Les Films de l'Etang

An orange, yellow and gray film which tells a love story or more precisely the birth of the feeling of love.

The film tells the story of two girls who are of totally different character. They know each other since their childhood and were friends until they became teenagers. But growing up and becoming adults they go different ways.

Objectively, Odette Toulemonde has nothing to be happy about, but is. Balthazar Balsan has everything to be happy about, but isn’t. Odette, awkwardly forty, with a delightful hairdresser son and a daughter bogged down in adolescence, spends her days behind the cosmetic’s counter in a department store and her nights sewing feathers on costumes for Parisian variety shows. She dreams of thanking Balthazar Balsan, her favorite author, to whom – she believes – she owes her optimism. The rich and charming Parisian writer then turns up in her life in an unexpected way.

The neologistic title of this film translates as "Death Bureau," a secret vigilante organization used by ordinary working folk to rid the city of criminals through secret executions. Woodworker Leo Stoychev goes to the organization for help because his boss Branco won't repay a loan and may have had something to do with the accident that crippled Leo. The Mordbüro is responsible for the death of a crooked lawyer, and Inspector Raoul becomes suspicious.

In 19th century, a disillusioned priest helps a young boy drifter who's a chess wunderkind to move on up in life and social structures using his talent. Years later, he's a success, but game of life and love has higher stakes than chess.

In the midst of WW I, a doctor and a lawyer team up to turn a ramshackle old mountain chateau into a sanatorium/health spa that caters to the afflicted from most every stratum of European society, most of whom show up with false hope in their hearts and plenty of equally false identities. Even the proprietors have a few deceptions, chief among them is the part of the resort where they provide shelter for dying and horribly maimed soldiers. Still the atmosphere of this high-class convalescent home is that of great gentility that thinly disguises the seaminess of the guests' secret activities. Though much of the film is a quirky comedy, tragedy comes creeping in when people begin dying of unnatural causes, and not even the pure mountain air can save the owners and the residents.