The magnificent Cote d’Azur is the location for the latest Walter Presents offering, a fabulous nostalgic glimpse into the seedy world of casinos in the mid-70s.
If you want to avoid all spoilers, stop reading this article now.
Renée Le Roux (superbly portrayed by Michèle Laroque) is the matriarch in charge of the family-run Palais de la Méditerranée, an upmarket casino in Nice. She is a traditionalist who believes that casinos should be a place of sophistication and elegance. But takings are down, mainly due to a new rival casino in town run by the mafia-linked owner, Jean-Dominique Fratoni (Christophe Favre).
The new casino is everything the Palais isn’t – it’s garish, loud and full of dancing girls and American-style slot machines. When Fratoni meets with Renée to discuss a potential take-over, she quickly dismisses the idea, suggesting that French people want sophistication, not brash Americanisms.
Renée appoints a lawyer, Maurice Agnelet (Yannick Choirat), to help her improve the casino’s fortunes. Agnelet initially is a great success, uncovering corruption by the casino’s CEO and identifying a group of conmen who have robbed the casino of a vast sum of money. But Renée and Agnelet fall out when she takes over as CEO and Agnelet’s ideas for improvement are dismissed by Renée.
Agnelet has also been helping Renée’s youngest daughter, Agnès (Marie Zabukovec), who is a rebellious, privileged and beautiful young woman. He found her an apartment and helped her through her divorce. Agnès is attracted to the older Agnelet, but whilst he was working for her mother, he resisted her charms so as not to unsettle the business arrangement with her mum. But once that relationship soured, he submitted to Agnès’ advances and they became an item.
However, it becomes quickly apparent that Agnelet has used the naïve Agnès to help the mafia-led Fratoni infiltrate the running of the Palais, and things quickly escalate as the Le Roux family battle internal strife and their rivals down the road.
‘French Roulette' (‘Tout pour Agnès' in its original French) is an absolute gem. It’s a fictional tale based on true events – in fact there was a film adaptation made of the same tale in 2014 entitled ‘In the Name of My Daughter' (‘L'Homme qu'on aimait trop') starring Catherine Deneuve in the lead role. And the real Renée Le Roux, alongside her son, Jean-Charles Le Roux, wrote a memoir entitled ‘Une femme face à la Mafia' about the case.
The fact that it’s based on real events gives this drama a true crime ambience. But everything about it is excellent – the writing, the script, the acting – all of it superb. And I love the nostalgic feel of 1970s Cote D’Azur, with the fashions, cars, décor of that era.
Walter Presents rarely gives us anything less than enjoyable drama – but sometimes they really hit paydirt and offer up an absolute essential piece of entertainment, and this is one such gem.
Walter Presents: ‘French Roulette' is available as a boxset on C4 Streaming now.
