The Swindle (1997 film)


The Swindle is a 1997 French crime-comedy film directed by Claude Chabrol that starred Michel Serrault and Isabelle Huppert.

Plot

Victor and Betty are small-time confidence tricksters operating from a camper van who specialise in business conventions. Betty lures a delegate to a hotel room, where she slips him knock-out drops. Victor then joins her and they go through his cash, cheques, credit cards and passport. Victor's golden rule is never to be greedy, instead taking just a bit from each victim.
Betty enjoys exercising her powers of attraction, however, and gets more ambitious. She starts an affair with Maurice, who is a courier for money launderers and has to deliver an attaché case to the Caribbean. Victor reluctantly joins her plot, and they switch Maurice's case, which contains 5 million Swiss francs, for an identical case they have filled with newspaper. When Maurice's contacts find they have been swindled, they first torture him to death and then go looking for Victor and Betty. After the two have undergone some brutal questioning, they hand over the right case with 2.8 million Swiss francs in it. Fooled by Victor's golden rule, the gangsters let the pair go.
Victor, cross with Betty for stepping out of their league and endangering their lives, disappears with the 2.2 million Swiss francs he kept. She tracks him down at his Swiss hideaway and in the end the two make it up.

Cast