

A satirical examination of the transformation of a French investment bank into a Hollywood power broker, Le Sens des Affaires begins with a lowly bank clerk's embezzlement of $104 million francs (about $14 million dollars) to finance his screen adaptation of Chekhov's Three Sisters. The clerk, Gerard Dutillard, funnels bank funds into three fictional affiliates in a way that makes the bank's president, Jean-Francois de Roquemorel, legally responsible. Financial ruin seems a distinct possibility, but Dutillard has worked out a plan to make the system work in his favor, and soon enough his banking superiors are doing their best to salvage his film and make it marketable, prompting actual investors to fuel the production with cash.

Etienne Bac
Dutillard

A satirical examination of the transformation of a French investment bank into a Hollywood power broker, Le Sens des Affaires begins with a lowly bank clerk's embezzlement of $104 million francs (about $14 million dollars) to finance his screen adaptation of Chekhov's Three Sisters. The clerk, Gerard Dutillard, funnels bank funds into three fictional affiliates in a way that makes the bank's president, Jean-Francois de Roquemorel, legally responsible. Financial ruin seems a distinct possibility, but Dutillard has worked out a plan to make the system work in his favor, and soon enough his banking superiors are doing their best to salvage his film and make it marketable, prompting actual investors to fuel the production with cash.
2000-08-23
5.2
6.1The whole intrigue is centered around carte-blanche documents kept in a vault. Whoever fills in the blank becomes the owner of a revue. Big money is involved. The nephew of the owner of the vault is trying to cheat his uncle and have his name in the documents. Everything is even more complicated because the manager of the bank has a finger in the pie, too. Who but a humble bank-teller (Pierre Richard) will ruin the scheme?
6.4Michel Berthier, a senior executive at a mattress manufacturing company, has just been fired. As he does not dare to tell the truth to Juliette, his partner, he goes into debt to maintain the family’s standard of living, showering them with gifts. But soon he can no longer lie, and he decides to leave the house. After losing his money, his car, and his shoes, he meets Toubib, Mimosa, and Crayon, three “homeless” people who wash themselves in the restrooms at the Gare de l’Est. They take him under their wing and lead him to break into his former company in order to get sleeping bags and beds.
6.8Paris, in the early 1960s. Jean-Louis Joubert is a serious but uptight stockbroker, married to Suzanne, a starchy class-conscious woman and father of two arrogant teenage boys, currently in a boarding school. The affluent man lives a steady yet boring life. At least until, due to fortuitous circumstances, Maria, the charming new maid at the service of Jean-Louis' family, makes him discover the servants' quarter on the sixth floor of the luxury building he owns and lives in. There live a crowd of lively Spanish maids who will help Jean-Louis to open to a new civilization and a new approach of life. In their company - and more precisely in the company of beautiful Maria - Jean-Louis will gradually become another man, a better man.
6.6Bad financial conditions compel an aristocratic family to do strange work.
6.3When the Little Rascals are unable to raise enough money to save their grandma's bakery from shutting down, their only hope is to win a local talent show and use the prize money to save the shop.
6.3Gilles, who operates a money losing garage, teams up with his friends Max, who operates a scrap yard, and lawyer Xavier to open a brothel catering to women. They get the idea from Gilles' secretary Irma, a former prostitute. They are assisted in the implementation by Max's wife Juliette and Sabine who is mad for Gilles. Unfortunately Gilles has fallen for Florence the daughter of the conservative Prime Minister and his wife. When the Prime Minister tries to shut down the brothel Gilles decides to stand against him in the election.
6.0Vincent, a civil servant, has always enjoyed the benefits of his family's status. When the government votes on a massive savings plan, Vincent is pushed out. When he is transferred to the North Pole, he meets Eva and finds love. It's time for him to choose.
6.4Angèle, a thirty-something from Ivory Coast, always cope thanks to the gift of gab and audacity. To escape from a bunch of dangerous criminals, she becomes a nanny in the uptown Paris, hired by Hélène, the single mom of eight years old Arthur. Discovering the work conditions of her colleagues, she decides to stand up for their rights, thanks to a young lawyer who will quickly fall for her.
6.9Alexandre, a young and honest farmer, is oppressed by an authoritarian wife, who makes him work like a dog. When she dies in a car crash, he decides to stay in bed, absolutely free and inactive. Just a dog is occupied to carry food and newspapers to him.
5.9Compulsive spenders Albert and Bruno are in debt up to their necks. While seeking help from community workers to get their lives back on track, they run into a group of young green activists. Lured by the free beer and snacks rather than by the ideals of eco-activists, Albert and Bruno find themselves joining the movement without much conviction.
6.538-year-old Alice has everything to become the next editor-in-chief of Rebelle magazine except for her uptight image. But when the young and charming Balthazar, barely 20, crosses Alice's path, she realizes that he holds the key to her promotion.
6.1Dressed as a clown, the clever rascal Grimm holds up the most secure bank of Montreal and takes 30 hostages. While confusing and ridiculing the police with his strange behavior, he calmly manages to rid the bank of a fortune. But then an unsatisfied companion arouses trouble...
6.0Isa, Alice, Léa and Nina, linked by their Sephardic families as much as by their friendship, share their lives between love affairs, a beauty institute under fiscal control, children to raise, an undocumented Moroccan nanny to marry, repeated diets, family and religious holidays to honor, but before being beautiful, their biggest challenge is to be themselves.
6.0Stressed and overworked, famous French movie star Michel Blanc is beginning to wear down, physically and mentally, from the pressure and demands of fame. Already in a fragile state of mind, strange events start to transpire all around him, and he gradually loses his grip. Taking the advice of a psychiatrist, Blanc retreats to the countryside with his friend Carole Bouquet, but Blanc still has not managed to escape all of his problems.
5.8In this winsome comedy, an entitled Economics professor pursues a tactic to buy an ailing widow’s mansion for nothing, but he quickly realizes that his seemingly foolproof strategy won’t be as easy as he thought.
6.1In this radical and endearing black comedy, a group of retrenched female factory workers decide to pool their compensation money… and hire a hit man to liquidate their boss.
6.1While doing the inventory for a lingerie outlet in a high rise office building, five attractive women are terrorized by a series of bizarre killings. They suspect that the strange janitor, who witnessed another series of killings years back, is at the bottom of the whole thing. Little do they know the real horror that they face in the end.
7.3Vincent, a wealthy real estate agent, is invited to dinner by his sister Elizabeth and her husband Peter, both professors in Paris. Claude, a childhood friend and trombonist in a symphony orchestra, is also present. Vincent brings news from the prenatal examination of his and his wife Anna's unborn son. The name chosen by the soon-to-be parents strongly offends the others for many reasons. The dispute between the guests quickly escalates and before long the resurgence of old grudges and hidden secrets is unavoidable...
6.2The story takes place in the racecourses around Paris. A so-called major sells his tips to naive characters.
6.6When an upwardly mobile couple find themselves unemployed and in debt, they turn to armed robbery in desperation.