Why you absolutely must watch the Netflix miniseries about the Bettencourt case

It was one of the most discreet families in France: the Bettencourts, embodied by the figure of Liliane Bettencourt, the richest woman in the world until her death in 2017 (now it is her daughter, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, who occupies this title).

If this name doesn’t mean anything to you, another might be more meaningful to you: L’Oréal. Powerful French industrial group of cosmetic products, founded in 1909 by the chemist Eugène Schueller, who was none other than Liliane Bettencourt’s father.

It was one of the most discreet families in France, until a vast political-financial scandal broke out in 2010 which also involved the then President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy.

The story is worthy of a season Succession OR Downton Abbey, we don’t know anymore, and as you can imagine, it’s pretty juicy. Netflix has decided to make a miniseries of documentaries which, Just 24 hours after its release, it was already among the most viewed content on the platform.

Why you absolutely need to watch the Bettencourt miniseries on Netflix

For a dive into the world of the ultra-rich

You may be wondering what the life of a multi-billionaire is like? The Bettencourt Affairon Netflix, offers a good overview.

Take a huge mansion in Neuilly, add an army of employees, from the waitstaff to the butler, through to the wealth manager and the accountant (all this is organized, being ultra-rich).

Finally, he dusts off a completely unreal relationship with money: in this miniseries we learn, for example, that among the staff and in the Bettencourt household it was well known that one million euros in 500 banknotes is equivalent to the size of a carton of milk. Did you know that? And to give us a better understanding of the Bettencourt family’s immense fortune, the series drops 30,000 cartons of milk from the sky. We’ll let you do the math.

It must be said that among the Bettencourts money comes and goes, in cash and in large denominations, and passes from hand to hand, to the point that we no longer know to whom we have given how much.

And this is somewhat of the starting point of the series (and the story): Liliane Bettencourt is generous, In any case, that’s what he suggests, in an archive interview with Marc-Olivier Fogiel. He gives a lot and without counting. He inevitably attracts profiteers and malicious people around him. This is the case of François-Marie Bannier, introduced to Liliane Bettencourt through Arielle Dombasle (who testifies throughout the series, not without seeming tired of the exercise).

Photographer, François-Marie Bannier befriends Liliane Bettencourt and becomes her closest friend. So close that in the space of fifteen years he managed to extract almost a billion euros from him, under the pretext of bringing a breath of fresh air into the heiress’ life. We later discover that this wasn’t her first attempt…

In a lunar conversation (the real recordings are broadcast throughout the series), we also hear Liliane Bettencourt’s wealth manager inform the latter of the state of her accounts: we discover thatshe has 165 million euros on one, which allows her to “live ten years “. We let you imagine the rhythm of life…

To understand the background story of an event that shook the political world

If the affair was initially an internal struggle that pitted Françoise Bettencourt Meyers against her mother since 2007, it quickly transformed into a political-judicial scandal that also involved the then President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy.

The series explains the many aspects of the case well:

• There’s the familial counterpart, in which the daughter of the L’Oréal heiress tries to argue that her mother is not of sound mind and is being abused – and we understand in passing, also to protect her inheritance. However, Liliane Bettencourt is almost 80 years old and will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s quite soon.
• The financial compensation: from telephone interceptions it emerges that Liliane Bettencourt had several undeclared accounts in Switzerland. According to her estate administrator, Patrice de Maistre, convicted in the case, the heiress had two undeclared accounts totaling 78 million euros. She had twelve in total! In other words, we call it tax evasion…

Finally, there is the political side of the story, which is ultimately one of the most interesting because it allows us to understand how the influence exerted between politicians and the great French families works. It all starts from the testimony of the Bettencourt accountant who revealed that Mediapart undeclared donations by Liliane Bettencourt of large sums (at least 50,000 euros) with the aim of financing Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign for the 2007 presidential elections. All this, via the treasurer of her party and budget minister when the case broke out, Eric Vale. Are you still following?

Because this story has allowed investigative journalism to gain credibility and confirm its necessity

If the series is really worth a look, it is also and finally because it gives voice to many people close to the Bettencourt family (its estate administrator, Arielle Dombasle, who is also a friend of Françoise Bettencourt Meyers) and to journalists. Among these, there are obviously Edwy Plenel and Fabrice Arfi, among the first Mediapart publish the recordings and to break the relationship. The word is also given Corinne Audouin, journalist from the Investigations-Justice section of France Inter OR Marie-France Etchegoin, journalist and author, in 2011, from the book A billion secrets (edited by Robert Laffont) which traces the reverse side of the story.

The only small criticism that can be made of the series is that it deals with some important aspects of the case a little too quickly. For example, we never talk about key figures, such as Florence Woerth, wife of Éric Woerth, at the time investment director of the company that managed Liliane Bettencourt’s assets…

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