MILLE VISAGES”. 90 MINS. PYRAMIDE INTERNATIONAL – FRANCE/POLAND. ALL NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED. A documentary about a real life imposter who has charmed a string of ladies all round the globe. Made by filmmaker Sonia Kronlund about a real man hiding behind many identities, the film is based and was instigated by a personal friend’s experiences and took several years to put together. The maker of this film said at Q and A that it was a difficult one to make – “one of those stories which feels like you don’t really know why you’re working on it” – it took a collection of very different stories for all the girls in the film to make it complete. The saga is about a real – living man
– who has invented several personas in different countries to seduce and become very close to women which includes the use of photographs and in addition he has children with at least one of them. How the film came into being is through interviewing these women following obtaining mobile phone numbers and messages discovered by women he was fraternising with taken
surreptitiously and handed over to Sonia Kronlund amongst others.
“Ricardo” – the man impersonating various personas – was born in Brazil and the film contains a potted history and photographs from his childhood and then very different stories about who he was when he grew up as he made his “romantic contacts” including with a stunning female blonde actually in Brazil who had had a successful operation to change sex many years ago. He had told his various women that he was a medical practitioner of a high status and to others – an employee in high end mechanics connected with the automotive industry. He had various aliases and alleged countries of origin and “gently” convinced women that he was genuine.
The film contains interviews with women about “Ricardo” and the original footage had discussions about his sex life with them though on trying to sell the 90 minute saga on to television, the sexual content had to be diminished. Filmmakers had to talk to lawyers about disclosures of a sexual nature
and how this would affect the potential for television screening.
A technique used in the film was not to disclose a photograph of the imposter or “man of a thousand faces” until at least halfway through the story using a blank white oval where his face should show but later – oh yes – we do see the man and find him to have filmstar good looks and be quite pleased to be in front of the camera where a “stunt” was arranged in Poland to film him running
and interview him about this activity, as an undercover operation to expose him in this film. This posed problems as the film crew filmed in Poland where “Ricardo” was living with one of his women and the crew were not Polish though he was supposed to believe they were. He lied in the interview
saying he had two small daughters with his Polish wife and this gradually shows how he was accomplished at deceit as well as practicing something much more than polygamy whilst enhancing his profile as someone who had done active army service, lived in France afterwards and met his Polish wife there adding that his grandfather was in fact Polish. Several of his partners were interviewed and this exposed that with each different woman he was
associated with, he portrayed a different persona – with one – he would go to bed and get up early and talked about his work in a hospital and with another he would sleep late and discuss his workplace in a car factory in a high end post. In order to avoid one of his girlfriends who became genuinely pregnant with his child, he would invent dramatic family circumstances which meant he
had to leave her and go “home” to deal with these circumstances. The film was made using hand held cameras and no professional lighting, and there was a small attempt to induce humour including using some actual actors to “enhance” the story. There was a desire to protect the “real” girls he seduced which is why some actors were used. Where is this imposter now? Well – he is still “out there” and when some of his girlfriends got hold
of other girlfriends’ numbers and confronted him, he would lie to explain it was simply jealousy which made various women say negative things about him. He is not portrayed as violent in the film or excessively confrontational, simply a serial lothario and seducer who has little idea of his effect on people in his circle. There are some childhood photographs shown and discussion about his abusive father who may have influenced this man’s future but this is not covered in detail, and one wonders on the details of this part of the “drama”. Since this film was made, a private detective has worked on the case but then another detective was hired to make sure the original detective was doing his
job effectively which proved expensive. A Polish police detective was involved in the making of the film also, using hidden cameras.
There seems to be a need for a sequel to this true saga. As I write, the perpetrator of these imposter crimes is still at large and several women are hurt and offended at his behaviour where he has adopted different aliases and invented lies about his family and country of origin and used many spicy tales to move between one woman and another and one country and another.
Watch this space. Look out

Penny Nair