La vie parisienne

หลังกลับจากงานเปิดตัวภาพยนตร์ บรรยากาศขุ่นมัวระหว่างผู้กำกับหนุ่มกับแฟนสาวและเชื้อไฟที่มาสะกิดแผลใจนำพาให้ทั้งสองได้ทบทวนสัมพันธ์รักซาบซ่านครั้งนี้ด้วยกัน

ชีวิตเหมือนจะเป็นเรื่องง่ายสำหรับคู่รักที่แสนจะสมบูรณ์แบบอย่าง ไอวี่ และ ธีโอ ทั้งความสำเร็จในเรื่องของอาชีพ, ชีวิตแต่งงานที่เต็มไปด้วยความรัก และลูก ๆ ที่แสนจะยอดเยี่ยม แต่ภายใต้โฉมหน้าชีวิตในอุดมคติของพวกเขานั้น พายุลูกใหญ่กำลังก่อตัวขึ้นอยู่ ในขณะที่อาชีพของ ธีโอ เริ่มดิ่งลงไป ความทะเยอทะยานของ ไอวี่ ก็พุ่งทะยานขึ้นไป และเชื้อไฟของการแข่งขันอันร้อนแร้งและความขุ่นเคืองใจที่เก็บซ้อนเอาไว้ก็ปะทุขึ้นมา

Wide-eyed and poor young Leonora weds an obsessive millionaire named Ohlrig, but the marriage is loveless. Even worse, Ohlrig seems to have manic, violent tendencies. Eventually, young Leonora escapes her unhappy life and begins working with New York City doctor Larry Quinada, who she soon falls for. Unfortunately, Ohlrig refuses to grant his wife a divorce, and things get even darker for Leonora when she realizes she's pregnant with his child.

A famous horror writer finds inspiration for her next book after she and her husband take in a young couple.

In a Paris hotel room, Jack Whitman lies on a bed. His phone rings; it's a woman on her way to see him, a surprise. She arrives and the complications of their relationship emerge in bits and pieces. Will they make love? Is their relationship over? (A prequel to The Darjeeling Limited, 2007.)

Genial, bumbling Monsieur Hulot loves his top-floor apartment in a grimy corner of the city, and cannot fathom why his sister's family has moved to the suburbs. Their house is an ultra-modern nightmare, which Hulot only visits for the sake of stealing away his rambunctious young nephew. Hulot's sister, however, wants to win him over to her new way of life, and conspires to set him up with a wife and job.

With a father suffering from neurodegenerative disease, a young woman lives with her eight-year-old daughter. While struggling to secure a decent nursing home, she runs into an unavailable friend with whom she embarks on an affair.

Monsieur Cinema, a hundred years old, lives alone in a large villa. His memories fade away, so he engages a young woman to tell him stories about all the movies ever made.

A bourgeois housewife, planning to go back to work as a physiotherapist after having devoted 20 years to her husband and two children, has her comfortable, elegant life turned upside down when she falls for a Spanish builder and begins a runaway affair.

Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to choose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.