1935-01-18
0
Comedy about a protective mother whose dull son seems to have become wayward with the local bottle blonde.
Lord Loam has modern ideas about his household, he believes in treating his servants as his equals - at least sometimes. His butler, Crichton, still believes that members of the serving class should know their place and be happy there. But when the Loam family are shipwrecked on a desert island with the self-reliant Crichton and lady's maid Tweeny, the class system is put to the test.
The good-natured scholar Christian-Theodore arrives in a small country where miracles occur. He falls in love with the beautiful Princess, whose marriage is a matter of national importance, because her husband will become the new king. But unlike many “suitors”, selfish thoughts are alien to Christian-Theodore. He is sincerely fascinated by her beauty and releases his Shadow, hoping to get a faithful helper in his quest to marry the Princess. But the Shadow is the embodiment of egoism, greed and meanness. Quickly betraying the scholar, he marries the Princess himself and takes the royal throne.
"Smoking" and "No Smoking" are two segments of the film which are based on closely connected plays. The original plays covered eight separate stories, which have been pared down to three each for these movies. At a certain point in the story of each segment, the five female characters (all played by Sabine Azema) and the four male characters (all played by Pierre Arditi) have their lives skillfully recapped in terms of "what might have happened" if they had made or failed to make certain choices. For example, "No Smoking" focuses chiefly on the relationship between the mild-mannered Miles Coombes and his infinitely more aggressive and ambitious wife, Rowena.
To escape from a mobster, businessman Gaetano Proclo orders a cab driver to take him to a place where he can't be found. Unfortunately for Gaetano, the place turns out to be a gay bathhouse.
A wealthy, fatherless British clan kidnaps bums and hippies and forces them to participate in an elaborate role-playing game in which they are the perfect family; those who refuse or attempt escape are ritualistically murdered.
Widowers Amos and Ben plot to romantically unite Amos' daughter Luiss and Ben's son Matt by pretending to feud and forbidding the teens to associate, knowing they will resist their fathers' interference. As the two youngsters fall in love, the fathers plot to end the 'feud' by hiring a traveling showman to fake an abduction and allow Matt to 'rescue' Luisa.
The free-spirited wife of a proper British doctor leaves him after an arguement over the anatomically correct drawing of a horse on the wall drawn by their young son Tony.
The adventures of a young shopgirl who learns that having money is not the key to happiness.
A good-natured, albeit a bit pedantic stationmaster works at a railway station in the middle of nowhere. One night, a beautiful high-society woman enters the station to buy a ticket. Waiting for her train, the two talk and eventually grow close. However, the mood quickly changes when the woman's fiancée arrives and tries to prevent her from leaving with increasingly violent means.
The beautiful Francisquita is in love with Fernando, a student who aspires to become a poet; but he is infatuated with the very fiery actress Aurora la Beltrana, who is Lorenzo's lover.