Place Vendôme (1998)
Directed by Nicole Garcia

Film Review

Place Vendôme has the same alluring cold beauty of a faultless diamond, as mesmerising as it is bewildering.  It belongs to a new breed of French film noir, evoking the essence of classic film noir with its multi-layered plot and complex, morally ambiguous characters, but adding an extra dimension of sophistication and simmering, understated menace.

Whilst Place Vendôme is big on style it is less satisfying from the point of view of plot or characterisation.  To some extent, the plot is almost irrelevant to the film, which is far more concerned with showing us how individuals cope with their predicaments.  The problem is that whilst the film manages to hold our attention it does not really allow us to understand the protagonists and ultimately only one character, Marianne, appears fully developed and believable - although this is partly down to an exceptional performance from Catherine Deneuve.

Although in some ways a superficial and often perplexing film, Place Vendôme is beautifully filmed, employing some often breathtaking cinematography.  The film works because it creates its own ground rules as it goes along and the dreamlike experience it creates for the spectator is both fresh and unsettling.  The impression is one of a film taking placing in the mind of its principal protagonist (Marianne) rather than in the real world.  Perhaps if its director Nicole Garcia had been a little more adventurous and gone further down this path, this might have been a work of unequivocal artistic merit.   As it is, Place Vendôme is still a compelling and noteworthy film, which has received wide-spread critical acclaim and was nominated in virtually every category at the Césars Awards Ceremony in 1999.

Film Synopsis

Vincent Malivert, the head of a leading jewellery firm on the Place Vendôme in Paris, finds himself in deep water when he becomes implicated in a large-scale jewel trafficking operation orchestrated by a shady Russian cartel.  Already in difficult because of a shortage of liquidity, Malivert cannot cope with this latest crisis and is driven to kill himself.  He leaves behind his wife of twenty years, Marianne, who has spent much of the last decade in an out of rest homes, as she is severely afflicted with depression and alcoholism.  Unable to account for her husband's suicide, Marianne has her curiosity further aroused when she finds a valuable set of perfect diamonds in his safe.  The mysterious diamonds draw considerable interest from Marianne's immediate entourage - most notably her brother-in-law and her husband's dependable vendeuse Nathalie. 

The latter's present partner, Jean-Pierre, offers the widow his support, as a pretext for keeping tabs on her.  It isn't long before Marianne discovers that the Russian cartel is being driven by her former lover, Battistelli.  It was twenty years ago that the latter involved her in a crooked scheme that went badly wrong.  As Battistelli fled to avoid arrest, Marianne was left to carry the can, but thankfully Vincent Malivert was there to come to her aid.  This was how they met, and a short while later Marianne and Vincent were man and wife.  Now it seems history is repeating itself, only this time Battistelli is partnered with Nathalie, his latest mistress.  Marianne has every reason to hate Battistelli - he was after all the man who led her to become trapped in a loveless marriage for the best part of her life.  But rather than pursue a campaign of revenge, Marianne opts for a different course, and in doing so she finally succeeds in exorcising her personal demons...