COMIC DRAMA; 2hr 2min (French with subtitles)
STARRING: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Marina Foïs, André Marcon, Raphäel Personnaz
Boredroom: Huppert
Combining “elements of fiction with a subjective view,” writer-director Thierry Klifa takes a head trip down the plushly lined rabbit hole of cosmetics powerhouse and titular femme riche Marianne Farrère (Huppert). Loosely based on the avidly reported, politically scandalous 2010-ish antics of L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, Huppert’s Marianne is a vividly lipsticked autocrat whose rigorous control of her family’s Windler Group belies a rebel spirit begging for a cause.
She finds a hedonistic excuse for one in exuberant gay writer-photographer Pierre-Alain Fantin (Lafitte), who, after imperiously shooting Marianne for a magazine cover, blasts through her stuffy existence like a cleansing gale, sweeping its hidebound protocols before him. While Marianne’s husband, Guy (Marcon), is cautiously intrigued by her new crush, her strait-laced daughter Frédérique (Foïs) and dedicated butler Jérôme (Personnaz) are less than beguiled right off the bat. Swept away as only the most defensive of loners can be, an enchanted Marianne loftily disregards them all.
Watching Marianne and Pierre-Alain cut loose like stoner teens is a fun time that implodes with a rollout of bangs, propelled in equal explosive parts by the family’s damaged financial reputation and a volatile Pierre-Alains’s insatiable greed. Manipulation and delusion are a pairing for the ages, after all. But if Marianne’s tall tale feels told from the start, Huppert is a subverter of even the creakiest clichés. From queenly dragon lady to ensnared butterfly, Marianne is irrevocably alone.
