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CANNES 2014 Out of Competition

In the Name of My Daughter: Money and manipulation

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- CANNES 2014: André Téchiné revisits a strange story blending the conquering of a casino with the shenanigans of an elusive lothario played by Guillaume Canet

In the Name of My Daughter: Money and manipulation

It was a mysterious news item, a disappearance without a crime scene or a body, a case which had haunted French courtrooms for decades, which inspired André Téchiné to make In the Name of My Daughter [+see also:
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, which was screened out of competition in the 67th Cannes Film Festival. Against a backdrop of mafiosi manoeuvres in Nice in the middle of the 1970s, aimed at taking control of the Palais de la Méditerranée casino, the film focuses on the relationship unfolding between the daughter (Adèle Haenel) of the owner of the establishment (Catherine Deneuve) and a young, ambitious and social-climbing lawyer (Guillaume Canet). Theirs is a manipulative affair which upends the casino’s future and results in a tragic mystery which remains unsolved to this day on account of a lack of evidence (the various verdicts offered up over time were based solely on jurors’ convictions). It’s a strange story which Téchiné tackles with scrupulous objectivity, leaving viewers to make their own minds up over the suspect’s guilt (who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in April).

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Money is at the heart of the narrative, both in terms of the ups and downs experienced by Renée Leroux (Deneuve) at the Palais de la Méditerranée (death threats, her daughter Agnes’ betrayal, who votes against her during a board meeting) which Fratoni (who’s suspected of money laundering for the Ndrangheta) has his sights on, but also the film’s sentimental side: Agnès (Haenel) wants to recover her shares in the casino in order to live her life beyond her mother’s intrusive reach, so her lover Maurice Agnelet negotiates the price of her betrayal and convinces her to open bank accounts in Switzerland over which he has powers of attorney. Moreover, it’s the elusive personality of Agnelet (conveyed by an excellent Canet) - a divorced ladies’ man who records all his conversations, whether personal or private - which turns out to be the most convincing aspect of this film, which otherwise struggles to lend depth to its characters. Because, whilst the plot itself isn’t short on interesting elements, it only moves from one event to the next on surface level, much like Maurice, whose affable and seductive appearance gives the impression of being definable, whereas this will never actually be the case. A sense of indescribable malaise floats in his wake, and this curious man who was loved too much is accompanied through luxurious décors - where Renée is continually on parade while her daughter prefers to go swimming in the sea - by André Téchiné’s seamless mise en scene. In short, they’re a trio of characters whom the filmmaker seems to watch evolve without ever really commanding them.

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(Translated from French)

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