“It was not easy at the time, for a woman like Renée Leroux, to run such a casino”

In “Everything for Agnès”, Michèle Laroque plays Renée Le Roux, boss of the Le Palais de la Méditerranée casino in Nice, whose daughter mysteriously disappears, and who will fight all her life to condemn the culprit in her eyes: the lover of his daughter, Maurice Agnelet. A series broadcast from Monday evening on France 2.

It was a news item that made the headlines in the 1970s. The disappearance of Agnès Le Roux, the youngest daughter of the director of a large casino in Nice, the Palais de la Méditerranée. This is the starting point of this series: Everything for Agnes. Four episodes starting this Monday, January 8, on France 2, which tell the story of a mother’s fight to obtain the truth about this disappearance, and prove the guilt of her daughter’s lover, a lawyer she knew well who had tried to take over the management of the casino. All in a context of fierce competition between casinos.

Michèle Laroque plays mother Renée Le Roux. A counter-productive dramatic role. And a story that she knew, since she grew up in Nice. Michèle Laroque remembers: “It was quite extraordinary, the Palais de la Méditerranée. When I was a child, I put on shows for my end-of-year dance classes in the theater room. I went there often. It was quite incredible to tell what happened there, at a given moment.”

Michèle Laroque gives depth to this character of Renée Le Roux, who becomes, upon the death of her husband, the new boss of the casino. Michèle Laroque explains: “It’s not easy at that time, a woman who directs all that. I was interested in the childhood, in the construction of Renée Le Roux, who always wanted to please her father, who later got married with a husband much older than her, who reconstituted a little bit of this father figure, and who was a woman of duty, who wanted to follow exactly the directives that her husband had left, to maintain this family through society together, the weak link being Agnès, the youngest daughter.”

The series is filmed in the orange colors of film from the 70s. It summarily recreates the fashion of the time, and the always chic clothes of Renée Leroux. “Renée Le Roux was a model in her youth,” emphasizes Michèle Laroque, “so she was someone who wanted to be elegant, also out of professionalism.”

Everything for Agnes, with an astonishing Michèle Laroque. From tomorrow Monday January 8, on France 2.