Gold Brick (Cash)

"MEN ARE BORN FREE AND EQUAL UNDER THE LAW. THEN THEY HUSTLE." JEAN YANNE

Huh?

What?

You ever wondered why there's a drumroll at the start of reggae songs?

Are you serious? You want to talk about that now?

So you don't want to know?

Okay, say it, if you're so eager to tell me.

The drumrolls are the sound of guns bringing down the walls of Babylon.

What's Babylon?

Babylon is a city that's plagued by capitalism and corruption.

Capitalists. We know how to handle them, don't we?

Come on, where is he?

- Look at that son of a bitch. Go now! -

Damn it!

GOLD BRICK

BREUIL & SONS NUMBER ONE IN CHARTRES

My name is Daniel Sauveur.

I was born in Chartres. Central France.

In the middle of nowhere.

My mom had one dream.

To have a view of the cathedral.

And even though it was from a distance,

my dad managed to give it to her before leaving us.

And the Breuil family took that too.

The Breuils, the most loaded family in town.

Passed down from father to son.

There's a Breuil family in your town too.

They're the ones who'll crush you with the heel of their shoe

without even meaning to, those assholes.

I learned early on that if you want a nice view, there's only one option.

You have to hustle to get on top. Especially to get on top of the Breuils.

So I began to watch them, to try and understand how they got there.

And you know what?

- There's actually nothing to understand. - I'm thinking of you.

Some people are born with and some without. That's it.

In Chartres, there's Breuil & Sons,

and way, way further down, there's everyone else.

Every Wednesday, Breuil Sr. chowed down at this place with his son, Patrick.

That's the little guy there.

Although he probably doesn't even know it, we went to the same elementary school.

- Two coffees for table four. - Sure. I only have two hands.

That guy is Unc.

My father's best friend.

- He looked after us after Dad died. - Have you seen the kid?

And every Wednesday, I spent the day with him, here, at the Beaux Arts,

The top restaurant in the cathedral square.

I told you to stay in the kitchen.

Uncle. Look.

Look. Over there. The woman.

Mrs. Breuil?

See her bag? She's left it behind two Wednesdays in a row.

- So what? - I have a plan.

Mrs. Breuil! You forgot your bag, ma'am.

Oh my, thank you. This is for you.

Mother.

Here.

When you're from Chartres, you learn it early on.

The Breuils always win.

There was a time people started naming their kids

- after their favorite brands. - Dirty bastard.

I'm going to kick your ass, asshole!

That's how my best friend found himself with the name Scania.

Like the trucks.

- Let's go! - He hated the Breuils too.

After all, his dad worked as a trucker for them, so he never got to see him.

When my father died some of the kids at school started calling me "bastard."

And Scania made them pay every time.

So I share everything with him.

Fifty-fifty.

- - See you.

When we grew up,

we swore never to work for the Breuils like our fathers had.

So we set up our own business.

And you know what? It actually worked.

- All right, brother? - Except here,

- all roads lead to... - Breuil & Sons of bitches.

Like everyone else, we ended up working for the Breuil family.

And way too much.

Over 90% of your turnover comes from us.

Dependent economically. I'm sorry. It's out of my control.

- Hey, hey, hey. Don't. Wait a sec! - Back off!

Economic dependency is when you do too much business with one client.

- Fucker! - Apparently, that's not good.

Hey!

Stop.

Get out of here!

Because we didn't have other clients and owed money to the bank,

- Don't touch me. - Shit hit the fan.

Can we go, please?

After that, we had no other choice.

Scania had to take a job as a truck driver for Breuil,

I held out another three months but at some point a man's gotta eat, right?

What the hell are you doing here? Come on, enough of the smoke break. Give me that.

SHIPPING

That's him.

Is that him?

- Daniel Sauveur, sir. - Save the formality.

- Here, you call me "chief." - Chief.

Well, you tell him how things work?

- Mm-mm. - Am I missing something?

