The Swindle (French: Rien ne va plus) is a 1997 French-Swiss film directed by Claude Chabrol, starring Isabelle Huppert, Michel Serrault, and François Cluzet.
Betty (Huppert) and Victor (Serrault) are two swindlers. Their usual modus operandi is the following: Betty seduces businessmen during profesionnal conferences. She puts a sleeping drug in the drink of the mark. When he is asleep, Betty and Victor steal his money and cheques, but they never steal everything he has, so that he does not realize immediately that he was robbed. Betty meets Maurice (Cluzet), a guy who often carries briefcases full of money. She suggests making a big con.
The Swindle provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: In the epilogue, Betty (Isabelle Huppert) knocks on Victor's door. Victor asks who is there and Betty answers that it is the postman. In La Cérémonie, Claude Chabrol's previous film, Isabelle Huppert played a postwoman.
- Ambiguous Situation: Are Victor and Betty father and daughter? (Betty calls Victor "dad" in the epilogue, but it might be an ironic or affectionate naming.) Are they ex-lovers? (Victor seems to be jealous about Betty's relationship with Maurice.) Or are they just partners in crime?
- Briefcase Full of Money: Maurice often carries briefcases full of money for a shady organization. Betty and Victor tries to steal one from him.
- The Casino: The first scene happens in a casino. Betty starts seducing Chatillon there.
- Chained Heat: Before releasing them, Monsieur K orders to handcuff Betty and Victor together. Victor manages to release himself quickly.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Monsieur K and his girlfriend are briefly seen as passengers of the plane. Monsieur K is later revealed to be Maurice's employer.
- The Con:
- Chatillon is the victim of the con set up by Betty and Victor in the beginning. Eventually, Betty and Victor steal part of his money and his cheques.
- Maurice is the victim of a bigger con set up by Betty, with the help of Victor. Eventually, Betty and Victor steal his Briefcase Full of Money.
- Con Man: Betty and Victor are two swindlers. They steal money from businessmen during profesionnal conferences.
- Distant Finale: The epilogue happens years after the main part of the plot. A caption says hyperbolically: "A century later".
- Eye Scream: Monsieur K's henchmen have driven a nail into the eye of Maurice, up to his brain.
- Fast-Forward to Reunion: In the end, Betty wakes up on the beach. Victor has left her alone. In the epilogue, set years later, she meets him again for the first time since then.
- Faux Affably Evil: All over the place with Monsieur K and his henchmen. They alway remain very polite with Betty and Victor, even if they threaten to kill them brutally.
- Fauxreigner: Betty pretends to be a Polish woman to seduce Maurice.
- Fingore: Monsieur K's henchmen break Victor's middle finger.
- Flipping the Bird: Monsieur K's henchmen break Victor's middle finger. After that, he seems unable to bend it, so his middle finger is always sticked out.
- Foreshadowing: The fact that Victor does not steal all the money from Chatillon in the beginning foreshadows the fact that he only takes half of the money in the briefcase in the end.
- Gambler Groupies: Invoked by Betty. When she notices that Chatillon is winning at the casino, she sits next to him and starts seducing him. Her final goal is to rob him.
- Handcuffed Briefcase: The briefcases full of money of Maurice are handcuffed to him. Betty persuades him to handcuff the briefcase to her.
- Honey Trap: Betty seduces businessmen during profesionnal conferences. Her goal is to rob them after putting a sleeping drug in their drink. She also seduces Maurice to steal one of the briefcases full of money he carries.
- Multiple Identity IDs: Betty and Victor use several names to swindle their victims. They have several identity documents with different names.
- Satchel Switcheroo: Victor brings on the plane a briefcase identical to the Briefcase Full of Money of Maurice. Then Betty tells Maurice that she has exchanged the Briefcase Full of Money for another briefcase (which is not true), so Maurice confronts Victor and forces him to exchange the briefcases. So Maurice ends up with a briefcase full of old newspapers.
- The Schlub Pub Seduction Deduction: Betty, a beautiful woman, seduces Chatillon, a less-good-looking man, in the casino. In the bar, she outright tells him that she wants to make love with him. Of course, this is part of a con to steal Chatillon's money.
- Shout-Out:
- Betty says the a hotel looks like The Castle of Franz Kafka. There is also a mob boss named Monsieur K.
- Monsieur K is a fan of Tosca, the opera by Giacomo Puccini.
- Slipping a Mickey: Betty puts a sleeping drug in the drink of the businessmen she tries to rob.
- Too Dumb to Live: Maurice. He carries briefcases full of money for dangerous mobsters. He agrees to let Betty carry a briefcase in place of him. Even after Betty tells him that she is a swindler, that Victor is her accomplice and that he intends to steal the briefcase, Maurice still let her carry the briefcase and still believes everything Betty tells him. Consequently, Monsieur K and his henchmen murder him for losing the briefcase. Lampshaded by several characters who repeat that Maurice was really dumb.
- Visual Innuendo: After a henchman breaks Victor's middle finger, Monsieur K's girlfriend licks it slowly and suggestively.
- Wicked Cultured: Monsieur K is a dangerous mobster, but he is also fond of classical music. When he meets Betty and Victor, he first tells them how much he likes Tosca, in particular when it is sung by Mirella Freni and Plácido Domingo and when the orchestra is conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli.
