Mille milliards de dollars (1982) User Reviews

A great Henri Verneuil's movie, once again ...

[Phili · 8/10 · 24 November 2004]

Capitalism, liberalism, profits, benefits, money, power ... how far can this vision of life can lead to ? This movie deals with a story that could easily be classified as 'usual' today ; a journalist tries to find the truth about a big holding shady business and discover tremendous things that make his life in danger.

Beyond that cliché of cinema, "Mille Milliards de dollars" points at the world we're living in, where money and power rule, where people thinks to be free but are actually pawns moved by interests and to make always more and more benefits, where the stakes are so huge there are no law anymore, no human beings, just customers, workers, business, profit: The real power is not in politic but in money !

Made about 20 years ago and still so actual...a great movie !

Les affaires sont les affaires .

[ulicknormanowen · 7/10 · 20 July 2021]

With "I comme Icare",Heni Verneuil whose know-how was never called into question became more ambitious ; although handicapped by a thoroughly implausible ending ( an easy way out "I comme Icare " avoided ,and in a stunning way at that) and a cliché used for the umpteenth time : the divorced couple who through danger and trial , ultimately fall in love again .

But all that remains is successful ; the depiction of the schemes used by an American multinational to take over French (among others) industries is a difficult subject , not spectacular at all .Mel Ferrer's genial and cynical speech (which must not exceed two minutes, because" I do not want to bore my audience") reveals,behind the façade of respectability an adamant icy personality ( see how Michel Auclair is fired) , the huge meeting ,around the table looks like a Maffia reunion .

The flashbacks are ,like in "I comme Icare " , smartly introduced ;sometimes it's a "enough is enough" feeling when they turn black and white to describe GTI 's involvement with the Nazis and their ruthless opportunism ,but thanks to the actors , the movie survives the heavy intentions .

The sadly missed Dewaere ,unlike Belmondo in "peur sur la ville" ,never hogs the stage and ,as he is the only main character in the whole movie,he carries it on his shoulders ,without overplaying ; Jeanne Moreau makes her one and only scene count;so do, in their small parts ,Anny Duperey ,Michel Auclair and veteran Fernand Ledoux whose career began in the silent age ; On the other hand ,Caroline Cellier,an excellent actress, is given a cardboard character and cannot do anything with it .

Verneuil was always despised by the highbrows ; but his best works must be restored to favor.

Very interesting...

[RodrigAndrisan · 8/10 · 8 May 2021]

... like any other film directed by Henri Verneuil. "You freed us from a military occupation to replace it with an economic occupation", says Dewaere's character to Mel Ferrer, a current truth. Patrick Dewaere is not very expressive but it's his nature as an actor, and in this film he fits perfectly with the character. Yes, the film clearly shows the delusional cynicism of the "powerful", and the shameful origins of certain major capitals today. Two small but exceptional performances by two great French actors, Jeanne Moreau and Charles Denner. Jean-Pierre Kalfon is also very good in the role of the killer. Music by a great master. Philippe Sarde.

Eye-Opener for Mille Milliard De Dollars (1982) ~ GTI is ITT

[michael_m_0024 · 10/10 · 30 March 2006]

This is just a minor comment but... I just want to say this movie is great. It contains a lot of economic strategies and shows that multinationals are more powerful then entire nations. It is still very actual nowadays, maybe even more today... Less and less multinationals still exist today with larger and larger corporations controlling the world. However what I'd like to stress here in this quote is; GTI is ITT. The company in the movie, called GTI is in fact ITT (International Telephone and Telegraph). I'd like to refer to the book "The Sovereign State of I.T.T.". Most scenes of the movies are literally taken from the book. Of course they didn't include it into the movie's credits, it would come under fire. If you compare them, then it should be clear. Just my two cents.

Not a major film, but still of interest

[philosopherjack · 13 May 2019]

Henri Verneuil's Mille milliards de dollars doesn't rank as a major film: among other things, it's of limited stylistic interest, and the narrative mostly takes a familiar form of notable actors (Jeanne Moreau, Charles Denner and so forth) popping up for a scene or two to point the way to the next link in the deductive chain. Patrick Dewaere plays a journalist who receives a tip-off of scandal surrounding a notable public figure: the investigation leads him deep into the machinations of an American multi-national, and ultimately into the lingering moral stain of WW2. The film retains interest for several reasons though. Viewed as a time of anxiety about corporate power that transcends national boundaries and evades political or regulatory control, it's rather darkly instructive to view a 1982 film driven by similar concerns (albeit of course under very different technological conditions): the influence is so invidious for instance that the French subsidiaries are forced to exist on New York time, holding key meetings in the middle of the night.Verneuil devotes a surprising amount of time in the corporate weeds, inviting for us for instance to dive into the mechanics of a particular corporate result that falls far short of the forecast, and having the corporation's leader (Mel Ferrer) deliver a mini-lecture on international transfer pricing. The film's tone can't help but draw on the sad resonances surrounding Dewaere, who would be dead by his own hand within months of the film's release (a scene in which a would-be assassin writes a fake suicide note on his behalf thus assumes a particular chill). The closing stretch allows us some room for hope that the truth can come out (an independent newspaper plays the role that nowadays would most likely be filled by citizen journalism) while allowing the journalist's personal concerns rather to push aside the larger story. But maybe that's a mark of one thing that hasn't changed over thirty-seven intervening years: that the liberal and anti-corporatist cause must too often content itself with strictly incremental steps forward.

Excellent 80s suspense

[propos-86965 · 8/10 · 14 August 2020]

The more I see of Patrick Dewaere's starring vehicles the more I see why his early and tragic death was a loss to the continuation of the French film legacy. Verneuil's direction and film adaptation are on the level of Lumet's Day of the Condor. A complex story that unfolds as the suspense and tension build. There's a superb cameo by Jeanne Moreau. With a few subtle jesters, she conveys abandonment and loneliness while leading Dewaere toward her real goal and the gist of the story. Dewaere as the earnest muckraker has found a character he could have relied on but his audience will be forever disappointed. The rest of the cast is solid with mention to the smooth, icy corporate globalist played by Mel Ferrer.

Robert Lattes badly let down by Verneuil

[patrick-braley · 1/10 · 1 November 2005]

Not quite what you would expect from someone like Henri Verneuil. Patrick Dewaere does indeed rescue the film from complete oblivion. While Robert Lattes' novel makes pleasant reading (if you read French, that is), the movie adaptation doesn't amount to much. Denouncing the ills of "big business" is certainly laudable, as is placing the action if the larger picture of "economic history". But is this sufficient to keep an audience spellbound from beginning to end? All the ingredients are there for the taking. But Verneuil never seems to be willing to go all the way, and he simply leaves you high and dry. Enrolling a better- than-average cast of actors is no guaranteed recipe for success. If all you're looking for is just to sit back and relax because you've nothing better to do than watch a movie, OK -- go ahead. But if you're looking for a good French movie, skip this one. A sheer waste of time. (But read the book by all means).