Generally speaking I only review movies or series I saw a (relatively) short time before. I'm making an exception for this fine French series, which I saw a verrrry long time ago. I do this because the work seems to have fallen through the cracks. Hopefully some other reviewer(s) will succeed in finding a copy or in convincing the powers that be to show the series again. Moreover, the subject matter was so purely entertaining that someone might want to shoot a remake...
Please excuse me if I make a mistake here and there, but as I've said, it was quite a long time ago.
Now this was quite a good series, with a strong, hypnotic performance by lead actress Simone Signoret. Based on a real-life Belle Epoque scandal, it was shot through with a black and cynical wit. The heroine was a criminal and a crook, but at least she was a bold, brainy, quick-witted woman whose capacity for telling tall tales would have staggered Sheherazade herself.
The said scandal concerned the criminal wrongdoings of one Thérèse Humbert, who wasn't all that rich but who pretended she had inherited a vast wealth. The inheritance or, alternatively, the documents proving her right to the inheritance, were supposedly kept in a large safe. Humbert persuaded the French elite to support her business projects or to loan her money, on a vast scale. The fraud continued for a long time, with Humbert and her helpers inventing ever more elaborate or outlandish lies (think Nigerian fraudsters on cocaine). Eventually she ran into legal trouble, but even during her trial there were people maintaining that this paragon of respectability could only be a model citizen.
Because Humbert had presided over a circle of admiring bankers, businessmen, officials and politicians, the discovery of the fraud sent shockwaves through France. It became pretty clear that a lot of the people supposed to stimulate and regulate the economy were either incompetent or dishonest themselves. It also became clear that the eternal talk about "old-fashioned French virtues" had created a climate of vice and hypocrisy in which smooth-talking liars could flourish.
Thankfully we now live in a world free of such evils...
Try and find the series : you'll be in for a treat.
Please excuse me if I make a mistake here and there, but as I've said, it was quite a long time ago.
Now this was quite a good series, with a strong, hypnotic performance by lead actress Simone Signoret. Based on a real-life Belle Epoque scandal, it was shot through with a black and cynical wit. The heroine was a criminal and a crook, but at least she was a bold, brainy, quick-witted woman whose capacity for telling tall tales would have staggered Sheherazade herself.
The said scandal concerned the criminal wrongdoings of one Thérèse Humbert, who wasn't all that rich but who pretended she had inherited a vast wealth. The inheritance or, alternatively, the documents proving her right to the inheritance, were supposedly kept in a large safe. Humbert persuaded the French elite to support her business projects or to loan her money, on a vast scale. The fraud continued for a long time, with Humbert and her helpers inventing ever more elaborate or outlandish lies (think Nigerian fraudsters on cocaine). Eventually she ran into legal trouble, but even during her trial there were people maintaining that this paragon of respectability could only be a model citizen.
Because Humbert had presided over a circle of admiring bankers, businessmen, officials and politicians, the discovery of the fraud sent shockwaves through France. It became pretty clear that a lot of the people supposed to stimulate and regulate the economy were either incompetent or dishonest themselves. It also became clear that the eternal talk about "old-fashioned French virtues" had created a climate of vice and hypocrisy in which smooth-talking liars could flourish.
Thankfully we now live in a world free of such evils...
Try and find the series : you'll be in for a treat.
