RIEN NE VA PLUS
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. New Yorker Films Director: Claude Chabrol Writer: Claude Chabrol Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Michel Serrault, Francois Cluzet, Jean-Francois Balmer, Jackie Berroyer, Jean Benguigui, Mony Dalmes, Thomas Chabrol, Greg Germain, Nathalie Kousnetzoff
Americans are not comfortable with age differences. If an older man with a hint of gray in his sideburns dines with a much younger woman, the public is likely to say, "Aha: boss having a fling with his secretary." The French are different. A man and woman may have a relationship filled with gaiety, earthy romance, and game-playing, while outsiders peering in may not necessarily guess the nature of the affiliation. Claude Chabrol plays with this idea in his fiftieth film, one which takes a marked departure form his recent, bloody works like "La Ceremonie." The politics is still there. The great sixty-eight-year old French director still likes to disturb the complacent bourgeoisie, but with "The Swindle" he is more interested in power balances within couples, specifically between the youthful and earthy Betty (Isabelle Huppert) and the considerably older Victor (Michel Serrault) to whom she is intensely loyal and loving. Money, that is, capitalism, has a way of interfering with pure connections like theirs, turning heretofore devoted human beings into manipulative beasts, each now willing to use the other as prey. This time around, Chabrol plumbs his characters for comic depth rather than homicidal passions: his 50th film is in no way the epic which the public had expected of him but is instead a delightful, feathery comedy.
The story opens as the two grifters, Betty and Victor, take on another victim in their role as middle-range swindlers, one which has provided the with a comfortable living and a considerable amount of fun. A woman of many disguises and fluid identity, Betty has donned a long black wig to seduce a conventioneer in the gaming room of a French hotel. Having previously drugged his whiskey, she waits until he passes out on the bed and then, together with her partner goes through the man's wallet, leaving him enough cash to think that nothing criminal has happened. She does, however, manage to capture his signature and with it writes a sizable check to a dummy company.
Weary of such moderate, low-key exercises, she announces to Victor that she has been planning a much larger sting, one which would result in their snatching of five million Swiss francs from a young and handsome man, Maurice (Francois Cluzet) who is ripping off the mob. After romancing him in the breathtaking Swiss ski resort of Sils- Maria, she flies with him and his fortune to Guadeloupe where she may or may not have been scheming to double- cross Maurice and/or Victor. Chabrol keeps us guessing, making us marvel at Betty's ability to orchestrate the relationship between the two men in her lives. Just when we are sure she has make a genuine romantic attachment with Maurice we are spun around, positive that she remains loyal to her long-term partner. What happens when Victor and Betty go off the deep end--get into a racket that's out of their traditional territory of middle-level wheeling and dealing--their connection and their very lives are at stake.
Chabrol, I believe, would like us to accept this congenial work on various levels, while even on the simplest plane it is a charming story. We love to watch Victor seething with envy at noting the affection that Betty is showing to the younger Maurice. For all his professionalism, Victor is unable to get this woman out of his mind, which makes us wonder all the more just what they are to each other. On yet another surface, Chabrol wants to show us what happens when people abandon the ancient Greek ideal of moderation: when they carry on to excess because of greed and envy they are tampering with the gods. On the highest level, he appears to be making a transcendent statement about the nature of people. They are fluid, changeable--especially women. Just as Betty throws off one wig to take on a wholly new identity, so can women in all their mystery keep us poor men in the dark about who they really are. Chabrol fans will have a fine time guessing at the allusions the director makes to some of his many previous films, works he began in 1958 with "Le Beau Serge," and "Les Cousins" and continued for the next forty years, including "The Story of Women," the not very successful "Madame Bovary" and the violent "La Ceremonie."
Michel Serrault has been acting since 1954 and Ms. Huppert since 1976. The seventy-year-old actor is known to American audiences best for his poignant portrait of the effeminate Albin in Edouard Molinaro's "La Cage aux Folles." He and the forty-three year old Huppert have never before performed together, yet they mesh luminously. "The Swindlers" illustrates the way that comedy is serious business, divulging remarkable intelligence to viewers about the human condition.
Not Rated. Running Time: 105 minutes. (C) 1998 Harvey Karten
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