This portmanteau film explores the highs and lows of a trio of twenty-something’s love affairs in the French capital, combining all those themes cherished by Rohmer aficionados: seduction, elegant language, and love for a city called Paris.
Category: Drama
In this film, an Italian industrialist who has made his fortune using some shady tactics, unwittingly becomes the victim and entertainment for four retired jurists. These four men, though retired, make it a practice to keep their legal skills sharp. Whenever a suitable villain stumbles across their path, they conduct a trial with all the trimmings. It is a form of play, but these virtuoso lawyers are quite serious about it.
Willy, a middle-aged divorcee, decides to take his 15 year-old son, Thomas, on holiday to Ibiza, staying at an isolated villa on the unspoiled part of the coast. Thomas insists on bringing his friend Juliette, a girl of his own age with whom he enjoys a close platonic relationship. When it comes to physical love, Juliette is wise beyond her years. As the holiday progresses, Juliette realizes that Willy is attracted to her. She confides in Thomas that she will seduce his father and then reject him, in the hope that she can rid herself of his unwelcome attentions. Unaware of this subterfuge, Willy is torn between his physical attraction towards the teenage girl and his love for his son.
Natasha, the queen of an unhappy kingdom, lives in seclusion in her castle, still mourning the death of her husband, the king, who died ten years ago. One evening, a young man breaks into her quarters and falls at her feet. Struck by his resemblance to her husband, Natasha conceals him from the police who are searching for him. Realising that the young man, Stanislas, is an anarchist who had planned to assassinate her, the queen declares that he was sent by fate to kill her and so put an end to her years of grief. However, their destiny appears to follow a different path when Stanislas and Natasha discover they are in love…
John is a sea captain whose wife left him years ago in this sentimental romantic drama. One weekend, he meets and falls for Anita, the pretty single mother of six-year-old Helent. The film opens with John and Anita in bed together, sharing their life stories with each other. John begins to hope his relationship with Anita will grow into something permanent, but Anita is not convinced that his intentions are altogether honorable.
Trapped in a Polish Ghetto with thousands of other Jews facing starvation or deportation to the death camps, Jacob is detained one evening at Gestapo headquarters. Eavesdropping, he overhears a radio report about a nearby Russian victory. At first he is silent, but circumstances compel him to pass on the good news of hope. In order to be believed, he feigns access to a hidden, strictly forbidden radio. Quickly he becomes a one-man bulwark against despair, a reluctant hero, but a tragic figure still-a man ultimately powerless to see or change the fate of his people.
Vaguely inspired to the real story of boss of the Camorra’s bosses Raffaele Cutolo, this is the story of the criminal career of “Il professore” (the professor). He is in prison, and by there he is able to build, step by step, an empire founded on murders and drugs.