The Life and Death of King Richard III

Judas betrays Jesus Christ.

Rome, June 1800. Floria Tosca is a celebrated opera singer, better known as La Tosca. Her lover is Mario Cavaradossi, a young artist and Bomapartist sympathizer. When the latter helps Angelotti, the leader of the opposition, to escape from prison and hides him in La Tosca's home, he antagonizes Baron Scarpia, the ruthless chief of police, all the more as his love for Tosca is unrequited. Scarpia has Mario arrested and condemned to death. Upset, Floria begs the Baron for her lover's life. He accepts to have the bullets of the firing squad replaced by blanks if... she sleeps with him. She agrees nominally but when she finds herself with Scarpia, she stabs him to death. She then goes to see Mario in his cell and lets him know about his phony execution. But Scarpia had had time to get the order reversed and in the early hours of the morning, Mario is executed in the proper manner. In despair, Tosca throws herself into the void...

The young Edward V, King of England, enters London where he is crowned. But the king's uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, eager to come to the throne, contemplates the loss of the young king and his brother. He therefore had them declared bastards and locked them up in the Tower of London. The Duke of Buckingham and the king's supporters help the two prisoners escape. They are recaptured and delivered to the assassins. Gloucester usurps the crown. But mortally wounded in the war, he succumbs, prey to the remorse awakened in his conscience by the vision of his victims.

When Troy has fallen and Ulysses sets sail for home, his ships are driven to different lands, where his adventures are numerous, keeping him away from his native land for ten years. As time rolls on without his return he is looked upon as dead by everyone except his wife, Queen Penelope, who firmly believes that her husband still lives and will some day return to her.

The film portrays the events on the day King Henri III of France arranged for Duke Henri de Guise to be murdered.

The beautiful and flirtatious Duchess of Langeais has set her sights on General de Meyran, a straight and serious man, and manages to invite him to her place alone. When the General declares his love for her, the Duchess's friends, informed, burst in. The General, thus demeaned, leaves, swearing that he will never see her again. However, the Duchess, who had fallen in love with the General, writes him many letters asking for his forgiveness but nothing happened. Years pass. The General is called to Spain by Ferdinand VII. And while he visited a Carmelite convent in Formentera, he recognized the Duchess as one of the nuns. The same evening, he tries to abduct her, to unexpected consequences.

Marguerite is a courtesan in Paris. She falls deeply in love with a young man of promise, Armand Duval. When Armand's father begs her not to ruin his hope of a career and position by marrying Armand, she acquiesces and leaves her lover. However, when poverty and terminal illness overwhelm her, Marguerite discovers that Armand has not lost his love for her.

Recreation of a scene from Macbeth.

Queen Christine of Sweden finds out of an affair between her favourite Monaldeschi and a courtesan in Fontainebleau. From the Guerra Zacarías collection.