In a French seaside town, at a boarding house for civil servants recovering from surgery and maladies, the six male residents' lives change dramatically when two women arrive: Catherine, lively, sexually liberated, willing to kiss, dance, and sleep with the men, and Leonie, reserved, formal, conservative. Leonie finds herself attracted to Leon, a Belgian who was a mercenary in Katanga in 1964, wounded and carrying psychological scars as well. The other men continually play practical jokes on Leon, some of them cruel. As Leon courts Leonie, his horrid mother brings him emotional distress as do his memories of war. Can the two of them get past these obstacles?
Acting
Brel's raw, non-professional vulnerability as director-star.
Writing
Cruel pranks that expose male fragility.
Director
Jacques Brel
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Brel was Belgium's biggest chanson star; this was his second and final film as director, a complete career pivot.
The boarding house setting mirrors 1960s French institutional cinema—Brel transforms it into a pressure cooker of masculine failure.
BE
FR
