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Place Vendôme (film)

Place Vendôme

Movie · 1998 · 15 people

Nicole Garcia directed Place Vendôme, a crime drama made in France in 1998. Its title comes from the Paris square regarded as the heart of the jewellery trade. The film competed for the Golden Lion at the 55th Venice Film Festival, where Catherine Deneuve received the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. It also collected twelve César nominations but did not turn any of them into a win.

At its centre is Marianne Malivert, the woman played by Deneuve, who is struggling with alcohol. Her husband Eric (François Berléand) has taken his own life, leaving the respected jewellery shop on the edge of bankruptcy, and Marianne has to put things in order. When she tries to sell a batch of diamonds of unclear origin, she comes face to face with the stones' real owners and with a well-known swindler linked to her through her past. Jean-Pierre Bacri, Jacques Dutronc and Emmanuelle Seigner complete the cast; Dutronc plays Battistelli and Bacri plays Jean-Pierre. The film can also be read as the journey of a woman who cannot find a love that is honest, fitting and uncompromising.

The screenplay is by Garcia, Jacques Fieschi and Emmanuel Bourdieu. Alain Sarde produced it, Richard Robbins composed the music, and it runs 117 minutes.

DirectorNicole Garcia

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Cast

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Catherine Deneuve Catherine Deneuve Film actor · 83 years old François Berléand François Berléand Actor · 74 years old Jean-Pierre Bacri Emmanuelle Seigner Jacques Dutronc Malik Zidi Bernard Fresson Élisabeth Commelin Éric Ruf László Szabó Philippe Clévenot Sylvie Flepp Dragan Nikolić Larry Lamb Otto Tausig

More from this director

Through different eyes

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Nicole Garcia's film uses a story of jewels and swindling as a frame for what is really a character study, leaving the crime plot in second place. That choice is both the film's strength and its weakness. Marianne's struggle with alcohol and her effort to save a shop on the edge of bankruptcy give the narrative emotional weight. Over 117 minutes, however, the intrigue around diamonds of unclear origin and a swindler from her past is not woven tightly enough, and the script wavers between character and suspense. Competing for the Golden Lion in Venice yet turning none of its twelve César nominations into a win may well reflect that imbalance.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The film uses Place Vendôme, regarded as the heart of the Paris jewellery trade, not merely as a location but as the symbol of a whole world: behind the glittering shop windows lie debt, bankruptcy and stones of unclear origin. The collapse of a respected family business shows how fragile bourgeois respectability can be. It is telling, too, that the story centres on a woman who must put things in order after her husband's death while fighting alcoholism: the weight of the business lands on someone struggling with grief and addiction. From late-nineties France, it offers a striking look at the relationship between women, money and respectability.

Yeşilçam Nostalgic A viewer raised on the classics, looking for warm storytelling and strong acting.

Catherine Deneuve is one of the most elegant stars of classic cinema, and seeing her as a fragile woman fighting alcohol is all the more striking for the distance between her star image and the character. The Volpi Cup in Venice rewarded that bold choice. Roles like this, taken on by great actresses in their mature years, are always precious. Even so, for an eye used to the warm, open sentiment of Yeşilçam the film may feel distant and cold; even the search for an honest, uncompromising love is told not out loud but in an oblique language.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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