The Taste of Others (2000)

Sylvain, an Afghan veteran living off of petty crime, crosses paths with Nathalie, an upper-class CEO struggling to keep her lawnmower company afloat.

Michel Houellebecq travels to Guadeloupe to take part in a look-alike contest, whose jury is chaired by Blanche Gardin. But unforeseen events will plunge our duo into the heart of a bizarre intrigue.

Jacques and Martine, an ordinary bourgeois couple, invite to dinner a friend whom they have not seen the last ten years. Since then he has become a media star and everything has to go just right at dinner.

A story is about young teenage girl, with sister and brothers, a pleasant uncle and aunt, an annoying nanny, a young boy interested in kissing her, a close relationship with the imaginary addressee of her daily diary and her parents' disintegrating marriage - all this in a rented house in a summer resort.

While being transferred to another prison, two convicts - Stéphane Carella and Paul Brandon - effect a miraculous escape. They are pursued across the Verdon Gorge before arriving at an isolated farmhouse whose owner, Laura, offers them sanctuary. Since the death of her husband, Laura has longed to get her own back on the police and she agrees to help Carella and Brandon in their scheme to rob a casino in Nice. After a shoot out with the casino’s owners, Carella realises that not everything is what it seems. Brandon is not what he appears...

An upper middle-class French family celebrates a birthday in a restaurant. In one evening and during one meal, family history, tensions, collective and separate grudges, delights, and memories both clash and coalesce.

A traveling magician and his assistants are persecuted by authorities in 19th century Sweden. Their capture, however, didn't bring victory to those in power.

Suffering from empty nest syndrome, two lonely parents concoct a scheme to get their kids interested in them again: they pretend they've won the lottery.

In Guadeloupe, Chris divides his time between deals, one-night stands and motorcycle rodeos. Spotted by Odell, the boss of the neighboring neighborhood, Chris is entrusted with a risky delivery. Despite his best friend’s warning, he accepts the mission. But on the day of delivery, he discovers that a baby has been left at his door. Then begins for him, a hellish race which will lead him to a crucial choice…

When a feared judge of the French court, Xavier Racine, encounters a French-Danish juror, Ditte Lorensen-Coteret, at a murder trial, their shared past is slowly uncovered.