The best Nadine Basile’s movies

The summer of 1939. Marie, at 13, goes with her parents to visit her grandmother in a small town near Avignon. Although rumors of war reach the countryside, it's an idyllic place. Marie's parents are constantly making love. Surrounded by sexual frankness, Marie fancies herself a woman and develops a crush on Alexander, the town's young Jewish doctor. She's despondent when he treats her as if she were a child. After Marie's father abruptly leaves for a few weeks to assist with a relative's harvest, Marie's mother and the doctor disappear into the woods for hours at a time. Marie tries to spy on them. When dad returns, what will the family and the doctor do?

At Christmastime, the love affairs of five clothing models working for Pierre Roussel, a renowned Paris fashion designer. Marlène hesitates between two suitors. Blanche, who loves Jean, Roussel's son, wants him to talk to his father about their relationship. Catherine learns that her lover has a wife and two kids. Jeannette throws herself into the arms of an Oriental prince. In despair the fifth one attempts to commit suicide...

La neige était sale is based on a novel and play by the phenomenally prolific Georges Simenon. Upon learning that his mother was a prostitute, Frank (Daniel Gelin) dejectedly vows that he, too, will live a life of debauchery. Part of his self-degradation program is to kill someone, and since the story takes place during the Nazi occupation of France, he chooses a German officer as his victim. His steady descent into psychosis and depravity becomes his ultimate undoing.

Father Birotteau and Father Troubert, both of whom are priests at Tours, have separate lodgings in the house belonging to the crabby spinster Sophie Gamard in that city. Birotteau is an other-worldly, gentle, introspective type; Troubert, who is ten years younger than his fellow boarder, is very much of the world: he is a careerist devoured by ambition.

Michel Lenoir, a successful interior designer, has reached the middle of his life without ever getting married. A bit blue over it he dreams one night of a beautiful young woman. When he wakes up he is persuaded that this is the girl meant for him. He can't help thinking about her, talking about her, drawing her figure, her face, her eyes on paper. He even gives her a name: Sylviane. Later on, as he is holidaying in Portugal, he notices a charming girl swimming in the pool he is in. No doubt about it : he has found Sylviane. He follows her, talks to her, woos her and they are soon married. However, back in Paris, Michel realizes that Betty, an articulate sports writer, is not the idealized woman his brain had conceived. Things go awry and the couple is about to separate when well-meaning friends intervene and open up Michel's eyes : he must base his love story on everyday reality not on idle dreaming.