Laura Favali

A small circus arrives in a coastal area of the North Sea: the place looks rather eerie and the audience is quite scarce. But despite all of this, the life of the performers is animated by feelings born under the circus tent, and which are often lived out in the secret of their trailers. The ballerina Angèle has an affair with Elliot, the company's clown who is tormented by his conscience; but she is also courted by Heroy, the circus director; he is a cruel and potentially dangerous man who is willing to win her over by resorting to the powers of the magician Zephyr.

The film follows Etienne, a 40-year-old car designer, who takes time off from work to study sexual mastery from a Zen master and several prostitutes, in the hopes of having the sexual skill to impress Laure. Laure, a blonde who was introduced to him by his friend Jacques, told Etienne on January 1 that she will not have sex with him until May 27 that year at precisely 9 PM.

Sophie Blondy directs this romantic drama hailing from France. Babeth is a struggling actor and part-time assistant teacher unhappily involved with downbeat artist Remi. Meanwhile, Arthur longs for the comely Babeth. He picks up his numerous girlfriends while discussing sex, love, and the meaning of life.

While France is on strike, Jean, a Parisian bookseller, opens his shop. A former trade unionist, he has in fact decided not to take part in the movement. However, a phone call from his friend René awakens his enthusiasm.

Fred (Vincent Lindon) is a former crane driver who was a victim of the closure of his factory. He takes care of the little boy of his girlfriend (Clotilde Courau), does the housework and sometimes goes to the job center but boredom is inescapable. One day, because he accepted to drive a truck for a friend to a warehouse, he's caught up in a vicious spiral that goes beyond him. It's all the more serious as shady men want to eliminate him an the police is on his back.

Bad Trip, a biker who has been freshly inducted into a gang, flees from them after stealing one of their bikes.

Jean is young, gay, and promiscuous. Only after he meets one or two women, including Laura does he come to realize his bisexuality. Jean has to overcome a personal crisis and a tough choice between Laura and his male lover Samy.

Simon and Dede are best friends: two aimless drunks who spend their days getting sloshed and any other available time getting laid. Simon is living on unemployment benefits in a trailer parked near his sister's apartment. Dede works at a fish-packing plant on the night shift. Neither man is sensitive, young, or good looking. However, their sang-froid (literally, "cold blood," referring to a quality of imperturbability) stands them in good stead as they go about their seedy lives, picking up one woman and having sex with her on the beach, or when Simon calmly has sex with a prostitute in front of the woman's brother. In the past, a bizarre necrophiliac situation led to Simon experiencing his only sense of what it might be to truly love someone.

On the day Jean Gabin dies, a kidnaper who also takes a fortune in jewels heisted from Cartiers murders Simon Verini's wife. (Simon was fencing the jewels for a youthful gang who robbed Cartiers; he suspects them of the murder.) He's framed for the theft and spends ten years in prison, writing to his daughter, Marie-Sophie, who's 11 when he's sent away. Released, he reconnects to Marie-Sophie and to the young thieves, seeks revenge, and is quickly arrested again. She doesn't know what to make of her father, retreats to her Swiss fiancé, and is flummoxed when one of the young thieves falls for her. Is resolution possible when crime cuts across families and romance?