Stéphane Lévy

A French corporation goes head-to-head with an American web media company for the rights to a 3-D manga pornography studio, resulting in a power struggle that culminates in violence and espionage.

Marc, in his 40s, is a professor of literature at the University of Lausanne. Still a bachelor — and still living with his sister Marianne in a huge, isolated chalet that they inherited when they were very young — he carries on one love affair after another with his students. Winter has almost ended when one of his most brilliant students, Barbara, suddenly disappears. Two days later, Marc meets Barbara’s mother, Anna, who wants to find out more about her vanished daughter.

A man on his own welcomes a baby-sitter at his mansion in southern France. The child in question is not there; he is to arrive soon. The young woman is sceptical, a bit afraid, of this unctuous but charming gentleman, this ogre who will gradually come to obsess her. He talks to her, charms her and then finishes by throwing her over, making fun of her, only to fascinate her as a snake does its prey.