The Richest Woman in the World is roughly based on the Bettencourt affair involving allegations of illegal payments made by billionaire heiress Lilian Bettencourt (L’Oréal cosmetics empire) to François-Marie Banier and members of the Nicholas Sarkozy government in 2010. Despite what should be plentiful source material however, The Richest Woman in the World doesn’t reach any great depth of drama or intrigue or even comedy.
The Richest Woman in the World had its world premiere out of competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and was recently featured in the Alliance Française French Film Festival. It is about Marianne Farrère (Isabelle Hupper) who heads and is the major shareholder of a very successful international cosmetics company which makes her the richest woman in the world. She is in an unsatisfying marriage with her husband, Guy (André Marcon) who is a French government Minister. She also has an aloof relationship with her daughter Frédérique (Marina Foïs).
Frédérique arranges a photo shoot for Marianne with ‘Selfish’ magazine where she meets photographer Pierre-Alain Fantin (Laurent Lafitte) who sees an opportunity to take advantage of the lonely aging Marianne. Fantin ingratiates himself with Marianne who showers Fantin with money. In the meantime, Guy becomes involved in a political scandal involving old statements he made years ago and he becomes unwell. Frédérique and her husband Jean-Marc Spielman (Mathieu Demy) become concerned about Marianne and Fantin’s relationship as they become distant from Marianne and as Fantin receives more and more of her money. Frédérique takes legal action in an attempt to stop Fantin. Watching over the whole affair as it unfolds is Jérôme (Raphaël Personnaz), the Farrère’s ever loyal butler and chief story teller of the film.
Director Thierry Klifa, who also is a co-writer along with Cédric Anger and Jacques Fieschi, had the whole the very interesting Bettencourt affair available along with the back stories of the family, including the dark history and hard-right political leanings of her father Eugène Schueller, but unfortunately they choose only to make limited use of that material. Klifa and cinematographer Hichame Alaouié also make a competent looking film that again doesn’t rise to any exceptional level.
Isabelle Hupper, André Marcon, Marina Foïs and Mathieu Demy are good in the roles. Raphaël Personnaz is very good as the ever watching butler. Laurent Lafitte as the scoundrel is excellent in his César Award for Best Actor role.
The Richest Woman in the World is a good and interesting film which could have been much better given the unutilised source material available.
Reviewed by Rob McKinnon
Rating 3.5 out of 5
Distributor: Palace Films
A lost opportunity to tell a bigger story but still an interesting film.
