Le grand pardon (1982)

Raymond Bettoun, a Pied-Noir Jew from the south of France, heads the Bettoun clan, a Mafia family operating in the French underworld. With the help of his son Maurice, his nephews Jacky Azoulay and Roland Bettoun, his cousin Albert Zécri, his friend Pépé, and Samy, his bodyguard, the clan patriarch controls various shady businesses: running casinos, organizing boxing matches and illegal gambling, as well as pimping and extortion. Raymond is also unafraid to maintain his influence through bloody settling of scores with rival clans, whether Arab or French. Cultivating a “Mediterranean family spirit” and protecting his Mafia clan, Raymond Bettoun seeks to oust his rival Manuel Carreras from the Biarritz casino. He succeeds by arranging for the gangster known as the “Sacristan” to escape from prison—the Sacristan has sworn to kill Carreras because Carreras had ratted him out to the police—and by buying off his rival’s henchmen. Having stripped Carreras of his casino, Raymond Bettoun establishes himself in the underworld. But behind the scenes, the ambitious Pascal Villars, seeking to supplant the Bettouns, has sworn to destroy them. With the Sacristan’s help, Villars manages to set the city’s Arab clan against its Jewish clan. To do so, he bribes Jacky Azoulay, a pimp affiliated with Raymond, to put his prostitutes to work without Raymond’s knowledge. Freddy Ambroisi, a former crooner attempting a comeback and a friend of Raymond’s, tries to warn the crime boss. Meanwhile, another person knows about Jacky’s schemes: William Benamou. When Benamou tries to blackmail Jacky, Jacky kills him and makes it look like another clan committed the murder. Pascal Villars’s plan seems to be working: Raymond Bettoun becomes convinced that the Arabs killed Benamou. Wanting to get to the bottom of it, he asks for a meeting with Bouli, the crime boss of the city’s Arab Mafia clan. At the meeting, however, Bouli swears he had nothing to do with it; knowing him well and certain he has not lied, Raymond accepts his word. Meanwhile, Commissioner Duché, keeping watch on this nest of vipers, tries to break up the clans and imprison their members. The noose is tightening around Jacky Azoulay. When Roland Bettoun questions him about the prostitutes and Freddy, Jacky panics and abducts Freddy’s wife, Colette, in a parking garage to put pressure on Freddy. But as Jacky leaves the garage, a car driven by the Sacristan pursues him. With Bobiack’s help, they intercept and capture Jacky and Colette. Freddy then asks Raymond for help finding his kidnapped wife, but the crime boss refuses to do anything. Shortly afterward, Colette is found dead, strangled. Everyone blames Jacky. Commissioner Duché offers Freddy a deal: testify against Raymond for pimping and extortion, and accuse him of Colette’s murder. Raymond is arrested and confronted with Freddy, who confirms his accusations. Meanwhile, Jacky Azoulay is found dead, his throat slit, in the trunk of his car. The Bettouns have been warned by Pascal Villars. Seeing the situation deteriorate, Roland Bettoun questions the leadership of the family under Raymond’s son Maurice, whom he considers weak. Maurice retaliates by headbutting Roland in the face and breaking his nose. Soon afterward, war breaks out between the city’s Arab and Jewish gangsters: Roland, acting on his own initiative, shoots Bouli’s brother Larbi. In retaliation, the Arabs corner a Bettoun-clan boxer known as “the Wasp” and kill him by drowning him in a barrel of oil. Shortly afterward, Roland, who is in hiding, calls Pépé, Raymond’s friend, to arrange a meeting to end the hostilities. Pépé goes there with his daughter Viviane, but Villars intercepts them with the help of the Sacristan and Bobiack, firing at them from their car. Pépé is killed instantly; Viviane is gravely wounded. Commissioner Duché agrees to release Raymond temporarily so he can try to restore calm in the city. At Pépé’s funeral, Roland Bettoun reappears and explains the situation to Raymond. Soon afterward, Bouli arrives at Raymond’s home with Bobiack as his prisoner; Bouli has captured and interrogated him. The situation is now clear to both sides: Pascal Villars tried to double-cross both Raymond and Bouli. Their revenge begins. The first to be killed is the Sacristan, killed by Roland Bettoun in a Spanish flamenco tavern. But because Roland started hostilities with the Arabs without Maurice’s approval, Maurice abandons him; Roland is then struck in the back by a thrown switchblade wielded by a member of the Arab clan and left for dead. Meanwhile, Viviane, still in grave condition, leaves the hospital for the Bettoun residence. Raymond goes to her bedside, but the young woman dies shortly afterward. Shortly before meeting Commissioner Duché, who is to take him to prison, Raymond settles his score with Pascal Villars. Having learned Villars’s address from Bobiack’s confession, the Bettoun clan goes to his house at dawn and surrounds it. Raymond enters the house and reaches the bedroom, where he finds Pascal asleep in bed with another man. Moments before killing him, Raymond Bettoun lies to Pascal Villars, promising to spare him because that day is the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. But suddenly Raymond puts the barrel of his revolver in Pascal’s mouth, pulls the trigger, and kills him. Raymond then goes to the synagogue to observe Yom Kippur with his loved ones, then comes out and is apprehended by Commissioner Duché, watched by his young grandson Alexandre (Viviane’s child), who looks on with a mischievous, astonished expression through the half-open door.