THE “WORLD’S” OPINION – MUST SEE
Bac − 4 in hand, Philippe Ginestet rose to the rank of 27e French fortune and 945e global fortune in 2020 (according to Forbes) by building an empire with trinkets and “genius ideas” : GiFi. However, this self-taught son of horse dealers is not like his peers, who feed their good conscience by financing ecological foundations. This bling-bling and paternalistic boss, who wants to be close to the people, is the hero of a film documentary.
For the occasion, the king of the bazaar agreed to let himself be filmed by a filmmaker who is not really a capitalist: Brice Gravelle is part of the Les Mutins de Pangée collective, an audiovisual and cinematographic production, publishing and distribution cooperative, which puts makes its films available to fund strikers’ solidarity funds. We think of the documentary series broadcast on Arte, Edouard, my friend on the right (2016-2021), by Laurent Cibien, dedicated to the former prime minister Edouard Philippe, which owes a lot to the ambivalence of the director, torn between his political ideas and his frank sympathy for “the enemy”.
Private jet, yacht and Jet-Ski
We can only let ourselves be taken in by this immersion in the little-known daily life of a big boss, who uses his private jet for all his trips and spends three weeks of vacation per year in his 43 meter long yacht, around which he I indulge in the joys of Jet-Skiing. Comfortable with opulence, going against the “deconsumption” and frugality prescribed by the times, and blind to the questionable usefulness of the objects stocked in GiFi stores, Philippe Ginestet is all the more transparent as , when filming began, Emmanuel Macron, newly elected president, had just encouraged young people to dream of being billionaires, in a pro-business speech.
Most of the film takes us to the retailer’s motivation and reward seminars, led by its CEO himself, who reveals boundless empathy for his best employees. The latter are invited to spend a week a year in his chalet, in Megève (Haute-Savoie), where they have the leisure to attend the performances of Ginestet, who reenacts his success story. We even see him stage fake arguments with his subordinates to display all his charisma. Other gifts: poker tournaments at the Stelsia castle-hotel (Lot-et-Garonne), the winners of which are invited to Las Vegas.
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