Where is ‘Knives Out’ detective Benoit Blanc from?
Knives Out undoubtedly breathed new life into the murder mystery genre when it arrived in cinemas back in 2019. The hit film has turned into a major franchise, with 2022’s Netflix-funded sequel Glass Onion, and now a third movie on the way.
And the Knives Out films have also taken Daniel Craig’s career in an unexpected new direction, allowing him to break the typecasting shackles that tend to come with the territory of James Bond actors. He planned his exit strategy ahead of time, seamlessly shifting over to another cinematic juggernaut via his unexpected turn as an American private detective with a wry sense of humour.
Benoit Blanc is the type of idiosyncratic lead character Agatha Christie would have been proud of writing. Certainly, writer-director Rian Johnson pays homage to many movies that adapt Christie’s work in his depiction of Blanc. But it’s Craig’s dedication to the role, pitch-perfect delivery, dated dress sense, eccentric manner, and all that really bring the character to life.
Despite the Christie references, Blanc is very much operating in today’s world of tech billionaires and high-speed car chases. So, it’s the playful anachronisms in his identity cues that imbue the character with a sense of timelessness.
Nothing says quaint murder mystery like the Southern drawl Craig carries off beautifully to give us at least an approximation of Benoit Blanc’s geographic origins. He’s definitely from somewhere in the South of the United States. But where, exactly?
Well, theories abound online as to the exact whereabouts of his origins, but nothing in either film in which he has featured so far has given us specific information on this front. It’s clear that Blanc’s backstory will be revealed in the third Knives Out instalment.
We know from the initial movie that his father was also a detective and an acquaintance of Massachusetts-based novelist Harlan Thrombey, around whom the mystery revolves. These facts tell us nothing about how Blanc got his southern accent, but they imply there is a thread to be followed in future plotlines.
His French name suggests he could come from a US State with a large community of people with French heritage, such as Louisiana or South Carolina. Alternatively, it throws up the possibility that his accent is a ruse to fool the suspects in his investigations, which may explain why Craig overplays the part occasionally, according to some native southerners.
On the other hand, the French name may simply refer to the legendary Belgian detective in Agatha Christie’s novels, Hercule Poirot.
At one point in the first Knives Out, the character Hugh Ransom Drysdale snaps at Blanc and calls out his accent: “Shut up with that Kentucky-fried, foghorn, leghorn drawl!” Is this an indication that Blanc is indeed from Kentucky, or just a witty put-down? It’s never made clear to us.
One thing is clear, though. It’s very much Rian Johnson’s intention to keep us guessing about Benoit Blanc, at least until we see him on screen again.
