A Violent Desire for Joy

Summertime. While a pandemic spreads overall, Paul, his wife Hélène and his little sister Lisa, isolate themselves in their countryside house. There, they meet old friends : Bruno and his sister Mélanie… Some of them love each other but say it wrongly ; some of them don’t even dare to say it ; some of them hate each other… What will strike them first? Disease or despair?

February, 1871. On the eve of the Paris Commune, Rose Beuret, Auguste Rodin's life partner, is alone in the studio. As Rodin is away, she is in charge of one of his unfinished sculptures – clay must stay moist every day. To forget her solitude, Rose takes refuge in the daily care of this mute, incomplete piece. While revolt is rumbling outside, Rose locks herself in the studio and devotes herself entirely to the statue.

12th century: Cosme, a young monk runs away from his abbey to search for his father, whom he has never met. Meanwhile, he meets four “goliards”, young people trying to live at the present. With them, he will begin to walk on the path that leads to oneself…

Blanche has been promoted to a job in another city. She and Damien and their kids thus change places, to this place on the oceanside ; Blanche felt like changing something. But something is different. Damien dreams of a car accident, of a roadcurve above the ocean... Of a woman’s face. Then he meets this woman, whilst running on a road above the ocean, precisely… She is Ariane. Damien’s arrival has made her reappear. She is dead. : she died in the car accident Damien dreamt of. She is here, in flesh and blood. He sinks into an irrepressible passion with her, in her arms. Blanche has no idea what’s happening of course, but she sees Damien slowly drifting… Around them, the world is as good as empty. There is nothing left but matter.

A summer in the countryside. Guilhem and Anthony are trying to rig up their sound system for a party. Rosa is attempting to attract deer with a life-size sculpture. And the mayor's son is handing out prizes at the annual flea market...

Brest, a march evening in a cafe. Sailors evoke the latest news of their friends, Estelle spends the evening with her sister, Thomas, the server is working as usual. But when his colleague Samir receives a message on his phone, the atmosphere begins to change.

Abbas, a young Iranian without work papers, has found refuge with Claire and her daughter Colette at the cost of a risky strategy: to avoid any questions, Abbas and Colette make the whole village believe they are in love. Until this winter day when Colette comes home after a party, accompanied by a boy her own age, Lucas. A little tale about uprooting.

The beaches of Saint-Jean-de-Monts, a small coastal region of the French Loire, fill up with tourists in summer. But when fall arrives, its great hotels and luxurious spa-resorts become deserted. A situation which Leo takes advantage of to live far away from everything and everybody.

In a strange land where everything is flat and feelings have vanished, a curious trio armed with a vinyl record and a mirror ball attempt to recapture sensory emotions.

In a film consisting entirely of fictitious found-footage, we discover how a young activist, Ulysse, provokes a nationwide cataclysm by stealing a micro-organism developed by a state laboratory: the "mycelium". This microorganism has the ability to degrade all metals and their components, and its spread would risk taking the whole of civilization back to the Stone Age.

A hunting trip in the mountains. Anthony wants to impress Mathilde. He shoots. A few months later, a court reconstruction brings him face to face with Chiara. Two stories collide.

During a languid and peaceful summer in the 17th century, six young women dream of love. Directly or indirectly, each of them will experiment with the delights and torments of romance–desire and rejection, idealized and consummated love... Nina and Eulalie are sisters who share a strong bond. Eulalie, the eldest, is waiting for the return of her fiancé, who has left to seek his fortune in the Americas, while Nina seems to have nothing to wait for. Through nine chapters, we follow the destiny of each of these young women as they are finally confronted with the reality of a world and an era in which being a woman means not being free. Nina and Eulalie weave their way through each of these stories as they endeavor to understand and perhaps escape the inevitability of their fate as women.

In Brittany, Jean embarks on a crazy soliloquy on the asphodel trail. The walk becomes a journey through space and time, an encounter with everything that makes up a territory.

When a girl leaves the group, friends get together for one last evening.

Joachim and Aurélie love each other. One evening, they witness the heavy fall of a drunk man in the underground. A few days later, the evocation of this incident makes them realize that they may have reached the end of their common history.