This French-German-Belgian thriller, reminiscent of Misery (1990) and The Collector (1965), begins after Fred Astaire-fan Clement (Jean Rochefort) invites comic-book artist Luc (Guillaume Canet) to Sunday dinner with Clement and his wife Violette. Luc's girlfriend Margot announces her pregnancy, prompting Luc to forget about the invitation, but Clement insists that Luc join him. After Luc arrives and sees that Violette is only a life-size plastic doll, he decides to leave but gets clobbered on the head. Awakening, he finds he's been handcuffed to the bathroom sink and gagged. Cruelties ensue, with crazed Clement getting visionary advice from both Astaire and Violette. Award-winning composer-arranger-orchestrator Philippe Haim made his feature directorial debut with this drama, and music is very much a part of the film from Haim's score and music-box melodies to tap dancing, honky-tonk piano, and a full musical comedy production number.

Barracuda

By launching its fleet against the Chinese junks in 1889, the British Empire declared one of the first wars motivated solely by economic interests. Deploring a trade balance largely in deficit with China, the United Kingdom wants to sell him its stocks of opium by force. Faced with resistance from the Qing Empire, the British went on the offensive in the name of free trade, whose pacificating virtues they were convinced of. Since this exemplary history of ambiguous relations between states, from cooperation to fierce competition, trade wars have been repeated, increasingly sophisticated but not always less bloody. The advent of the industrial revolution, liberalism and then globalization have multiplied the sources of conflict.

Handelskriege im Spiegel der Geschichte

With the intention of selling opium to the Chinese, and in the name of free trade, the British declared war on the Chinese Empire in 1839. Since then, disagreements between nations can be understood as economic disputes. A history of trade wars.