Now playing at cinemas. Sponsored by Palace Nova Eastend and Prospect.
The indefatigable (and yes, recently in Adelaide) Isabelle Huppert is the key reason to catch this altogether rather strange, semi-truth-based drama. And, as usual, she’s so subtle and understated that everyone swirling around her seems to be overacting.
Co-writer/director Thierry Klifa’s film (a.k.a. La Femme La Plus Riche Du Monde) is very vaguely drawn from a 2010 court case involving the heiress to the L’Oréal empire, which accounts for a very legally cautious subtitle shown right at the start. We’re then, somewhere in the ’80s or ’90s, introduced to the impossibly wealthy Marianne Farrère (Huppert), who is advised by her gloomy daughter Frédérique (Marina Foïs) to sit for an interview with a magazine fittingly called Selfish (!!!), because Marianne really needs to seem more human and accessible. After all, the French hate the rich, as we’re told time, and time, and time again.
The photographer for the piece, Pierre-Alain Fantin (a very big Laurent Lafitte), immediately takes to Marianne, and soon they’re the bestest of buddies, even as he openly admits to manipulating her. He’s flagrantly gay, and has a long-time partner named Raphaël (Joseph Olivennes), and yet he becomes seriously intimately involved in Marianne’s life and finances, turning Frédérique, husband Guy (André Marcon), butler Jérôme (Raphaël Personnaz), and others against him.
While this could have been played as a sort of psychothriller-ish European take on Mr Ripley or Saltburn, Klifa’s outing is instead less about death and more to do with disgrace and ruin. Because, yet again, just in case you missed it, the French hate the rich.
And yet surely, given that she makes 27 movies and toplines 49 plays a year, the workaholic Isabelle is pretty damn rich herself?
Review rating: 3 out of 5 stars
The Richest Woman In The World commences at cinemas on Thursday 21 May.
