Pascal Aubier

When he loses his position as a powerful government minister, Vincent is dropped by his pretty mistress and must begin life anew, without the privileges of power. As he gradually becomes acquainted with milieus which he d either forgotten or never known and a host of sometimes eccentric, often remarkable everyday people, Vincent really begins to start living again.

Vincent lives in a village, along the Rhône. Every morning he goes to the factory to work, and in the evening he takes care of his family. One day, he decides to go on a trip with the money given by his father.

Rose was a brilliant student of Fine Arts. Then, she gave up everything for a "beautiful marriage". Now in her thirties, she is experiencing more and more difficulties in her life, which is both materially overprotected and difficult with her three children and an increasingly absent husband. She breaks down, cracks up and tries to imagine how she could broach the subject with her husband before it's too late. To her great amazement, it was Didier who, one evening before going to visit friends, announced that he was leaving and that he had already rented a small studio. After the shock, Rose goes to her father, an old Spanish anarchist, who gives her back the taste for values she thought she had lost.

Two old ladies live in a French chateau. When one of them dies, her sister, who lives in Moscow, inherits the property, which soon ends up in the hands of Japanese businessmen.

1957, the town of Mostaganem, Algeria: the country is still under French occupation, and repression of the National Liberation Front is at its height. The authorities indulge in torture, intimidation and public executions.

Mona is the girlfriend of Pierre, who is a member of a rather pathetic rock band in France. Their hero is the singer "Johnny Valentine " who, seeing that Mona is being neglected, decides to make her his own.

A French civil servant throws The Governor's Party when his daughter comes of age regardless of colonial unrest and her parents' stormy marriage.

In a working-class immigrant neighborhood slated for demolition, Jo, the son of Ali, known as the Rescuer from the Algerian war, lives idle and delinquent, committing small assaults to pay for his drugs. One day, while attacking Slim's bar, he is arrested by Ben, a young beur cop torn between his roots and the imperatives of his mission to maintain public order. Giving in to the respect and friendship he feels for Ali, Ben agrees to release his son. But alas, far from calming down, Jo drifts deeper into violence, until the inevitable drama.

A diverse group of guests gather in a small hotel in Paris to contemplate the state of their lives in this pretentious drama. Joseph Goldman (Fernando Rey) is a washed-up Hollywood actor making a living in the dinner-theater circuit. Accompanied by his wife Sarah (Carole Regnier), Goldman meets Frederique (Berangere Bonvoisin), who is hiding from her former lover. French financier Arthur (Fabrice Luchini) hopes to get into the film industry and bends the ear of a British director (Michael Medwin). The talkative film has little action, and none of the characters evoke much interest or resolve their dilemma.

A porcelain table service and a painting from the 19th century pass from hand to hand and deteriorate over time, sealing the fate of different characters who cross paths in Paris.