Clément Thomas

A Parisian criminal gang fall apart after challenges to the gang's leader lessen his influence.

Inviting the ex-wife to a family reunion when the none-too-secure new wife will be there hardly seems to be a recipe for success, and true to form, bodies have begun to stack up by the end of this cinematic update of a classic Agatha Christie tale. Luckily for the extended clan gathered at a sumptuous waterfront estate in Northern France, Inspector Martin Bataille is on hand to find out not only "who done it" but why.

In France, the single translator Diane Siprien adopts an Asian baby named Liu-San in a foundation directed by Sybille Weber. Years later, a weird mark appears on the boy's chest and Diane and Liu share their dreadful nightmares. Diane is assigned for a three-day job in Germany and she leaves Liu with her friend Sybille. However, while going to the airport, Diane finds Liu hidden in the backseat and startles with an eagle flying toward the windshield, crashing her car. Liu falls into a coma and his digital recorder records the boy speaking in an unknown dialect. When Diane searches the translation and the origins of Liu, she is surrounded by mysterious murders. She discovers that the dialect is from the mystic Mongolian Tseven tribe and that Liu is a powerful Observer; further, he is in danger, threatened by sorcerers that need the boy for their Council of the Stone..

From his offices in Switzerland, Russian Igor Lipovsky is engaged in a vast and profitable gunrunning operation with Africa. The French government wants to hinder the activities of the arms dealer and sends a team to sink one of his ships heading for Angola with a load of illegal weaponry. Lisa, Brisseau, Loïc, Tony and Raymond are professionals: they carefully set up their cover, plan all their moves meticulously, and carry out orders without asking questions. Perhaps they should. The code-name of the mission is "Janus"; and just like with the ancient deity, there are two opposite faces for every aspect of the operation: the objective of the French government, the role of each team member, the presumed friend and the assumed foe...

During the summer, Paul, provincial student, shy and bookish, went to Paris to integrate Sciences-Po, bed on a bench in the Luxembourg Gardens. One afternoon, while the eye follows a young girl he had noticed for several days, he made the acquaintance of Fab, a seducer getter, effective and apparent misogyny, which will teach him the basics drag. Starting first with a documented learning every evening in his diary, Paul soon to be questionable practices to limit crime.

Wednesday is the day when children are not in school and stay at home. It is also the day when the parents are not there. In Nantes, in the spring, twenty or so carefree and boisterous kids between the ages of three and eleven take advantage of this day to make their parents go crazy. Emma, 9 years old and naturally romantic, decides that Roland, the little boy she met in the street, is unhappy and persuades her friends to adopt him. Victoria spends the day with Martin Socoa, an often distant father whom she learns to love. There are also Muriel, Bruno, Colette and Henri who take off and create panic in their parents' home, while Marylin lives the founding drama of her childhood with a mother of an unreal sweetness. Throughout these little stories, we realize that the world of children has its own logic, totally different from that of adults.

The disappearance of a young woman puts two forensic police officers on the trail of a serial killer. Their fears are confirmed by the discovery of several corpses, what follows is a long hunt across Paris.

Pierrette is a woman who describes herself as having "opted for the temporary on a permanent basis." After 15 years of living the good life in Switzerland, Pierrette one day packs her bags full of fashionable outfits and returns to her native Paris with no idea of what she'll do. Pierette, however, leads a charmed life; while her son is forced to work the graveyard shift at a factory due to poor job prospects, she's able to find a job right away at a high school. Pierrette soon reintroduces herself to her 23-year-old daughter and one-time best friend, trying to use her charm to skate over years of neglect. She just as suddenly finds a new beau, Ackerman, and starts helping him out with his antique business. However, what would seem like a simple matter -- buying a clock from an elderly woman -- soon turns out to be very complicated and fraught with consequence.

To a non-French speaker, the word La Pagaille looks charming, elegant, even tidy. However, it means "a mess," and a mess is just what the happily divorced Martin gets into when he and his ex-wife Brigitte, the mother of his children, rekindle their long-dormant relationship and announce that they intend to move back in together. Not only do the children find this whole thing confusing, but the husband's and the wife's lovers are equally befuddled. Add to that the need for Martin to meet Brigitte's lover and vice-versa, and you have the beginnings of a mess. When it begins to seem to Brigitte's former lover that he has offended the Muslims with a book he translated and he is slated for death, the whole thing grows yet more complicated. In this comedy, this list only scratches the surface of the messes these people must confront.

In the summer holidays, a group of women stay behind in Paris whilst their husbands and children take a vacation on the sunny Island of Ré. The women – wives, frustrated spinsters and adolescents – profit from their new-found freedom to sort out their love lives and the men indulge their earthy passions with no less enthusiasm. Only the children seems capable of rising above this infantile summer madness...