French movie with careless whisper in it

A true story of two men who should never have met – a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects.

A true story of two men who should never have met – a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects.

The time is World War II and Juergen Siebusch (Thomas Stecher) and his mother (Gudrun Ritter) are retreating along with the German army, just ahead of the invading Russian forces. Both mother and son hole up in the town of Hohengoerse, where Juergen finds some work watching over sheep - and learns a bit about the facts of sheep life that he extrapolates to some advantage when he meets the appealing Amelie (Brit Guelland), daughter of the landowner. He first helps Amelie out and later applies his new-found knowledge in a barn, appropriately enough. As the Red Army draws near, Juergen deserts a hastily put-together "people's force," as he prefers the barn to the gun. Russian soldiers are shown sleeping and snoring next to their tanks, and the local fascist executed - the war is over. When the new Communist government sets up a land reform package, Amelie's mother's land gets divided up into small plots for small farmers.

A film director, in bad standing with his studio, tries to turn a local carnival dancer into a "French" movie star and pass her off as his big new discovery.

Jed prepares to interview French cineaste and self-appointed expert on the nature of love - Thierry Grimandi. The worldly and somewhat jaded Jed is dead-set on dismissing the auteur's musings as pompous and, well French, until his own relationship with Cheryl starts to fall apart and he is forced to re-evaluate the illusive subject. Soon everyone is talking about love: his relationship counsellor, drinking buddy Marcus and Marcus' girlfriend Sophie Beginnings, endings, tricks...could the French be on to something?

This loosely plotted coming-of-age tale follows the life of 15-year-old Laurent Chevalier as he stumbles his way over the burgeoning swell of adolescence in 1950s France. After having his first sexual experience with a prostitute and dodging the lips of a priest, Chevalier contracts a case of scarlet fever. When the fever leaves him with a heart murmur, Chevalier is placed in a sanatorium, along with his over-attentive and adulterous mother.