Drame

Three loosely connected stories about love set in Europe and told in flashback. « The jealous lover » : Paula is a talented dancer who cannot truly live unless she dances. But she has a heart condition, which means she risks death if she does. « Mademoiselle » : Tommy hates being a child and despises his French tutor. He wants to be an adult so he can do what he wants. He gest his wish for one afternoon: being transformed into a handsome young man for one evening, he learns about being a man and falls for his tutor.

London, summer 1914. Calvero, once a famous London stage clown is now a washed-up drunk. One day he saves his young neighbour and ex-dancer Theresa (« Terry ») from suicide and nurses her back to health. Terry having lost the use of her legs doesn’t enjoy life anymore. His doctor tells Calvero that her paralysis is mostly psychological. Theh old clown decides to bring his pretty neighbour enough renewed joy for her to walk again and regain her zest for life…

Twin trapeze artists fall out over a lottery ticket and a worthless woman, then take unique revenge.

In the early 1900s, a wrestler and a clown looking for a job are hired in Odessa circus. The two friends soon become world-famous separately until their reunion, many years later, in Paris.

After his clash with the Borman brothers, Hank Whirling sets up his own circus. But because of the rainfall, his first disastrous season requires him to get a huge bank loan – but he has to take along a publicist and press agent to help the circus turn a profit. When the Whirling circus train derails en route to Niagara Falls, star tightrope walker Mama Colino is killed in the accident. Then others incidents occur, too many of them to be merely fortuitous. Are the Borman brothers attempting to eliminate a competitor?

As he attempts suicide by throwing himself into the Seine, Didier is rescued by Pascal who just happened to be there. The two men soon become friends but while Didier is regaining his zest for life, Pascal gets involved in a murder case… because of Didier.

A crippled trapeze aerialist and former star, disabled after a fall, agrees to climb back on a trapeze to teach a young man the triple somersault.

Plastic surgeon Dr. Rossiter is wanted by the police because he gives a new face to criminals on the loose. After he operates on Vanet, a circus owner’s daughter, he has the idea of partnering with her father under the assumed name Schüler. When the circus owner is attacked by his dancing bear, Rossiter doesn’t move and lets him die. Then he takes the reins of the circus and hires former criminals to make a « temple of beauty » out of it.

Biopic of adventuress Lola Montès, raised to the nobility by the King of Bavaria, who ended up as a small circus attraction in New Orleans after having been romantically involved with famous European men.

In 1910, a traveling circus comes to a small German town. The director, known as Sacha Obolski, is manufacturer of garden gnomes Albert Oberholzer’s brother, vanished 20 years before. Born Alexander Oberholzer, the black sheep of the family is back to celebrate his brother’s birthday. The disconcerted petits bourgeois meet his charming wife Iduna, who sings a song in tribute to her father, a renowned clown. She turns the head of the brothers-in-law, honest husbands for that matter, which is bound to create conflicts…