Customer Reviews

The Swindle [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This rather low key Claude Chabrol thriller which he wrote and directed, and which was the inspiration for the John Flynn 1983 Scam, is more a chuckler than a spine tingler. Isabelle Huppert and Michel Serrault have great chemistry as a father and daughter team of con artists who choose their victims from hotel conventions. The film begins with Huppert seducing a lawnmower salesman and Serrault observing, so that at first we think he is spying on Huppert because he is a hotel detective and on to her. Huppert doesn't even try to hide her duplicity by wearing a terrible and obvious black wig. Serrault is established as the mastermind of their operation, but Huppert upstages him at their next venue, a dentist's convention in St Moritz, when she appears with Francois Cluzet who has a suitcase of stolen money. Chabrol then toys with us with the allegiances of the three, and it's never clear who is trying to con who, until we reach the West Indies and things turn deadly serious. Chabrol underlines the menace of the climactic confrontation by having Tosca playing as Huppert discovers a dead body, and gives the floor of a gangster's house a checkerboard pattern. Hupperts second change of hairstyle may be inexplicable but it is definitely disappointing considering how beautiful she looks with long strawberry blonde hair and wearing dark glasses a la Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity. Chabrol also uses a white colour scheme, from Serrault's hair to the snow in St Moritz, the voluminous dress a dancer wears, and the colour of the family van, and the song Changez Tout at the end became quite popular.

This is a wonderful movie about larcenous hearts. It's light, breezy tone will remind you of To Catch a Thief and other fun Hitchcock flicks. One of the other people that reviewed this makes one major mistake in his review - this is definitely not a father, daughter team. A lot of the fun is derived from the jealousy that is sparked when Isabella Hupert's character pays more attention to another man. Fantastic, fun crime story. Ocean's 11 wishes it was this funny.

This is a very good movie. The Swindle is not a masterpiece, but it has something very fine running through the film. The chemistry between Elizabeth (Isabelle Huppert) and Victor (Michel Serrault) is wonderful. In fact the film almost stands on this chemsitry alone. Huppert is just at the peak of her career in this film, she is a beautiful, mature woman that is very comfortable acting.

There is a certain mystery about the film, will they double cross the double cross, which was a double cross? But that is no where near enough to sustain this film, the story alone would have left me cold. The mystery is pretty well told right up front, we learn Elizabeth and Victor are a couple of con men. They take advantage of a convention attendee in such a way that he never realizes he's been taken. With those facts revealed, the film moves forward to more cons.

What does work, watching these two powerful excellent actors. Chabrol directs beautifully, pacing the film exactly right, cutting away to the perfect shot. It's a high class beautifully made film.

There is a gorgeous scene where a woman with huge white wings dances in front of bright white lights. That scene alone is almost worth the price of admission. The only time the film is heavy handed is the "gangster" scene where Tosca is playing in the background. The music is redundant.

In French with English subtitles.

"The Swindle" marks another superlative effort from Claude Chabrol. A tense taut tale of a small heist gone awfully wrong, this is a thriller which will be appreciated by European film noir fans who do not mind the leisurely pacing and elliptical polt unfolding. Isabebelle Huppert is superb as usual as a small time crook,and Michel Serrault is dazzling as a cleverly disguised old timer. If you loved "La Ceremonie", this one is definitely one to see.

Rien Ne Va Plus/The Swindle is another minor late Chabrol effort that spends too long treading water and which lacks the lightness of touch to really pull off the caper movie it wants to be. The first hour is flat, with Isabelle Huppert unconvincing as a conwoman you couldn't imagine fooling a deaf, dumb and blind man while Michel Serrault has little to work with as her partner in crime. But once the twists kick in in the last 40 minutes, it does pick up even if it never surprises, and at least the scenery is nice.

This is a wonderful movie about larcenous hearts. It's light, breezy tone will remind you of To Catch a Thief and other fun Hitchcock flicks. One of the other people that reviewed this makes one major mistake in his review - this is definitely not a father, daughter team. A lot of the fun is derived from the jealousy that is sparked when Isabelle Huppert's character pays more attention to another man. Fantastic, fun crime story. Ocean's 11 wishes it was this funny.

It's hard not to like clever con games, even when they're violent (The Usual Suspects (Special Editon)) or unpleasant (House of Games - Criterion Collection). They're just about irresistible when they're amusing and surprising (Nine Queens). That we're part of who is being conned is a major part of the pleasure.

Claude Chabrol's The Swindle (Rien ne va Plus) isn't especially violent (well, there's the matter of a spike in a man's eye, but he's dead when we see him), but The Swindle is definitely sophisticated, amusing and very clever. Two of the reasons it works so well and is so satisfying are the lead players, Isabelle Huppert as Betty and Michel Serrault as Victor.

