In the Name of My Daughter (2014) L’homme qu’on aimait trop
Cast includes: Catherine Deneuve (Dancer in the Dark), Guillaume Ganet (Tell No One), Adèle Haenel (Water Lilies)
Director: André Téchiné (Thieves, The Witnesses)
Genre: Drama | True Crime (116 minutes) French with subtitles
“Your mother got held up and insisted I come to meet you,” says Maurice when he picks up Agnès Le Roux from the airport. Agnès knows her mother has a reason for sending her lawyer, Maurice… “I’m going to handle your divorce,” he tells her. In snippets of conversations, we’re able to figure out that Agnès has been away for a while and there are ongoing issues with her mom. “You need some lipstick,” says Renée when she first sees her daughter. “I didn’t come for a new look,” says Agnès. Anyway, Renée is glad Agnès is back, even if she’s never been able to influence her independent daughter in any way. Renée usually gets her way… like when she tells Maurice she prefers him in a suit, Maurice wears nothing but suits, even to walk on the beach. The year is 1977, and the Le Roux family has been a majority owner of Palais de Mediterranée Casino on the French Rivera for years, and after the death of her husband, Renée has been running public relations for the casino.
An unexpectedly large loss… probably fraud… puts the casino in jeopardy of being taken over by organized crime, but Renée’s talented lawyer helps her win back control. But Maurice is wrong if he thinks Renée is going to reward him by promoting him to co-manager. In the meantime, Maurice has also been developing a relationship with Agnès, who is upset that her mom won’t loosen her grip on the family money. She’s also an heir to the Le Roux family fortune, but her mother still controls every franc. Agnès is wrong if she thinks shared grievances will turn Maurice into a true ally. Maurice isn’t shy about exploiting his relationship with Agnès, but she’s “not his type”… any more than all the other women he has affairs with. We can see there’s a lot at stake… not just family struggles but mafia interest in the family’s casino.
During the French Casino Wars of the 1970s and 80s, organized crime initiated many hostile takeovers of casinos to use them as money laundering operations. The Agnès Le Roux case was one of the biggest scandals of the era. At the beginning of the film, there’s a notice that it’s a work of fiction, based on actual events. Events in the film are mostly real… the fiction part is what’s been left out, in the interest of streamlining the story flow. The film doesn’t attempt to resolve the unknown mysteries, but the known events definitely point a strong accusatory finger… mostly Renée’s. She has been committed to getting justice for her daughter, even though it’s been extremely costly. American audiences who have not followed the incident in the papers won’t immediately appreciate all the twists and turns, but by the end, most of it makes sense. Catherine Deneuve is excellent as the mom whose life takes a tragic turn. We know from the beginning that Maurice is trying to manipulate Renée, yet, “My devotion has limits,” he warns her. It turns out Renée’s devotion has no limits.
2 popped kernels
1977 true crime story… an heiress, a lawyer, a French Rivera casino, organized crime, a devoted mother
Popcorn Profile
Rated: R (Language, Violence, Crime)
Audience: Grown-ups
Gender Style: Neutral
Distribution: Art House
Mood: Sober
Tempo: Cruises Comfortably
Visual Style: Unvarnished Realism
Nutshell: From French headlines, 1977
Language: True to life
Social Significance: Informative
