In “The Richest Woman in the World”, Laurent Lafitte even eclipses Liliane Bettencourt

CINEMA OUT – Forgotten Liliane Bettencourt, make way for Marianne Farrère. Isabelle Huppert plays The richest woman in the world in the film by Thierry Klifa, which is released in theaters this Wednesday, October 29. The director was freely inspired by the highly publicized affair which pitted the L’Oréal heiress against her daughter, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, until her death.

The known facts remain the same, but the dialogues have been invented and all the names changed. Françoise thus becomes Frédérique, played by an austere Marina Foïs. Raphaël Personnaz very accurately plays Jérôme, the Bettencourts’ butler who made the clandestine recordings. And André, Liliane Bettencourt’s husband, has been renamed Guy and is played by André Marcon.

But one person steals the show from this prestigious cast. And it’s not about Isabelle Huppert, the heroine of the film. It is Laurent Lafitte who breaks through the screen in the role of François-Marie Banier, or rather here Pierre-Alain Fantin. As a reminder, the artist and photographer was convicted in 2016 for abuse of weakness, after receiving nearly a billion euros in “donations” from his friend Liliane Bettencourt.

Laurent Lafitte had already slipped brilliantly into the skin of a media character. In 2023, the actor played Bernard Tapie in the Netflix series dedicated to the French businessman. Convincing in Tapiehe is even more so as the manipulative confidant of Liliane Bettencourt, alias Marianne Farrère.

Laurent Lafitte, king of impertinence

The richest woman in the world begins on the day they met, when Fantin comes to photograph the businesswoman for the magazine Selfish (Thierry Klifa did not go far to rename the magazine Self-centered). Immediately, this colorful character stands out in this frozen world, where even the biggest fortune in the world cannot buy happiness.

© Manuel Moutier / 2025 Récifilms – Versus Production – RTBF – Blue Parrot – Les films du Camélia

Flashy and big-mouthed, Laurent Lafitte plays impertinence to perfection.

During the first half of the film, at each of his masterful appearances, we laugh out loud at his unfiltered remarks, his limitless vulgarity, and his way of taking up all the space in a room or a conversation. And it must be said that Laurent Lafitte plays impertinence to perfection. The man who spent twelve years at the Comédie Française has forgotten nothing about theater and proves it in this exuberant, mannered role, beyond the too much.

It is precisely his excess that will please Marianne, who runs the family multinational with an iron fist but is bored to death in her house museum which is gathering dust. Her new friend pushes her to redecorate everything and reinvent herself, giving the billionaire a second youth. “ He messes her up, both literally and figuratively.”explained the director at the Cannes Film Festival last May, where The richest woman in the world was presented out of competition. “ The more this photographer enters his life, the more everything comes alive. » And the more we enjoy watching the film.

A French “Succession”

Pierre-Alain Fantin’s insolent outings are also an opportunity to recall the Bettencourt family’s inglorious past as a collaborator, starting with Eugène Schueller, the founder of L’Oréal. Even if he takes great pleasure in making his guests uncomfortable, the freeloader does not hesitate to accept this “dirty money”as Marianne points out to him. It is in the rare scenes where she stands up to him, with the firmness of a woman to whom nothing is ever refused, that Isabelle Huppert shines the most.

© Manuel Moutier / 2025 Récifilms – Versus Production – RTBF – Blue Parrot – Les films du Camélia

André Marcon, Laurent Lafitte, Raphaël Personnaz and Isabelle Huppert star in “The Richest Woman in the World”.

Because behind his grating humor, The richest woman in the world especially dissects the balance of power and trust. When Guy/André Bettencourt dies, the comedy gives way to drama, reinforced by the music of Alex Beaupain. Pierre-Alain continues to provoke and shows himself to be more and more diabolical and manipulative, at times even frightening.

When Frédérique finally files a complaint against the photographer for abusing her mother, the film takes on the appearance of a Succession French style. Even if the legal case is played out in the private sphere, we are witnessing it from the front row. It’s almost voyeuristic but still difficult to feel sorry for the main characters, even for the one inspired by Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, who keeps her place in the club of ultra-billionaires. After all, we can laugh at everything, including the misfortune of the most fortunate.