Like many another enduring talent, French filmmaker Claude Chabrol, the mastermind behind “The Swindle,” has grown from young rebel to old master in what almost seems the blink of an eye — or the click of a camera shutter.
The 69-year-old Chabrol’s most recent movie, “The Swindle” is proof positive of both his longevity and his ageless cinematic vitality. Was it as long ago as 1958 that Chabrol, then only 28, kicked off the French cinematic “New Wave” with his first feature, “Le Beau Serge” — paving the way for his critic-filmmaker-friends Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer and their followers and imitators around the world? “The Swindle — a comic thriller starring the formidable Isabelle Huppert and the consummate Michel Serrault — is Chabrol’s 50th feature. Like most of his work it’s brainy, perversely humorous and technically expert: a thriller for the cognoscenti. And with it, Chabrol reaffirms his position as the old “Nouvelle Vague’s” most prolific survivor.
Truffaut died in 1984, Louis Malle in 1995. The other survivors — Godard, Rohmer, Agnes Varda, Alain Resnais and their Cahiers du Cinema confrere Jacques Rivette — make films with unflagging talent but much-reduced frequency. Of all the old ’50s-’60s Parisian film community, only Chabrol keeps churning out movies, year after year, regularly as clockwork — and with no perceptible diminishing of quality.
“The Swindle” (French title:. “Rien ne va Plus”) is an exemplary anniversary film, a cineaste’s droll and exclusive little party, with delectable refreshments and perfect guests. What a pleasure it is! This tricky tale of two gifted resort city grifters, who get sucked into a big-time swindle that threatens both their lives, is a dry delight: light, buoyant and supremely diverting — though never empty of the darkly sardonic undercurrents, shrewd psychology and sharp social analysis that have been Chabrol hallmarks from the start.
The story, in shape and structure, is a bit reminiscent of the 1973 Paul Newman-Robert Redford-George Roy Hill con-man comedy “The Sting,” but played for higher stakes. As in “The Sting” (or the much darker 1990 “The Grifters”) we are first introduced to some talented con artists and then plunged into danger. In this case, the grifters are Betty the bait (Huppert) and her aging but silky mentor, “Colonel Emmanuel Victor” (Serrault).
We can’t be sure of those names — or even of their relationship. But we see how they operate. With smooth expertise, Betty seduces a homely and randy casino player, gets him to a hotel bedroom, dopes him and then, with Victor, partly empties his wallet. (That’s a key to their dodge: Leaving the victim a good part of his money helps ensure discretion.)
For all their criminality, they seem charming, even likable and not particularly dangerous crooks. Their life is orderly, their routine set. Then we follow them into a swindle so complex, unpredictable and perilous it may well be their last: starting with Betty’s free-lance seduction of would-be stud Maurice (Francois Cluzet), a courier of illegal funds. This draws them to more resort spots — a ski lodge in Switzerland, a beach on the Caribbean — and finally into the arms of the very, very deadly and unforgiving “Monsieur K” (Jean-Francois Balmer), an international money launderer and aesthete-killer who likes to have his efficent thugs maim and murder to recordings of “Tosca.”
The story is clever: drawing us, as in a Hitchcock thriller, through successive layers of immorality until we seem immersed in terror. But it’s only a backdrop for the marvelous cast. Huppert, the nonpareil star of previous Chabrol classics like 1978’s “Violette Noziere,” 1988’s “The Story of Women” and 1995’s “La Ceremonie,” once again glitters with mischief, intelligence and playful sexiness. Her Betty is a wily pro swindler who takes relish in the disposition of her charms, and the proper use of black lingerie — and Huppert lets us feel her delight, her conniving, her leaping wit and intelligence.
Serrault, a half-century veteran who starred in 1954 (with “Diabolique”) and made his international fame as the deliciously hysterical drag queen diva of “La Cage Aux Folles,” is marvelously enigmatic, coiled and cool as Victor. Poker-faced and immaculate, Victor is the ultimate gamesman, and insiders claim that Serrault deliberately modeled the role on Chabrol himself. Balmer is one of the best villains in several years: flamboyant, sadistic, a cultivated brute with a taste for grand opera and slaughter.
“The Swindle” is subtly and beautifully photographed by Eduardo Serra (“Wings of the Dove”) in gorgeous locations, including the beaches of Guadaloupe. It is sinfully amusing, stylish, expertly crafted in all departments — even if you feel that Papa Chabrol may be a touch indulgent with his longtime composer, son Matthieu.
Most of all, “The Swindle” offers us two of the greatest actors in the entire history of the French cinema, Huppert and Serrault, having an obvious ball in roles tailor-made for their talents and personae. If you love these two — and what real aficionado of French film does not? — you will almost surely be seduced by “The Swindle.” And you won’t have to check your wallet when you leave.
”THE SWINDLE”
(star) (star) (star) 1/2
Directed and written by Claude Chabrol; photographed by Eduardo Serra; edited by Monique Fardoulis; production designed by Francoise Benoit-Fresco; music by Matthieu Chabrol; produced by Marin Karmitz. French, subtitled. A New Yorker release; opens Friday at the Music Box. Running time: 1:45. No MPAA rating. Adult. Language, violence.
THE CAST
Betty ……………….. Isabelle Huppert
Victor ………………. Michel Serrault
Maurice ……………… Francois Cluzet
Monsieur K …………… Jean-Francois Balmer
Chatillon ……………. Jackie Berroyer
Guadaloupe Gangster …… Jean Benguigui
