Nada Strancar
A clarinetist is trying to finish his record when his wife and ten year old son reappear in his life. His 10-year-old son whom he has never seen, and Naim, a young Muslim transvestite who will change his life ...
Because of a motorcycle accident, a young man from the poor outskirts of Paris must find a steady job in order to avoid being sent to prison. He gets into more trouble trying to do that.
In the hot summer of 1940 the German troops are just outside Paris, and numerous Parisians are leaving the city in a complete panic. Luce Ader, the sensitive daughter of a factory owner, decides somewhat belatedly to escape as well, together with her arrogant fiancé Bruno. Since they have a luxury automobile, the elderly society lady Daine Lessing decides to join them, and brings along the sensitive homosexual diplomat with her. The four of them finally leave the city in the hopelessly overloaded luxury car, only to get stuck in the middle of a seemingly endless column of refugees along a dusty road outside Paris...
In the 19th century, children -- particularly the children of the poor -- were considered to be an exploitable resource of docile and cheap labor. Anyone who had the effrontery to steal so much as a portion of a loaf of bread for any reason would (at the very least) go to prison, regardless of their age. However, people of conscience were beginning to protest against this situation. The story takes place in a prison for children where conditions are particularly harsh. The warden is a thick-headed martinet who demands complete compliance with the rules, or the children will be brutally dealt with. The assistant warden is a more modern man, and is appalled by the whole institution, but seeks to begin by reforming it. To that end, he has invited a journalist to come and see the conditions that prevail there, in the hopes that she will rouse public opinion against at least this one form of injustice.
Although he was once a colonel in Argentina, the principal character in this film is now a wealthy exile living in Paris with his beloved wife, who has been unable to bear children. To fill this void in their lives, he feeds and clothes abandoned children, raising them in his mansion as if they were his own. As would never be the case in real life today, in this fantasized story set in 1925, no one objects to this behavior, and they live pleasantly and enjoyably together. Things grow considerably more animated when a stage magician places his very attractive daughter in the colonel's household, which stirs a lively romantic interest from his boys and from the great man himself.
The name of painter Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806) is synonymous for a kind of painting style which celebrates carefree romantic life, indoors and out. He was a painter during the final decades of the French monarchy. In this story, he and his brother Cyprien (Robin Renucci), who is an early pioneer in medical anatomy (he dissected corpses and made drawings of what he found in them), have fallen in love with the same woman, Marianne (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu), a laundress. This attraction has not escaped the notice of Salmon d'Anglas (Sami Frey), a conniving nobleman, who has his heart set on getting revenge on Jean-Honore (Joachim de Almeida) for refusing his patronage and becoming the darling of the French court.
Simon, a famous violinist, sinks into alcoholism. He finds support from his lover, who is also the manager of the orchestra in which he plays. But is she really helping him or is she exploiting his dependence on her? A man who has been through the same experience as Simon, offers to help him...
