Rien ne va plus (1997)
Directed by Claude Chabrol

Film Review

Whilst not as dark and interesting as some of Chabrol's earlier thrillers, this film is not a bad effort.  It is a pleasure to watch Isabelle Huppert and Michel Serrault playing two pretty hard-nosed criminals who ultimately get out of their depth, although one senses that both actors have some dissatisfaction with the quality of the script.

The photography is appealing, particularly the shots in the Swiss Alps.  The best part of the film is probably the typically Chabrolesque moment when Huppert's character discovers the fate of her cheated boyfriend.  With Puccini's Tosca playing loudly in the background, the scene is as dark and chilling as in any of Chabrol's films, and Huppert captures the mood brilliantly.

Overall, however, the film is something of a disappointment.  Lacking in content and substance, without any clear moral perspective, it falls far short of being completely satisfying.

Film Synopsis

Victor and Betty are an odd couple.  He is sixty; she is thirty.  They could scarcely be more different, and yet they seem to be inseparable, a sort of cross-generational Bonnie and Clyde.  Con artists of the first degree, they make their living by gaining the confidence of carefully selected, well-heeled individuals, and then running off with a large quantity of their cash.  The richest pickings are to be found at professional conventions, where there is bound to be at least one easily duped sucker waiting to be fleeced.  Betty has what it takes to seduce her (invariably male) victims; Victor supplies the brains.  They make an unbeatable team, or so they think.

After a brief separation, Betty meets up with Victor in Paris to tell him her latest plan.  For the past year, she has been seeing a man named Maurice whom she met on a train.  Maurice's work often requires him to transport large amounts of money in banknotes from A to B, but on his next trip to Guadeloupe he plans to run off with the money and share it with Betty.  Victor comes up with a better idea.  Betty will meet up with Maurice as agreed, but she will substitute the briefcase he is carrying containing the money for an identical one.  Victor will then flee with the money, which he will split with his criminal partner as soon as she has given Maurice the slip.

The theft goes off exactly as planned, and the two enterprising crooks are soon enjoying a well-deserved break in Guadeloupe.  But the holiday is cut short when some sinister-looking gangster-types show up and take them at gunpoint to their boss, Monsieur K, who turns out to be Maurice's boss.  Monsieur K is not a happy man, evidenced by the somewhat macabre way he has dispensed with Maurice's servives after he betrayed his employer's trust.  Threatened with treatment of a similar kind, Betty and Victor have no choice but to give away the combination to Maurice's briefcase.  Monsieur K is not too pleased when he finds that almost half of the five million francs in the case have gone missing...