Masquerade

A confidence-trick film set on the French Riviera. Adrien was going to be a dancer. A motorcycle accident ended that; now he lives with Martha. Martha is a former film star with a large house in Nice, and she covers all the young man's expenses. One day Adrien meets Margot. She lives by fraud and is good at reading the loneliness of rich people. The two set up a plan. The target is an estate agent named Simon, and it is built on an invented love story. From there the film keeps changing who is using whom. The narrative plays with time; scenes come out of order and what was established at the start takes on another meaning later. What the film is interested in is not money but appearance: everyone is playing a part, and the moment they drop it there is nothing left in their hands. Pierre Niney plays Adrien, Isabelle Adjani plays Martha, François Cluzet plays Simon and Marine Vacth plays Margot. Emmanuelle Devos is in the cast. It was shot in Nice. Nicolas Bedos wrote and directed. The film was shown out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival and divided the French press. Who it is for: anyone who likes glossy con narratives that lean on their cast. Who it is not for: anyone looking for a sympathetic character; almost everyone in the film lies, and the narrative leans on that openly.