Julie Marboeuf
In December 1953, Coco Chanel began her incredible return to center stage. The designer reopens her Haute Couture house after fifteen years of absence. The collection is welcomed by the French press with an icy silence. Only the American media supports the looks that define the rebirth of Chanel's style.
Over the course of five seasons, this film chronicles a young woman's rise to power within a tempestuous all-female office. Employing elements of fantasy, realism, drama and satire, much of the story takes place in the confines of an oppressive looking steel and glass skyscraper owned by a powerful insurance company. Though the office is populated only by women, the place seethes with tension due to office politics and the personal turmoil suffered by the employees, something that the beautiful and outwardly ruthless office supervisor Carabosse does her best to ignore. When the ever business-like Carabosse finally gets promoted, she appoints Agate (the story's true protagonist) as her successor. Power corrupts and it does not take long for the compassionate Agate to transform into a copy of Carabosse.
An adolescent comes of age during a summer in the Rhône valley with his maternal grandparents. Jules seems a little too close to his mother and distant from his father, who wants Jules out of their Parisian house. It's to be a summer of transition, perhaps to a boarding school, and during these weeks in the country, Jules fishes with his grandfather; proves himself to the local youths, a group led by the bullying Red; takes on some tough guys; feels rejected by his mother; and, meets and pursues Evelyne, the village beauty. She's responsive, and Jules doesn't exactly know what to do next. Then, something happens that propels Jules into decisiveness and maturity.
