French Riviera

The Côte d'Azur (French pronunciation: ​[kot daˈzyʁ]; Occitan: Còsta d'Azur; literally: 'Azure Coast'), often known in English as the French Riviera, is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend from the Italian border (Italian Riviera) in the east to Saint-Tropez, Hyères, Toulon, or Cassis in the west.

This coastline was one of the first modern resort areas. It began as a winter health resort for the British upper class at the end of the 18th century. With the arrival of the railway in the mid-19th century, it became the playground and vacation spot of British, Russian, and other aristocrats, such as Queen Victoria and King Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales. In the summer, it also played home to many members of the Rothschild family. In the first half of the 20th century, it was frequented by artists and writers, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Edith Wharton, Somerset Maugham, and Aldous Huxley, as well as wealthy Americans and Europeans. After World War II, it became a popular tourist destination and convention site. Many celebrities, such as Elton John and Brigitte Bardot, have homes in the region. Officially, the Côte d'Azur is home to 163 nationalities with 83,962 foreign residents, although estimates of the number of non-French nationals living in the area are often much higher.

In the Name of My Daughter

In the Name of My Daughter (French: L'Homme qu'on aimait trop; also known as French Riviera) is a 2014 French drama film directed by André Téchiné and starring Catherine Deneuve, Guillaume Canet and Adèle Haenel. The script was based on the memoir, Une femme face à la Mafia, written by Renée Le Roux and her son Jean-Charles Le Roux. It retraces the Agnès Le Roux case, which made headlines in the 1970s.

Plot

Agnès Le Roux, a young independent woman, returns to Nice in 1976 to have a new start in her life after a failed marriage. Her mother, Renée Le Roux, a wealthy widow, is fighting with other shareholders for control of the Palais de la Méditerranée, a casino on the French Rivera. The casino is facing difficulties and in one night, it loses five million francs to professional gamblers who very likely tampered a game.

Agnès, determined to make it on her own, opens a small bookstore where she sells African artifacts and Asian textiles. Renée, with the help of her lawyer and personal adviser, Maurice Agnelet, and her daughter’s decisive vote on her favor, takes control of the Palais de la Méditerranée. However, the mother-daughter relationship is strained. Harsh and straightforward, Renée refuses to give her daughter the share of Agnès’ inheritance from her late father. Maurice, ambitious and charming, is attracted to the beautiful, but stubborn Agnès. They become fast friends. Maurice is separated from his wife and has a small son to which he is close. He is also a ladies man. One of the women he is dating, Françoise, believing that he is having an affair with Agnès, visits her at the bookstore to warn her about Maurice. If she has not fallen for him yet, she eventually will. He beds all the young women around him.