Monsieur Daré is a character from Lupin the Third Part II and is based on Salvador Dalì.
Character History[]
Daré is a surrealist artist who lives in a mushroom shaped house with an apple core on top of a cliff. One of his habits is pulling his mustache and saying tres bien. He invited a TV station to film himself showing off his works of art as well as a new sculpture that he was working on. As he was telling the presenter, his latest art piece is ready soon and something that no one would expect claiming to be his greatest masterpiece.
The presenter asks how much his pieces cost and was shocked as he claims to be an artist, also he considered it to be a trivial question. It is shown that a cracked egg to be worth 100 million francs, an eaten fish to be 200 million francs and his melted clock to be worth 350 million francs.
Suddenly his artwork was destroyed and the presenter claimed on TV to be stolen. Inspector Maigret who came to the scene of the crime blamed Lupin III for the act and claimed to have the stolen artwork returned, he also claims that Daré needs a bit of rest to recover. Since Lupin was watching TV, he was not involved with the crime and was annoyed.
Koichi Zenigata and Lupin disguised as Maigret went to his house. Daré made an entry system where to get in, put your feet on the green plate to open the door however as the arrow moved downwards, the door flew open and nearly removed Lupin's face mask. He claimed that it worked just as he wanted and was beautiful. When they entered the main room, Daré was sat on a chair as the room was designed upside down and claims that nothing bad will happen as it is his conceptual sanctuary. Zenigata gave him a gift and was happy enough however after opening the box, it turned out to be cream that he is allergic to. Daré was annoyed and claimed that they stabbed him in the back, he scratched his back at the thought of the cream however Zenigata ended up eating a portion.
Daré took them to his design room where his latest artwork still stands, Maigret asks him how did Lupin steal something large and he just pulled his mustache not bothered by the so called theft. Zenigata also asks that Lupin is a master of disguise but as Maigret walks away and claims that he finished the sculpture, Daré moved his feet to push on a button that dropped a cage to the floor. Zenigata and Maigret managed to clear away from the trap. As Maigret shouted, he pulled his mustache again and Zenigata claimed that Daré wanted to kill him.
His phone that is designed as a chicken phoned up and picked it up, Daré says it is for Zenigata who tells him that Maigret is Lupin in disguise and wants to take him to the sea cavern. Zenigata asks him that the house is connected to the sea cavern, he lied saying that someone on the phone told him that even though Zenigata said that it was a hunch. As they wanted to go to the cavern, using the chicken phone Daré moved to reveal a hidden door with stairs going down.
As Zenigata and Lupin as Maigret go down the stairs as Daré wants to stay upstairs, he smiled and pulled his mustache. While Zenigata figured out that Maigret was Lupin in disguise, Daré however disguises himself as Maigret with crooked teeth and jumps down to the top of the rock. Lupin dropped the gun that Daré then kicked it to the sea. He asks Lupin whether he finds the pipe beautiful and blows it to his face, knocking him out cold. Zenigata quickly shook Maigret's hand unaware that he is Daré, but Daré knocked Zenigata out as well. Daré pulled off Lupin's face mask, admiring the face of the thief, and carried him to his boat, tying him up and driving him out to sea. Removing his disguise, he gushed about Lupin's face. Daré envisioned a weather vane of Lupin on top of his house and he considered it to be his 35th work of art. As Lupin was sleeping, he touched his nose and decided he should be an immortal piece.
Daré took Lupin to the place where his creation was going to take place, and as he was about to wake up, Daré blew more sleeping gas to his face as he didn't want his artwork getting hurt and stroked his face. He put Lupin into a smoke house and in five days, he is going to be an "eternal piece of art". Afterwards he lit a candle that activated the oven and danced while looking at his plan.
While steering his boat at night, he was whistling to himself as Lupin was cooking along with animals, a Christmas tree, an apple tree, a watermelon and a cactus. Daré was brushing his teeth and rushed to the main room with a toothbrush in his mouth. He counted the days and was happy that it was the 5th day, he got out of the window and walked to the top of the roof to look at his telescope. Daré was happy that his masterpiece is ready and dashed to the boat to get to the other side. While walking up the hill, he was singing to himself and entered the smoke house. He saw Lupin sealed up in a case and kissed his hand, he claimed that it outrivals Picasso's creations and his best work. Daré tapped on Lupin unaware that he was still alive. Then he kisses Lupin's body and blushes.
He hired a crane and told the worker that it was his most important work, not to make a scratch as the worker lifted Lupin to the apple core roof and put a flag on top of him. Daré popped open a bottle of champagne and poured it to a hippo holder glass, he drank out of the glass and claimed to be perfect, "nothing can compare to my Lupin". After a bit of wind caused Lupin to move direction, he says that the weather vane "rules" as he jumped up and down. As Lupin moved to the other side, he spat out his drink and was surprised thinking that it got stuck. Later on he was reading from his chair in the main room.
Fujiko Mine contacted Maigret while pretending to be Zenigata. Daré disguised as him went out of the house and looked out of his watch waiting for him. He did not turn up but heard a voice saying "I don't think Pops will come" and "Inspector Maigret, you're actually Monsieur Daré" panicking that someone knows his secret. He got out his revolver and turned behind him, he walked looking for someone but dropped his pipe. Maigret aimed directly at the top of his house but Lupin no longer being a weather vane fired back and Maigret ended up on the ground without his gun. He was shocked as Daisuke Jigen and Goemon Ishikawa XIII brought him a piece of cream. This triggered his allergy as his face and hands broke up, scratched himself as they threw the cream directly at him. As he was trying to escape from the cream, Fujiko Mine using Daré's pink elephant hose squirted water and his face mask came off revealing his true identity. From the sea cavern, Lupin set a fuse to his house causing it to explode while escaping on his boat, Zenigata who came saw Daré's house move towards the sea.
As revenge, Lupin used Daré as a weather vane on his boat and pulled his mustache. Daré just ended up rotating on the spot.
Source Material[]
Salvador Dalì was a surrealist artist who did paintings, sculptures and photography as well as writing poetry and essays. The Persistence of Memory is his most famous painting with the melting clocks. His eccentric behavior was more well known than his art pieces at the time. While Monsieur Daré is French, Dalì however was Catalan. His name in Japanese was also different being サルバドール・ダリ while Daré is ムッシュ・ダレ.
At the time of the episode, he would have been 75 years old. After the episode aired, his health rapidly declined started to become depressed, had drug addition and a severe tremor in his right arm.
He passed away in January 23, 1989 from heart failure while his favorite record of Tristan and Isolde was played.
Notes[]
- In the Italian dub, he became Salvador Dalì himself.