"I knew your talent would be recognised, one day." Thinking that her inventor husband has finally managed to make a name for himself with a patent, the wife of the protagonist in Jean-Paul Salomé’s captivating movie The Money Maker - released in French cinemas tomorrow via Le Pacte - is way off the mark, but in some respects she’s hit the nail right on the head. Because, secretly, her husband is giving Banque de France the chills, to the point that "in the history of counterfeiting, you’d refer to a Bojarski in the same way you’d talk about a Cézanne."

Inspired by an individual who really did hit the headlines, this new movie by the director of Mama Weed [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] (2020) and The Sitting Duck [+leggi anche:
recensione
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intervista: Jean-Paul Salomé
scheda film] (2023) charts the fascinating trajectory of this ingenious counterfeiter, with wonderful novelistic skill, offering up a story which is an ideal blend of detective genre film codes, a long-term marital love story, great documentary precision around the world of counterfeiting, and a highly endearing psychological portrait of a Polish emigrant looking for recognition.

Opening with a spectacular truck robbery in 1951 in Rambouillet Forest, the film subsequently goes back in time to Lyon in 1943 where Jan Bojarski (a fantastic Reda Kateb) – an engineer refugee in France – produces false papers, which results in him being forcibly recruited by shady thug Lucien Scola (Olivier Loustau). It’s also the moment when Jan experiences love at first sight for Suzanne (an incredibly convincing Sara Giraudeau) with whom he starts a family who move to Paris after the war. There, Bojarski tries in vain to patent his inventions ("French people go first"). He feels socially humiliated, being poor and living with his in-laws, and shares his troubles with his old friend, Anton (Pierre Lottin). Tracked down by Scola and his "Front-Wheel Drive Gang", he agrees to get into the field of counterfeiting banknotes. It’s a dangerous world he’s getting into (punishable by 30 years in prison) and in which he swiftly excels ("welcome to the big league "), soon going solo to pursue his counterfeiting career in total secrecy (unknown even to his own family). But one man has been tracking him over the years: Commissioner Mattei (a remarkable “Melvillian” Bastien Bouillon)…

Following in the wake of Bojarski, amidst personalised paper, watermarks, superimposition, motifs, printing press, money featuring Minerva and Hercules, Land and Sea, and Napolean Bonaparte, and cautious circulation of banknotes, the story plunges viewers into the fascinating artisanal techniques of a real counterfeiting artist as he leads a perilous double life (with repercussions for his family life). Overcoming period drama obstacles with great ease, this film, which takes place over twenty or so years, is perfectly paced (full of twists and turns but knowing when to take its time where needed) and perfectly articulated around the cat and mouse game unfolding between the counterfeiter (in the extreme solitude imposed by his secret activity) and the tenacious police officer ("creating masterpieces day in, day out, without telling anyone about it, must really get to him"). It makes for a brilliant cinema experience, offering up a sophisticated approach to modernising the classics.

The Money Maker ws produced by Le Bureau and Les Compagnons du Cinéma, in co-production with France 2 Cinéma, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, Cactus Prod, Restons Groupés Productions and Belgium’s Artemis Productions. The Bureau Sales are steering world sales.