His presence seems almost incongruous in the jails of the “Bastion”, the headquarters of the Parisian judicial police (PJ), near the Porte de Clichy. This July 24, 2024, writer Nathalie Rheims, 65 years old, slim figure, perfectly groomed hairstyle, is about to spend a first night in police custody. Daughter of an academician, descendant of the Rothschilds, successful author and extremely wealthy art collector, here she is summoned to explain herself in the matter of the inheritance of her ex-companion Claude Langmann, known as Berri, famous filmmaker and producer, but also a compulsive purchaser of contemporary works, died in 2009. She is suspected of “breach of trust”, and even “organized gang theft”. All to the detriment of one of Berri’s sons, Thomas Langmann. Also a film producer, he filed a complaint in 2016, triggering the procedure which today catches up with Nathalie Rheims.
Cloistered in his sumptuous Parisian mansion, where The World met him several times, Thomas Langmann has dark circles under his eyes. His nights are haunted by dark thoughts, ruminated on for years. He struggles to place the moment when the obsession appeared. “They robbed me of my inheritance and before that they took advantage of my father’s weakness”he repeats over and over. One certainty: the war is now total between the two clans.
Thomas Langmann also knows that he will be buried in the Rassam vault – the maternal branch of his family tree – in Montfort-l’Amaury (Yvelines), the same place where his mother Anne-Marie (the first wife of Claude Berri), his brother Julien, his uncle Jean-Pierre, this line of great burn victims of life, whom he reveres. There is no question for him of being near the Langmanns, at the place where his father was buried. At stake is an estate estimated at 82 million euros, or even much more as auctions can drive up prices.
Also read the first part of our series “Berri Succession, hatred as a legacy” | Article reserved for our subscribers Thomas Langmann, an heir and his ghosts
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Thomas Langmann, the most fashionable producer of French cinema in the 2000s (The Artist, Astérix…), tries to put his thoughts in order. “Emotion blurs my words”he said, sitting in front of his multiple computer screens; he really needs that, as he is drowning in documents, letters, videos, audio recordings, photos of works of art… All devoted to his quest for revenge.
Why suddenly go to war against his half-brother, Darius Langmann – son of Sylvie Gautrelet, who was for a time the partner of Claude Berri –, his “mother-in-law” Nathalie Rheims, or even his aunt, Arlette Langmann, after so long everything validated? Thomas Langmann in fact drags behind him many years spent signing notarial deeds of all kinds without hesitation; between January 2009, the time of Claude Berri’s death, and July 2015, the start of hostilities over inheritance, he accepted all the stages of this now contested succession.
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