Crescendo

Paris, autumn 2015. In Philippe Dayan's analysis office, a surgeon in disarray in love, a couple in crisis, a suicidal teenager follow one another day after day. On a November evening, killers enter Paris.

Has the time of women finally come? Have their everyday lives truly changed over the past sixty years? Guided by Agnès Jaoui, women—famous and unknown—share their stories across generations. From childhood to retirement, the documentary traces shared experiences shaped by prejudice, but also by hope, strength, and humor. Blending personal archives, historic moments, and social media footage, the film places women at the center of their own story. Welcome to the Time of Women.

Two actors play eighteen different roles in a story that asks the question: would my life have been different if I had lit a cigarette?

In 1972, Karl Lagerfeld is an unknown 38-year-old designer of ready-to-wear fashion, largely unknown to the public. His encounter with the young Jacques de Bascher, an ambitious and seductive dandy, changes everything.

An upper middle-class French family celebrates a birthday in a restaurant. In one evening and during one meal, family history, tensions, collective and separate grudges, delights, and memories both clash and coalesce.

Business executive Odile seeks a new, larger apartment. Her younger sister Camille, having completed her doctoral thesis in history, is a Paris tour guide. Simon is a regular on Camille's tours as he's attracted to her. However, Camille has fallen for Marc, and they begin an affair. Nicolas is also looking for an apartment, since he hopes to eventually have his family join him in Paris.

Unpolished and ultra-pragmatic industrialist Jean-Jacques Castella reluctantly attends Racine's tragedy "Berenice" in order to see his niece play a bit part. He is taken with the play's strangely familiar-looking leading lady Clara Devaux. During the course of the show, Castella soon remembers that he once hired and then promptly fired the actress as an English language tutor. He immediately goes out and signs up for language lessons. Thinking that he is nothing but an ill-tempered philistine with bad taste, Clara rejects him until Castella charms her off her feet.

A pair of thirty-somethings meet through a food lover app and embark on a relationship despite past scars. Over the course of several dates, they discover where their tastes overlap and whether their passion for food, and shared distaste for foodie pretension, is enough to spark true love.

Michel, a fifty year old man, graphic designer, decides to change the urban lifestyle and go on an adventure. Fascinated by airmail, he dreams at Jean Mermoz when he's on scooter. One day, Michel sees a picture of a kayak.

Two actors portray eighteen Yorkshire villagers, who offer several iterations of their lives depending on whether or not they lit a cigarette at a certain point in time.

Talented 20-year-old Lolita dreams of a singing career. But her self-esteem is low due to her weight problem and her narcissistic father, Étienne, a literary star with scant interest in his daughter's life. Lolita finds little comfort in the attentions of her vocal coach, suspecting the woman is using her to meet her influential father. Étienne's second wife proves to be Lolita's only trustworthy ally in her private battle to find a sense of worth.

Nounours is the nickname of a "cousin" an informer with a special arrangement with the police: he gets 10% of the drugs seized thanks to his help. When his personal contact, inspector Maurin, commits suicide, inspector Gérard Delvaux takes over. Meanwhile, judge Lambert is uncovering the illegal practices of the policemen. Her persistent investigations, which had cornered Maurin, are leading to Gérard, and also to Nounours as the source of heroin that led to recent cases of deadly overdoses. Nounours promises Gérard increasingly bigger catches which he is intent on realising before he is forced to reveal who Nounours is to judge Lambert.

Aurore has separated, just lost her job, and learns that she is going to be a grandmother.

Luc, a renowned opera singer, agrees to run a singing workshop at a women’s prison over the course of a summer. Although initially wary of him, Carole, Jeannine, Noor, Jess, Marzena and Catherine eventually capture his full attention. Luc soon finds himself confronted by the unpredictable and clashing temperaments of these challenging inmates, whilst the prison is in turmoil. How will he manage to harmonise their voices? Will he be able – and at what cost – to make them feel a semblance of freedom through song?

Yuku is a young mouse who lives with her family in the cellar of a castle. Her grandmother passes on the family values by telling her timeless folk tales. Injured in a tussle with a cat, the old mouse is bedridden and she tells her children that she will have to leave them to follow the little blind mole into the Earth’s tunnels. In one of her grandmother’s storybooks, Yuku learns that the flower of the Himalayas can bring her eternal light. She leaves on a journey of discovery to find the flower.