''Place Vendôme'' is a 1998 French crime drama film directed by

Nicole Garcia Nicole Garcia (born 22 April 1946) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter. Her film '' Charlie Says'' was entered into the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Her film '' Going Away'' was screened in the Special Presentation section at the ...

, starring

Catherine Deneuve Catherine Fabienne Dorléac (born 22 October 1943), known professionally as Catherine Deneuve (, , ), is a French actress. She is considered one of the greatest European actresses on film. In 2020, ''The New York Times'' ranked her as one of th ...

, and named after the

Place Vendôme The Place Vendôme (), earlier known as the Place Louis-le-Grand, and also as the Place Internationale, is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madelein ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Deneuve won the

Volpi Cup The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

for Best Actress at the

55th Venice International Film Festival The 55th annual Venice International Film Festival was held between 3 and 13 September 1998. Italian filmmaker Ettore Scola was the Jury President of the Main Competition. The Golden Lion was awarded to '' The Way We Laughed'' by Gianni Ame ...

for her role in the film.

Plot

Vincent Malivert is the head of a prestigious jewel broker's firm on the exclusive Place Vendôme. Hampered by debt and implicated in trafficking of stolen jewels, he commits suicide, leaving his wife Marianne to pick up the pieces. Marianne, who has spent the last few years in and out of a clinic recovering from alcoholism, discovers a set of perfect cut diamonds in her husband's safe. Although she knows the diamonds are probably stolen, she decides to use this opportunity to rebuild her life and sets about trying to find a buyer for the hidden jewels. Unwittingly, she is drawn to a shady dealer named Battistelli, the very man who drove her into a disastrous and loveless marriage.

Cast

as Marianne Malivert *

Jean-Pierre Bacri Jean-Pierre Bacri (24 May 1951 – 18 January 2021) was a French actor and screenwriter. He frequently worked in collaboration with Agnès Jaoui. Life and career One of Bacri's earliest film appearances was '' Subway''. He co-wrote with Jaou ...

as Jean-Pierre *

Emmanuelle Seigner Emmanuelle Seigner (; born 22 June 1966) is a French actress and singer. She is known for her roles in '' The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'' (2007), '' The Ninth Gate'' (1999) and '' Frantic'' (1988). She has been nominated for a César Award ...

as Nathalie *

Jacques Dutronc Jacques Dutronc (; born 28 April 1943) is a French singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer, and actor. Some of Dutronc's best-known hits include " Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille" (which AllMusic has called "his finest hour"), "Le Responsa ...

as Serge Battistelli *

Bernard Fresson Bernard Fresson (27 May 1931 – 20 October 2002) was a French actor who primarily worked in film. Biography Born in Reims to a French baker, Fresson attended the Lycée privé Sainte-Geneviève, majoring in law. He studied in Tania Balachova ...

as Vincent Malivert *

François Berléand François Berléand (; born 22 April 1952) is a French actor. He plays Gilles Triquet, the officer manager and equivalent of David Brent in ''Le Bureau'', the French version of ''The Office'', produced by Canal+. He also appeared in the 2002 f ...

as Eric Malivert *

Dragan Nikolić Dragoslav "Dragan" Nikolić ( sr-cyr, Драгослав Драган Николић, ; 20 August 1943 – 11 March 2016) was a Serbian and Yugoslav actor. Nikolić studied at Dramatic Arts Academy in Belgrade. In 1967 he starred in the film ' ...

as Janos *

Larry Lamb Lawrence Douglas Lamb (born 1 October 1947) is an English actor and radio presenter. He played Archie Mitchell in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', Mick Shipman in the BBC comedy series ''Gavin & Stacey'' and Ted Case in the final series of ...

as Christopher Makos *

Otto Tausig Otto Tausig (13 February 1922 – 10 October 2011) was an Austrian writer, director and actor. Although he usually appeared in German language films, he also played in English language films such as ''Love Comes Lately'', and in French language fi ...

as Samy * László Szabó as Charlie Rosen *

Elisabeth Commelin Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth ( ...

as Mademoiselle Pierson *

Philippe Clévenot Philippe is a masculine given name, cognate to Philip, and sometimes also a surname. The name may refer to: * Philippe of Belgium (born 1960), King of the Belgians (2013–present) * Philippe (footballer) (born 2000), Brazilian footballer * Prince ...

as Kleiser * Malik Zidi as Sam's Son *

Éric Ruf Éric Ruf (born 21 May 1969) is a French actor, set designer and theatre director. He appeared in more than thirty films since 1995. He joined the Comédie-Française in 1993, became a member in 1998 and took the role of managing director in 2014. ...

as Phillipe Ternece * Nidal Al-Askhar as Saliha *

Julian Fellowes Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford (born 17 August 1949), known professionally as Julian Fellowes, is an English actor, novelist, writer, producer, film director, and Conservative peer. He has received nume ...

as Wajman *

Michael Culkin Michael Culkin (born 2 July 1954) is an English theatre, film, and television actor probably best known for his role as Judge Buller in the BBC drama '' Garrow's Law''. He appeared as Rab Butler in the first two seasons of ''The Crown'', in '' ...

as De Beers Man

Production

Principal photography began on 23 June 1997 and completed on 26 September 1997.

Reception and critical response

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''Place Vendôme'' holds an approval rating of 85%, based on 20 reviews, and an average rating of 6.6/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews". In the ''New York Times'', David Kehr wrote, "despite its many flaws, the film never loses its focus on its fascinating central figure. Grandly suffering, grandly triumphant or just plain grand, Ms. Deneuve is a spectacle to behold." Lisa Nesselson of the ''

Variety Magazine ''Variety'' is an American trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation. It was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933, ''Daily Variety'' was launched, based in ...

'' said that the film is "an elaborate and elegant suspenser that gives Catherine Deneuve plenty of leeway to act up a storm, "Place Vendome" features coveted gemstones, the no-nonsense factions that want them and a woman's revised take on her own destiny, played out against luxurious backdrops".

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the film a score of 3.5 out of 5.

References

External links

* * Films set in Paris Films directed by Nicole Garcia Films shot in Antwerp Films shot in Paris Films produced by Alain Sarde French crime drama films 1998 crime drama films 1998 films 1990s French-language films 1990s French films Films scored by Richard Robbins French-language crime drama films {{1990s-France-film-stub