Claudie Ossard

Paul is a sweet man-child, raised — and smothered — by his two eccentric aunts in Paris since the death of his parents when he was a toddler. Now thirty-three, he still does not speak. Paul's aunts have only one dream for him: to win piano competitions. Although Paul practices dutifully, he remains unfulfilled until he submits to the interventions of his upstairs neighbour. Suitably named after the novelist, Madame Proust offers Paul a concoction that unlocks repressed memories from his childhood and awakens the most delightful of fantasies.

A sixteen-year-old boy insinuates himself into the house of a fellow student from his literature class and writes about it in essays for his French teacher. Faced with this gifted and unusual pupil, the teacher rediscovers his enthusiasm for his work, but the boy’s intrusion will unleash a series of uncontrollable events.

Mousse and Louis are young, beautiful, rich and in love. But drugs have invaded their lives. One day, they overdose and Louis dies. Mousse survives, but soon learns she's pregnant. Feeling lost, Mousse runs away to a house far from Paris. Several months later, Louis' brother joins her in her refuge.

Paris 1913. Coco Chanel is infatuated with the rich and handsome Boy Capel, but she is also compelled by her work. Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is about to be performed. The revolutionary dissonances of Igor's work parallel Coco's radical ideas. She wants to democratize women's fashion; he wants to redefine musical taste. Coco attends the scandalous first performance of The Rite in a chic white dress. The music and ballet are criticized as too modern, too foreign. Coco is moved but Igor is inconsolable.

When Katie meets Paco, they fall in love. From this an extraordinary child is born: Ricky, who quickly develops into something wonderful and not so normal.

Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to choose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.

Colette, a prostitute in love, receives a phone call in the middle of the night. An unknown colleague asks her for a favour in the form of a cry for help: to pick up her boy and bring him to her. She, herself, needs a child to make her loved ex return to her.

Odile is 42 years old actress and single mother. One day her 18 year old daughter decided to leave her and start living with the boyfriend. All of a sudden alone in her empty house, the anguish takes over...

At a tiny Parisian café, the adorable yet painfully shy Amélie accidentally discovers a gift for helping others. Soon Amelie is spending her days as a matchmaker, guardian angel, and all-around do-gooder. But when she bumps into a handsome stranger, will she find the courage to become the star of her very own love story?

God comes to Earth in order to make a film.

A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.

Carlos is a young student, just 21. Nice or annoying as he likes, enjoys provoking and transgreding. In the night he goes out to meet his friends in the Kronen, a bar. Every situation can be taken a little farther. There are no limits, no accepted barriers. And more each time, each adventure is chained to the next, as if it were a continuous night. A long description of people: grandfather, parents, sister, girlfriend, friends. And, among that, the obscure will of living every minute as if it were the last one. But something which happens puts Carlos and his friend against a reality they have been trying to ignore.

Rebellious young Axel Blackmar gets caught up into the family car business when his cousin, Paul, coaxes him to come to Arizona to attend the wedding of their Uncle Leo. As Axel makes the decision to try selling Cadillacs with his family, he meets an eccentric woman named Elaine and her equally quirky stepdaughter, Grace. Their lives become inextricably intertwined through romance, dreams – and death.

In 1950, Jozef watched the communists assume control over his native Hungary. He was too young to have an opinion about it, but he was mightily impressed all the same. Now it is 1968, and he is a young man. When the Russian tanks come rolling through his village on their way to suppress the stirrings of freedom in Prague, he does what he can to ensure that he's in good odor with those who will inevitably come out on top. This meandering political drama is apparently an exploration of opportunism, but reviewers gave it low marks for clarity of exposition.

In a post-apocalyptic world, the residents of an apartment above the butcher shop receive an occasional delicacy of meat, something that is in low supply. A young man new in town falls in love with the butcher's daughter, which causes conflicts in her family, who need the young man for other business-related purposes.

On the eve of revolution, French activist and author Marquis and his talking penis, Colin, await judgment in the Bastille for allegedly plotting against the state. While Marquis dedicates himself to his art and Colin longs for action, the provocative pair unwittingly rouse the interest of competing ideological factions.

Once a successful Hollywood screenwriter, Stan is now a depressive alcoholic who spends most of his time mooching about his house whilst pouring out his troubles to his drinking partner. The only thing that keeps him going is his love for his teenage daughter, Charlotte, but she despises him, believing him to be responsible for the accident in which her mother died.