A blend of modesty and violence, Un perdant magnifique paints the portrait of a unique personality—both monstrous and irresistible.
This is the story of a man who returns after a long absence. His name is Jacques. He is gravely ill. Yet he never stops dreaming up grand schemes, which he shares with his stepdaughter during their sleepless nights. Jacques is quite a character—an eccentric, a businessman. With him, life becomes a performance, orchestrated like a magician’s act.
This is the story of a young girl, Anna, who lives in Le Havre with her mother and sister, Irène. Jacques is her stepfather. When he arrives on Christmas Eve, he imposes rules on the entire family, dictated by his whimsical mood. A liar yet sincere, tyrannical yet extravagant, his unpredictable madness constantly unsettles Anna. Half-gentleman, half-drifter, he is an illusionist for whom reality is just one hypothesis among many.
The story unfolds in Le Havre, Abidjan, and Rome, in the 1980s. The girls drink gin while watching Rocky. Days slip away toward an inevitable end.
This is the story of a downfall—Jacques’s, of course. And the end of youth, whose memory lingers like an open wound.