So, let me explain. You see, over here

I'm the authority on who stays and who goes.

So, it's simple, I give you a short-term contract for six months.

And at the end of that,

Papa Breuil will pay you a 10% indemnity, that makes 900 euros.

900 euros and that's it.

- There's no trade off or... - It's the law. It's the law.

But don't worry, pal.

Because you're going to hand over that bonus here.

Half paid right now,

- half paid at the end of the contract. - Come again? Huh?

So if you don't pay, I'll fire you during your trial.

You pay, you're all good. I keep you on. Again. Half on end. Half on start.

I'm not the kind of guy who has a savings account. Where do I get it?

Your buddy here mentioned he could cough up the first round.

Thanks.

What are you paying off a prick like that for, huh?

So that you have a job.

And that's how, after taking over the whole town, the Breuils had me.

Excuse me. Is this where...

Locals see working here as a step up.

They reckon they're doing something high-end.

The global distribution of Parisian luxury.

The quintessence of the French soul.

Givenchy, Dior, Saint-Laurent. The whole shebang.

Anyway, you get the picture.

In reality, those luxury brands just send their perfume to Breuil in cubes,

and we put them in bottles, fancy boxes, cardboard boxes and pallets.

Then we deliver them to big clients across the world.

I started out in quality control for Colin Brown.

It's a big American luxury brand.

See how ridiculous this stuff is?

The black and white ads with guys and gals in jeans. I've seen it all.

CB Gold, of course.

CB X-treme, when techno was back on the club scene.

CB Green for the eco crowd.

I even saw CB Red, when guys wanted to smell nice to go and work out.

You think I'm kidding? Well, I'm not.

- -

- Excuse me? - Hm?

What's going on here?

- The old guy kicked the bucket. -

- Breuil? -

Let's just say that if there's one less Breuil in the world,

I'm not upset about it.

But don't forget,

the Breuils always win.

At the same age as me and having done nothing to deserve it,

little Patrick became the big boss.

He was all made up with his future all mapped out when I didn't have one.

That's exactly when everything changed for me.

Hello. I'm Béatrice Breuil, Patrick's wife.

A gift from our family to celebrate him stepping in at the head of the company.

It's a Bois d'Argent fragrance. Very contemporary.

- Excuse me. - Hello.

A little gift from our family to celebrate Patrick's new role.

What about you, Daniel?

How's it going with the perfumers? Is the son better than the father?

I'm not sure.

Either way, they're really screwing you over.

Yeah. They ride us pretty hard.

Hey, guess what we heard on the local news last night.

A few liters of perfume concentrate

can go for the same price as a kilo of gold?

No shit. For that price, you better smell good.

A bit of water with some kind of dumb flower juice, 30,000 bucks.

They think their shit doesn't stink.

COLIN BROWN GOLD YOUR SALE PRICE

[hip-hop song "Belsune Breakdown" by Bouga playing]

INTERESTED IN THE COLIN BROWN!

Scania, I've been watching them every single day, I'm telling you!

There's only one moment when the boxes don't get checked.

It's money just sitting and waiting for us.

Come on, stop with the bullshit.

I sold one bottle online and made 50 euros in one second,

so why would we miss out on a cash grab like that?

I mean, come on. What the hell is there to lose?

With or without you, I'm doing it.

Okay, but what if Kowalski finds out?

Kowalski. That Polack will lead us to a goddamn goldmine.

- I know how to handle it. - You're killing me, Daniel.

You wouldn't know an opportunity if it hit you in the face.

- -

Good evening, Patrick.

Jacques-Yves, we're so happy you could make it.

He would have been touched.

Be proud.

Armand was... some big shoes.

Thank you, Jacques-Yves.

Oh, but let's not go there.

Well, you know, since we'll be seeing a lot of each other.

What do you mean?

I'll swing by occasionally to ensure our products receive

the same treatment as they did under your father.

I'd really like you to meet, uh, Béatrice.

Béa!

Come here.