Who are these two? Betty is in her forties, elegant, cool and smart. Victor is in his early seventies, shrewd and clever. They are small-time con artists who work the conventions and upscale gambling houses. Victor sets up the scams and Betty seduces the mark, but only to the point of slipping a mickey into a drink, When the mark passes out in his room, Betty lets Victor in and they take the money...but only enough to make the mark believe later that he may not actually have been robbed. Then off they drive in their big, fully equipped RV back to Paris. We observe all this, during the first third of the film, with growing delight in their humor, their logic and their professionalism. Are they lovers? Are they related...perhaps father and daughter? Are they old friends? Are they just affectionate partners? Because of the chemistry between the two characters and between Huppert and Serrault, we're never quite sure. "Betty, you know I love you, but I can live without you," Victor says at one point.

We instantly like these two, although we'd better be sure where our wallet is if we go out with them some evening. They know their limits and they're careful with their business. But then we notice that Betty may have a plan of her own. When the two meet at Sils Maria, near St. Tropez, to work a dentists' convention, Betty has already developed a relationship with a good-looking, self-assured man who, she tells Victor, is a courier who will be delivering $5 million Swiss francs. He could be the biggest con they've ever attempted...but Betty seems to be working both sides. Victor is showing signs of jealousy. And the man in question is actually a courier for the mob who is planning to leave France with all that money for himself, with Betty on his arm. Who is scamming whom? This three-way puzzle gets complicated.

Chabrol shows us all this with such cool, sophisticated humor that it becomes a great pleasure just to sit back and watch Victor and Betty -- and Chabrol, who also wrote the screenplay -- move the pieces around the board. Huppert and Serrault are such fine actors, and work so well together, that their relationship as Betty and Victor becomes a very satisfying and intriguing part of the story. Victor knows they are stepping out of their league, but he loves a challenge...and he has been good enough to get the better of anyone he considers stupid. We hope that will includes a vicious mob boss and his thugs. Still, as Victor says, "It's easy to swindle someone who thinks they have the upper hand."

The movie ends as it began, with a charming little scam, this time involving just Victor and Betty. May they have a long life together taking advantage of all those foolish marks.

Like so many of Chaude Chabrol's films that have been released in Region 1 transfers, The Swindle looks like a PAL Region 2 that was slapped as is onto a DVD disc in a quick NTSC conversion. The movie is easy to watch, but the quality of the transfer should have been better. Perhaps one of these days Chabrol's films will get the Region 1 releases they deserve.

Item was shipped promptly and was received in the condition in which it had been described.

Although Betty (Isabelle Huppert, who was 43-years-old when the film was released) calls Victor (Michel Serrault, who was 69) "Papa" on occasion in this smooth and restrained thriller from Claude Chabrol, he is not her father by any means. The term is merely one of ironic affection. What they are are modern "gypsies" living on the fringes of society plying their ancient trade. Perhaps they were lovers in the past. Clearly they are a team, dependent upon one another. In particular what these small time con artists do is go to conventions, medical, dental, farm equipment salesman conventions, find a target and con the poor dupe out of some of his money.

Some. The film begins at a roulette table on the French Riviera with Betty stringing along a not entirely bright lawnmower salesman whom she invites for a drink. She slips some knockout drops into his drink and quickly invites him up to his room where, after he is out cold, Victor follows. They take some of his money. Victor insists on always playing it safe and using a rather strange but plausible psychology (which will figure later in the movie) of making the man think that perhaps he wasn't robbed, since if she had intended to rob him, would she have only taken part of the money out of his wallet? They do forge his signature on a check, but he will only find out about that later, and indeed might not be sure about how that happened.

So this is a small time con. Trouble begins for our vagabond thieves when Betty meets the CFO of a big corporation who is transferring five million Swiss francs in cash out of the country. She senses the chance for a big score, and after the mark falls in love with her (she thinks) she brings Victor into the scheme. With some tricky exchanges of the metal suitcase containing the money Betty and Victor end up over their heads in some very hot water.

The plot is a little on the unlikely side, as thriller plots tend to be, but the thing to keep in mind is the idea of taking only PART of the money. This is what fools the bad bad guys (as opposed to the good bad guys who are our vagabond duo, Betty and Victor).

Any movie starring the incomparable Isabelle Huppert (La Pianiste 2001; Merci pour le chocolat 2000; La dentelliere 1977, and many more ) is worth seeing and any movie directed by Claude Chabrol (Une affair de femmes 1988; Betty 1992; La ceremonie 1995, etc.) will have something of interest in it. Add a fine performance by Serrault, one of the great veterans of the French cinema, and "Rien ne va plus" is definitely worth seeing. However the role played by Huppert does not challenge her and Chabrol's more famous films (some of them also starring Huppert) are decidedly more interesting.

But see this for the lighthearted chemistry between Huppert who is sublimely fetching and Serrault who is clearly past the age of any pretension. Such a quasi-Platonic union based on the love that still warms the embers in a dying fire has become almost a staple of directors past their prime. See Claude Sautet's Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (1995) which also featured Serrault for another example.

A disappointing snoozer of a French art film, one of Claude Chabrol's later efforts... Isabelle Huppert stars as a con lady with an older accomplice, in what is (I assume) intended as a deconstruction of your typical caper flick, with the scams going awry and the plot details involving the ironic inclusion of modern European culture... But there's little momentum in the script and direction, or spark between any of the actors. This film just kind of sits there and does very little to surprise or amuse. Next!