The mystery of the disappearance of Agnès Le Roux haunted the people of Nice for almost forty years. The young heiress to the Palais de la Méditerranée casino vanished in 1977, without a trace. Everything for Agnes, directed by Vincent Garenq, returns in four episodes to this unresolved story which broke up the Le Roux family. Broadcast on January 8 on France 2, the series leaves little room for doubt about the guilt of Maurice Agnelet, sulphurous lawyer and main suspect in the disappearance of the young woman. However, in the absence of the body and the slightest material evidence, this case continues to raise questions.
Was Agnès Le Roux killed by her lover, sentenced to twenty years in prison in 2014 after an endless investigation, or by the mafia to whom she sold her shares in the casino for 3 million francs? The filming of the series led by Michèle Laroque and Yannick Choirat was also marked by numerous debates among the members of the team. Despite the accusations of his ex-mistress and her son Guillaume Agnelet, which rocked the third trial in 2014, the perverse personality of Maurice Agnelet and his control over Agnès open the way to conjectures.
“This story is the definition of a tragedy”
Vincent Garenq spent four months locked up reading all the books and press articles on the affair, viewing archive images of Maurice Agnelet interviewed by his son. He had access to the investigation file to write this criminal story which takes place in the city of Nice plagued by the mafia and corruption in the 1970s. “There was this double tragedy of the Le Roux family, who lost Agnès , and the Agnelet family whose children emerge traumatized. Everyone loses, that’s the definition of tragedies, points out Vincent Garenq. To counteract the flaw in this story which is not completely resolved, there was this ending with the son Agnelet who denounces his father.
The viewer ends this fiction, convinced of the guilt of Maurice Agnelet. “Everything you see in these four episodes is what got him convicted and it’s absolutely damning. The annotations in his Pléiade books, the scene where he says to Agnès: “I’m not stopping you from committing suicide, I have too much respect for you”, he really said these words in a letter. When we read the investigation file, we really have the impression that he pushed her to suicide,” underlines the director. The fiction shows only one suicide attempt – instead of two – by the young woman. “According to a witness who shared her hospital room, she said: ‘I don’t understand, I never cut my veins,'” he continues. As if someone – her former lover? – had broken into his apartment to help him finish the job.
In reality, a doubt exists. Maurice Agnelet had access to Agnès’ money through a joint account opened in Switzerland, which he transferred to another account in his name. Did he need to make her disappear to enjoy his fortune? It seems not. Madly in love with him, she was under his influence and he had access to this money through this joint account. Once Agnès disappeared, on the other hand, he was never able to touch it. His defense was based entirely on his role as “receiver”.
“This man remains an enigma”
“I don’t know if he killed her but I really think he was complicit in a murder,” says Michèle Laroque who plays Renée Le Roux. The actress, who grew up in Nice and even danced at the Palais de la Méditerranée when she was a child, does not rule out the mafia hypothesis. “In reality, Agnès sold her shares twice. Maurice Agnelet was scared to death, you don’t do that with the mafia, he was risking his life too. I think he was serving his accomplices when he wanted revenge on Renée Le Roux, but I’m not sure he killed her,” she says.
“Even having played this character, this man remains an enigma and indeed the motive is fragile… Perhaps he was no longer in love with Agnès,” speculates Yannick Choirat who delved into the archive images to interpret the lawyer. He needed money to get rid of the question of money, to give himself the freedom to live what he wanted to live. » If the series decides to sidestep the subject of the mafia a little, it relentlessly restores the facts and manages to reveal the flaws of each character. The narcissistic fragility of Maurice Agnelet, the psychological instability of Agnès and the blind devotion of Renée Le Roux to her Casino. A disturbing dive into the psyche of a suspected murderer who died with his secret.