Affairs of Great Families

Sylvie Brenet, producer for Play Film

Laureate Etoiles de la Scam 2009

This film is a portrait of the great bourgeoisie of northern France, who built a colossal industrial powerhouse in the 19th century. During the Industrial Revolution, the Roubaix-Tourcoing conurbation became one of the world’s leading textile centers. Employers prospered, controlling most of the region’s economic and political power. Through blood and business alliances, these industrialists founded numerous families: Dufour, Motte, Mulliez… With the textile crisis, the family empires collapsed. The Mulliez family succeeded in their reconversion by creating the Auchan chain of stores in 1961. As the grandson of one of these great families from the north of France, the director meets three generations of their descendants to question this heritage.