Michel Brethez

Although based on a novel by Georges Simenon, director (and songwriter) Serge Gainsbourg has superimposed several dark emotions and a subtle brutality over the weak plot about a man's trip to Africa and his unfortunate passion for a murderess whose amorality sends the disillusioned fellow back to Europe. Sometimes described as frustrating and self-centered, reactions to this film swing across a broad spectrum of complaints -- not the least might be whether or not Gainsbourg is using a clichéd and stereotypical view of "dark Africa" to convey what he sees in his characters.

Once a successful Hollywood screenwriter, Stan is now a depressive alcoholic who spends most of his time mooching about his house whilst pouring out his troubles to his drinking partner. The only thing that keeps him going is his love for his teenage daughter, Charlotte, but she despises him, believing him to be responsible for the accident in which her mother died.

Jean is young, gay, and promiscuous. Only after he meets one or two women, including Laura, does he come to realize his bisexuality. Jean has to overcome a personal crisis and a tough choice between Laura and his male lover Samy.

While shooting an advertising film in Spain, Jean, the director, meets Ines, a passionate Spanish woman who becomes his companion and lover. On the same night of his arrival in San Sebastian, the director is visited by a woman who, recommending herself to him, ends up in his arms.

During the brutal era of the military government, an innocent tourist manager is accused of being a member of the illegal resistance movement.

To get a job and marry the nice Yvette, a quilt teacher, Julien goes to Paris. On the station platform, he swears loyalty to her, but as soon as he arrives in the capital, the seductive provincial wreaks havoc. His insatiable landlady, all the saleswomen of the shop where he is hired as an accountant, at the slightest pretext, solicit him, undress and abuse him. Finally arrives the boss, Joëlle... who is the exact double of Yvette, without her pigtails! Julien then loses his head and falls in love with the double.

Gilles, 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.

In World War II Germany, two young men, one, an ardent Nazi, and the other, a secret anti-Nazi, are in love with the same woman, the daughter of a wealthy banker. The two join the Army, and the young woman becomes a nightclub singer. Eventually she joins the Army too, to entertain the troops, but circumstances soon result in her entire world being changed.

Claude Berri, who usually participates in films by directing them, here returns to the screen as Stan, an over-the-hill lothario, much given to quoting Shakespeare, who occasionally goes around naked under his raincoat and exposes himself to strangers, who are usually not interested in his primitive display of genitalia. It also appears that he is unable to sexually satisfy his much younger lover, and he suspects her of having another boyfriend. He earns his living tutoring students (mostly young girls) in English literature. When, in his frustration, he gropes one of the girls in her home during a tutoring session, she protests, her father (who is at home) beats him up, and he is sentenced to a jail term. There, he is teamed up with a slightly loopy murderer. When he gets out of jail, he finds his girlfriend has left for good, and ends his life.

In this French comedy-drama, actor Angelo Bastiani installs satellite dishes when not auditioning for films. After being told he's not convincing enough for a role in a gangster flick, Ange dons a mask and stages a parking-lot holdup, terrifying the film's director and casting director to prove his point.

États de service was filmed in the cancer ward of Laennec Hospital between October 1998 and February 2000.