Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Billionaire, The Butler And The Boyfriend’ On Netflix, A Docuseries About A Spiraling Scandal Involving The World’s Wealthiest Woman

The Billionaire, The Butler And The Boyfriend is a 3-part docuseries that discusses the last years of Liliane Bettencourt, who at the time of the 2017 death was the wealthiest woman in the world. She was worth over €30 billion, due to holding the largest number shares in the massive cosmetics conglomerate L’Oreal. During those last decades, she became friends with a celebrity photographer, François-Marie Banier, to whom she gave gifts that totaled close to €1 billion. The scandal then spiraled out of control, with Bettencourt accused of avoiding taxes, and paying off political campaigns in cash, including the campaign of eventual French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

THE BILLIONAIRE, THE BUTLER AND THE BOYFRIEND: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of Paris. Then we see the gates of Liliane Bettencourt’s mansion.

The Gist: The first episode discusses Bettencourt’s loneliness in the years before she met Banier; though she was married to André Bettencourt for almost 60 years, it was certainly not a marriage born of romance or love. Through interviews with people in Bettencourt’s inner circle, along with an artist friend of her daughter, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, we get a picture of a woman who was deeply depressed, living what she thought was an empty life despite her vast wealth.

Banier did a photo shoot with Bettencourt for a luxury magazine in 1987; his brash manner and the unvarnished way he spoke to Bettencourt endeared him to her, and during their friendship they traveled and met celebrities, and he generally brought her out of the shell she was in. Her daughter Françoise did not approve of this friendship, and her suspicions of his intentions grew as she found out about the gifts of artwork and cash she gave him, especially between 1997 and 2007, when her father André died.

After André’s death, Bettencourt became increasingly paranoid, cutting off relations with her daughter and speaking to her financial advisor, Patrice de Maistre, about which member of her extensive staff may be aligning themselves against her and Banier. This is when her accountant, Claire Thibout, and longtime butler, Pascal Bonnefoy, come into the picture. Thibout is the one who told Bettencourt’s daughter about the gifts to Banier, and Bonnefoy made secret recordings of Bettencourt and de Maistre speaking about the staff, which eventually revealed the discussions about moving money around to avoid paying taxes.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Some of the stylistic choices of The Billionaire, The Butler And The Boyrfiend, directed by Baptiste Etchegaray and Maxime Bonnet, remind us of the recent series The Enfield Poltergeist. Namely, both shows used actors to act out actual audio recordings.

Our Take: The story of those last decades of Liliane Bettencourt’s life are a bit tough to summarize, given how the scandals around her spiraled out of control so quickly. The directors behind The Billionaire, The Butler And The Boyfriend manage to make as much sense of it as anyone could, mainly by starting things off with Banier and going from there.

After all, if members of Bettencourt’s extensive staff weren’t suspicious of Banier to begin with, they wouldn’t have made the recordings that led to the implications about Bettencourt’s tax evasion and her illegal cash contributions to Sakozy’s and other politicians’ campaigns. So spending the first hour explaining “L’affaire Bettencourt” gives the viewers a basis for where everything else came from.

And, to be fair, the whole thing with Banier is pretty strange. It’s not strange to see someone like Bettencourt become close with the flamboyant and outspoken Banier, especially given the fact that her life up until they met felt empty and uneventful to her. It’s also not strange to see her give him gifts that were in the six and seven figures, given her vast wealth. But when the gifts added up to about €1 billion, you start to wonder just why Banier needed all that money, and why he was taking advantage of her.

But, given where this scandal ends up going, we may never get that answer. Even if we do, it’ll pale in comparison to the other things that went on in the years leading up to Bettencourt’s death, including the tumultuous relationship she had with her daughter. It’s a fascinating picture of just how much palace intrigue can go on, even among the staff of a billionaire in the 21st century. One journalist described the drama surrounding Bettencourt’s staff as similar to what one might see on Downton Abbey, and by the end of the first episode, that drama seems to become even more intriguing than the whole Banier scandal.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Audio of Bettencourt saying, “how can we get caught?” to her financial advisor when they discuss the foreign accounts where big sums of cash are kept.

Sleeper Star: This definitely goes to Arielle Dombasle, an artist who introduced Bettencourt to Banier. The way she conducts herself during the interview, saying “I’m not feeling this light,” and abruptly getting up during the interview to say she was done answering questions, is so very French, we’re surprised she wasn’t wearing a beret.

Most Pilot-y Line: None we can find.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Billionaire, The Butler And The Boyfriend is a concise retelling of a scandal that had octopus-like tentacles. It tells the story of Liliane Bettencourt’s last decades with just enough detail to pull viewers in.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.