Em 1929, quando o Vietnam era uma colônia francesa, uma garota francesa cuja família passa por dificuldades financeiras se envolve com um homem de negócios chinês, iniciando uma tórrida relação apesar das restrições sociais de ambas origens. Baseado no romance semi-autobiográfico de Maugerite Duras.
Olga, Masha, and Irina Prozoroff lead lonely and purposeless lives following the death of their father who has commanded the local army post. Olga attempts to find satisfaction in teaching but secretly longs for a home and family. Masha, unhappy with her marriage to a timid schoolmaster, falls hopelessly in love with a married colonel. Irina works in the local telegraph office but longs for gaiety. Their sense of futility is increased by their brother's marriage to Natasha, a coarse peasant girl. She gradually encroaches on the family home until even the private refuge of the sisters is destroyed. They dream of starting a new life in Moscow but are saddled with the practicalities of their quiet existence. Despite their past failures, they resolve to seek some purpose and hope when the army post is withdrawn from the town.
O filme acompanha os eventos de diversas crianças durante o verão de 1976 na França e suas frustrações, problemas e às vezes a apressada passagem para a adolescência. Apresenta uma visão panorâmica das vivências de um grupo de crianças de idades variadas na pequena cidade de Thiers, mostrando as relações com os adultos e entre si, desde o berço até à escola primária. Em várias sequências que abordam desde acidentes domésticos, traquinagens, impulsos sexuais, primeiro amor e a violência infantil, procura demonstrar com serenidade como as crianças são extremamente engenhosas e com isso conseguem suportar muita coisa.
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme satirizes attempts at social climbing and the bourgeois personality, poking fun both at the vulgar, pretentious middle-class and the vain, snobbish aristocracy. The title is meant as an oxymoron: in Molière's France, a "gentleman" was by definition nobly born, and thus there could be no such thing as a bourgeois gentleman.
Set in 18th century France, a naive 17-year-old orphan named Benjamin is taken in by his wealthy aunt, the Countess de Valandry. There, he is seduced by a variety of women, including a few flirtatious maidservants and neighboring countesses who all want to be Benjamin's "first".
