Maarten, a milquetoast bachelor living with his terminally ill mother, is haunted by a nightmare in which God tells him to lose his virginity or die within the week.

A woman suffers a subdued psychological breakdown in the wake of a devastating breakup.

A woman in the fourth month of her first pregnancy fights to save the baby while being treated for breast cancer.

A doctor from Paris travels to North Africa to investigate the murder of a friend and find a lost boy.

An American passing through France is hosted one stormy night by a couple who soon use his services shamelessly. A very curious way for the young foreigner to find his roots.

Hedwig, a young wealthy woman growing up in the straight-jacket of bourgeois morality in the Victorian era, descends into madness after years of sexual repression and tragedy.

A counterterrorism task force investigates the 1998 Ajaccio assassination of Claude Érignac, the prefect of Corsica. Based on true events.

A passionate affair set against the intense encounter between a film-maker and a novelist. The story begins with young scriptwriter François tracking down the author of a once-scandalous novel. His aim is to adapt the work for the screen but several elements of the novel he finds difficult to comprehend. The author, Jeanne, is initially cautious of relaying information, insisting the presumably autobiographical book in no way relates to her personal life. However, eventually she takes the man into confidence to tell the background of Benvenuta.

In this thriller, a UNESCO translator stumbles across a group which is hiding and supporting Nazis and facilitating their travel around the world. She had been given an assignment to study the work of a writer who recently had died, and the conspiracy is revealed in materials he left behind. She comes upon a young man who is going through the writer's papers, and she immediately assumes he must be one of the conspirators. However, he soon convinces her of his innocence in that regard, and the two together begin a search for the ringleader.

This 1991 production by the Lyon National Opera presents a welcome opportunity to revel in a uniquely Gallic confection rarely seen outside France. It's also a chance to enjoy one of Offenbach's most inventive, melodic scores in which the starring musical role and many of the best tunes go to the orchestra, here conducted by Jean-Yves Ossonce. This is no accident: the operetta was originally created for a company of actors who relied on pastiche and the composer's help to get them through their "numbers". Not so these singers, of course. As Metella, the languorous courtesan who is responsible for the unravelling debacle, Helene Delavault is in meltingly good voice for her show-stopping rondeau, "A minuit sonnant commence la fete". Her sparring suitors Gardefeu (Jean-Francois Sivadier) and, particularly, Bobinet (Jacques Verzier) combine marvellous visual comedy with fluid singing and there is some dazzling vocal work from the supporting cast. It's a long piece, but hugely enjoyable.