Jacqueline Marbaux

Armand, a boastful womaniser, makes a bet that he can seduce any girl he wants. He soon crosses paths with a beautiful Parisian divorcee, who is nothing like anyone he has ever met before.

In 1815 Vienna, a corsetmaker falls in love with a valet.

Political intrigue and psychological drama run parallel. The queen is in seclusion, veiling her face for the ten years since her husband's assassination, longing to join him in death. Stanislas, a poet whose pen name is Azrael, is a suicidal anarchist, his imagination haunted into hate by longing for this queen who's drawn apart. He enters her private quarters intent on killing her then himself, but they fall in love, in part because he looks like the king. Stanislas wants her to regain political power by appearing to the public, and she tries to convince him to find hope and escape. All the while, the queen's enemies plot to keep the lovers together but to thwart their plans.

Tsar Alexandre II meets a young student, Katia. He understands that he loves her and try to send her away but they end up seeing each other again and becomes his mistress. With the help of Katia, Alexandre prepares a liberal constitution, but these reforms make him hostile to the more privileged subjects without satirising the revolutionaries against the regime.

One of Alexandre Dumas's most popular adventure novels is "The Count of Monte-Cristo". What is little known is that the famous writer made up neither its plot nor its characters. Dumas actually heard the true story of a man named François Picault during a stay at a private mansion and only adapted it into the novel everybody knows . Picault (who in the book would become Edmond Dantès) was about to marry the beautiful Marguerite (Mercédès in the novel) when he was denounced by three jealous friends who falsely accused him of being a spy for England. Picault was placed under a form of house arrest. In his prison, he made friends with an Italian abbot. When the man died, he left his fortune to Picault whom he had begun to treat as a son. On his release, Picault, who had become wealthy, was able to pursue his ruthless revenge on the three men who were responsible for his misfortune.

A beautiful and sophisticated teenager is placed in a regimented French girls' boarding school after her father apparently commits suicide over a business scandal. She immediately gains admirers -- a lustful middle-aged artist, a handsome young composer, a fellow female student -- as well as a jealous rival. With the help of her schoolmates, she attempts to elope with the composer, but the adults catch on to the plot, and she is locked into her room at night.

Patrice's good looks have made him a consummate womanizer but they also helped him win the heart of Juliette, the daughter of Blanche Eroli, an influential Parisian clothes designer. The latter doesn't want him as a husband for Juliette and would prefer to see her married to Vincent, her right hand man. To this end she offers Patrice a juicy check if he agrees to leave Juliette. He accepts the deal and leaves for the Riviera, where he discovers love in the person of pretty Caroline. But Juliette, who does not love Vincent, traces Patrice as far as Nice. Soon afterwards her dead body is found lying on her former fiancé's bed...

In the 1950s, in a small provincial town, a young inexperienced judge clashes with an influential notable during an investigation into a suspicious death. His perseverance to get to the truth will cause a huge scandal.