Victor (Michel Serrault) and Betty (Isabelle Huppert) play a strange pair of frauds in Chabrol’s fiftieth film. The precise relationship that binds these two people crossing France by caravan remains unknown throughout the film – and that is not the only masterful game that Chabrol plays with the genre. The couple’s trick is old as the hills: in luxury hotels, Betty seduces a rich congress-goer, accompanies him to his room, drugs him with a sedative and lets her accomplice in. Then they rob the man, but it is one of Victor’s principles that they should never take too much money and valuables. The idea is that the rich victims shouldn’t bother to go after them or even to warn the police.During a short holiday, Betty meets Maurice (François Cluzet). For a long time it is not clear whether Betty is colluding with Maurice or whether she is still playing by Victor’s rules. Betty is convinced that Maurice wants to steal the five million francs he is involved with creaming off for his Swiss company. The adventure leads them to the Caribbean.Chabrol emphatically wanted to make an entertaining film and he had no trouble achieving his goal. Rien ne va plus is sustained by veterans Serrault and Huppert, who take obvious pleasure in the sharp dialogues, and above all by Chabrol’s cheerful Hitchcock-like tone.
