Mirko and Stefan have long been the closest of friends. They live
contentedly on the Rivera, surviving on their modest income from odd
jobs. One day, they meet Maguy, a wealthy playgirl with a taste
for the high life and a habit of throwing her money around. She
takes an immediate liking to Mirko and Stefan and offers them work,
which consists of doing her chores and attending to her
boat. Maguy has other, more intimate needs, and it is not
long before she has taken Mirko as her lover. This harmonious
ménage is disrupted when Maguy's neglected daughter
Hélène turns up and begins causing trouble. What
ensues is a dark and dangerous game of perverse desire...
In the 1920s French cinema was at its most varied and stylish - witness the achievements of Abel Gance, Marcel L'Herbier, Jean Epstein and Jacques Feyder.
With so many great films to choose from, it's nigh on impossible to compile a short-list of the best 15 French films of all time - but here's our feeble attempt to do just that.
American film comedy had its heyday in the 1920s and '30s, but it remains an important genre and has given American cinema some of its enduring classics.