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.
A couple of bourgeois intellectuals, Carlo and Silvia are married for twenty years. But they wearily live their relationship separately; while she lives in their original flat in Rome, he lives with a young lover, Lù from time to time in his house in the country while writing a book. He does not keep his relationship hidden from his wife and even accepts that Silvia may have lovers, among them in particular a young and violent neo-fascist. But this relationship rekindles Carlo's jealousy and he becomes obsessed by knowing everything about her affairs and jealousy makes him blind. The film navigates between eroticism, decadence and perversion, in an obscure game with no wins or winners.
After three elderly men are bitten by spiders, everyone assumes that their deaths are tragic accidents. But at police headquarters in Paris, Inspector Adamsberg begins to suspect that the case is far more complex than first appears.
Prof. Henri Laborit uses the stories of the lives of three people to discuss behaviorist theories of survival, combat, rewards and punishment, and anxiety. René is a technical manager at a textile factory and must face the anxiety caused by corporate downsizing. Janine is a self-educated actress/stylist who learns that the wife of her lover is dying and must decide to let them reunite. Jean is a controversial career-climbing writer/politician at a crossroads in life.
Nicole, nurse in Grenoble, is raped one night by four men. Deeply scarred, emotionally and physically, she thinks she will never recover from the trauma. Following a friend's advice, she decides to file a lawsuit.
A story about two couples, longtime friends in which both husbands engage in long-term affairs and, as the title says, ultimately one remains with his wife and one makes a new life with another woman.
Jean-Pierre is a brilliant surgeon. The problems of his nearest and dearest don't interest him. But when he discovers that he too has a serious heart disease which needs operating on, Jean-Pierre finds out what it is to be a patient.