle Renauld as Marine Lafitte Moussa Maaskri as Nimier Jean-Pierre Gos as Tauzet Jean-Pol Dubois as Belmont André Penvern as Veraldi Gilles Arbona as Lafitte Jean-Marc Thibault as Leviner François Chattot as Froissard Production Post production The film featured 800 shots modified in post-production over a period of eight months, at a cost of over €20 million. It was the first feature film to be shot in digital progressive HDTV at 24 fps cinematic framerate (1080p24), one year before Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. A few short scenes, however, were shot using DV format (576i25) for artistic purposes. Only those special effects shots were deinterlaced by means of smart field blending (imitating a progressive-type amount of motion blur due to a different shutter speed of progressive modes) during post-production, as the special effects crew obviously was in demand of progressive frames which are easier to process. Normal shots were in no need of deinterlacing, thanks to progressive scan HD cameras. The result are video-like appearance of motions in DV shots, due to the different amount of motion blur resulting from the different deinterlacing methods, and distinctive film-like motions for the dominant 1080p24 shots otherwise. See also Vidocq (1939) A Scandal in Paris (1946) The Emperor of Paris (2018) References External links 2001 films French detective films 2000s French-language films Romantic period films Films set in the 1830s Films set in Paris French science fiction films 2001 directorial debut films French alternate history films Supernatural thriller films Occult detective fiction Cultural depictions of Eugène François Vidocq Films directed by Pitof Films scored by Bruno Coulais 2000s French films