Qui perd gagne! (2004)
Directed by Laurent Bénégui

Film Review

This fourth feature from award winning writer Laurent Bénégui sees the director plunge head-first into the American-style genre film (albeit one that is several decades past its sell-by date), aided and abetted by a charismatic duo formed by Thierry Lhermitte and Elsa Zylberstein. Whilst the plot is pretty hard to swallow and Bénégui's direction is singularly lacking in consistency and sophistication, the film is not entirely without charm, although this derives almost entirely from the edgy relationship between the two ill-matched principal characters. Maurice Bénichou brings gravitas to the film and is convincing as an eccentric mathematician who appears to have found a fooolproof way to win the National Lottery. Qui perd gagne!'s main failing is that it fails to develop its promising premise into a credible storyline and it quickly ends up looking like a second rate American thriller from the 1970s, with thinly sketched secondary characters and some pretty feeble attempts at humour. Bénégui seems to be completely out of his depth when the film shifts gear from character-centric drama to full-on thriller and the stylistic excesses soon end up smothering the narrative, making it look like an infantile Xbox version of The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). It's a world apart from the director's previous low-key comedy Au petit Marguery (1995).

Film Synopsis

For several years, Jacques and Angèle have formed the perfect couple, in spite of the fact that he is a professional gambler and she is an officer in police intelligence.  Both are intrigued by the story of a mathematics professor who claims to have discovered a formula for winning the French National Lottery.  When the professor wins the jackpot prize two weeks in succession, Angèle is convinced someone has contrived an elaborate fraud and sets out to uncover the truth.  It is, however, Jacques' gambler's instinct which provides the winning hand...