Top 5 Films about Money

Years go by, but money and ruthlessness remain an eternal couple….

OUTRIGHT WICKED

L’Argent Marcel L’Herbier, 1928
One of the masterpieces of the silent era, L’Argent decries the danger of speculation and the destructive force of money on the human soul. This intense film, based on Emile Zola’s novel but updated to 1920s France, tells the story of two business rivals—one as cunning and greedy as the other is honest and generous—caught up in a battle for power, love and money. Released in 1928, L’Argent almost predicts the economic crisis of 1929. Some of the film’s most striking scenes were shot in the real Paris Stock Exchange on weekends—L’Herbier used more than 1,500 extras and a dozen cameras, depicting the speculators as teeming ants.

FAST-PACED COMEDY

Le Million (The Million) René Clair, 1931
Penniless Parisian painter Michel (René Lefèvre), hounded by angry creditors, learns that he has won one million florins in the Dutch lottery. But the winning ticket is in the pocket of a jacket that his jealous girlfriend (actress Annabella, who went on to appear in Hollywood films and marry Tyrone Power) just gave away…. Michel embarks on a chase, pursued by his creditors and several envious acquaintances, to recover his jacket, which keeps changing hands. Clair used the new technology of sound in creating this enchanting, hilarious musical farce, still entertaining nearly 80 years after it was made.

THE HAND OF POWER

L’Argent des Autres (Other People’s Money) Christian de Chalonge, 1978
In the wake of a financial scandal, Henri Rainier (magnificently portrayed by Jean-Louis Trintignant) loses his job at a high-profile bank. Realizing that he has been made a scapegoat for shady dealings, he is determined to clear his name and find the real culprit. His investigation uncovers collusion between the government and the banks, a conspiracy he is powerless to confront. Inspired by a series of French political-financial scandals that made headlines in the 1970s, it still feels relevant today. This gripping, highly original film, which also stars Catherine Deneuve, Michel Serrault and Claude Brasseur, won the prestigious Prix Louis Delluc in 1978 and Césars for Best Film and Best Director in 1979.

FRAME-UP

L’Argent (Money) Robert Bresson, 1983
A young truck driver, Yvon, unknowingly spends a counterfeit bill passed to him by an unscrupulous shopkeeper. Arrested and convicted on the shopkeeper’s false testimony, Yvon receives a suspended sentence but loses his job. To support his wife and child, the trucker makes a series of tragic choices that land him in jail, break his family apart and ultimately precipitate a murderous rampage. Bresson described the film as “an account of the way evil spreads”. Based on Leo Tolstoy’s novella The Forged Coupon, it addresses Bresson’s favorite theme, the corruptive power of money. As in all his later works, Bresson used nonprofessional actors. The film won the Best Director award at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.

COMPANY CORRUPTION

L’Ivresse du Pouvoir (The Comedy of Power) Claude Chabrol, 2006
This drama (despite its English title) was inspired by the notorious Elf-Aquitaine scandal of the early 2000s, which exposed widespread corruption within France’s giant gas company. The CEO of a large company (François Berléand, in a role loosely based on Loïk Le Floch-Prigent, CEO of Elf-Aquitaine) is taken into custody and charged with embezzlement. When the investigating judge, Jeanne Charmant-Killman (played by Isabelle Huppert and based on the real judge, Eva Joly, who tried to prevent the film’s release) realizes the magnitude of what she uncovers, she begins to flex her own power. She soon understands that her opponents are still more powerful….

TIED FOR SIXTH (among many others)

Ma Petite Entreprise (My Little Business) Pierre Jolivet, 1999. Social comedy.
La Folie des Grandeurs (Delusions of Grandeur) Gerard Oury, 1971. Comedy.
Le Viager (The Annuity) Pierre Tchernia, 1972. Comedy.
La Belle Américaine (The American Beauty) Robert Dhéry & Pierre Tchernia, 1961. Comedy.
Les Tontons Flingueurs (Monsieur Gangster) Georges Lautner, 1963. Comedy/crime.
Mélodie en Sous-sol (Any Number Can Win) Henri Verneuil, 1963. Crime.

 

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Originally published in the March 2009 issue of France Today