Molière, a down-and-out actor-cum-playwright up to his ears in debt. When the wealthy Jourdain offers to cover that debt so that Molière's theatrical talents might help Jourdain win the heart of a certain widowed marquise, hilarity ensues.

Pierre Renard is the blackboy of the writer George Vallier. At the time of a reception, the Italian actor Aldo Barazutti takes him for the writer and proposes to him to come to work with him in Tunisia with the development of a scenario. In fact Barazutti wants only to flee her wife to find her mistress Valerie. Misunderstandings when Vallier joined them. They must flee in the desert a jealous husband...

Jean-Pierre Costa is a football manager upon whom fate appears not to be smiling. First, a friend, Annabelle, dumps a pet Labrador named Didier on him whilst she goes off to make a report in Los Angeles. Next, one of his star players is injured, leaving him one player short for a crucial match. As if things could not get any worse, Costa wakes up one morning to find that that Didier has been transformed into a man...

A comedy about an absent-minded man who works at a advertising company and topples from one problem to another.

A celebrity journalist, juggling her busy career and personal life, has her life over-turned by a freak car accident.

One day, hospital orderlies, watching corpse in the morgue, recognize film director. Man, even though he died, he begins to remember his life. He made a career making movies, had numerous mistresses, but never realized their dreams. His life was interspersed with many setbacks that enfeebled him from the inside. Although he made a career in film, he was not happy with his life.

Charlotte is cheating on Micha with Mélodie. Not suspecting a thing, yet feeling neglected, Micha in turn cheats on Charlotte. But also with Mélodie. For Mélodie, things are topsy-turvy. She lies to both of them. She is privy to each of their lies. And is in love with both of them at the same time.

Francis, who is in his forties, manages the French subsidiary of an American high-tech company. But the shareholders suddenly decide to close it. Depressed by the idea of being unemployed and the prospect of losing his second wife, Francis decides to consult a fortune-teller. The experience is a real eye-opener for him and the start of a new career: He pretends to be a fortune teller himself and turns into Madame Irma. How to explain that to his wife Clotilde?

Simultaneously, a retired couple overwhelmed by debt tries to win a dance contest, as the minister of economy is suspected of tax evasion, and a teenage girl encounters a sexual maniac, while a young lawyer attempts to climb the social ladder. When the shoe drops, the winner won’t necessarily be the one we expected.

Pontagnac, a married man, tries to seduce Victoire, the wife of his good friend. Little does he know, Victoire has plans of her own to punish her cheating husband. The would-be fling ignites a dizzying spell of complications as characters arrange trysts, attempt to expose each other’s deceits, and are ultimately forced to come clean.

This film originated as a play in Paris. The story focuses on the one-day adventures of Bertrand Barnier played with a genius of French cinema, Louis de Funes. In the same morning he learns that his daughter is pregnant, an employee stole a large amount of money from his company, his maid is about to resign in order to marry a wealthy neighbor and his body builder is interested in marrying his daughter. The seemingly complicated story-line is full of comedy or errors and some of the most hilarious mime scenes of the French cinema.

François Berthier’s life is a series of unfortunate events. One day, however, a miracle occurs for François and his expected misfortune is changed to never-ending luck.

A failed 40 year old comedian wants to organize the first Black protests in France but meeting with other French celebrities of the Black community will make it a whole new adventure.

After a love affair ends badly, a young Parisian named Paul sinks into the same kind of deep depression that led his sister to kill herself. He moves back home with his father and aimless brother Jonathan but refuses to get out of bed.

Imagine a world where the worst behaviour you could ever have is to forget your store's loyalty card in your other trousers...that's what happens to Adrien. This serious misconduct forces him to go into hiding, as both police and media hunt him down.

A bourgeois office drone whose raison d'être is the music of French rocker Johnny Hallyday awakens one day in an alternate universe where the famed musician never recorded a single song. When he’s not at the office dutifully plugging-away, Fabrice lives a deadly dull life.

The adventures of an upper-class suburban family abruptly confronted with the younger brother's discovery of his homosexuality, the elder sister's suicide attempt and sadomasochist tendencies, and the intrusion of a very free-spirited maid and her husband. And it all started with the arrival in the family of an innocent looking rat.

Robert, a fan of three French actresses is a bald-headed, potbellied man on the fifties, but fully devotes himself to them, and sometimes works for them without being recognized. But those star actresses find him a simple stalker fan and make fun of him, but later recognize he is sincere and genuine.

After working with the bank for a long time, Julien decides to open a restaurant with his best friend. Unfortunately, when the bank refuses to grant him a loan, he comes up with a plan.

French director Isabelle Doval directs her husband, popular comedic actor José Garcia, in the comedy Rire et Chatiment (Laughter and Punishment). Vincent (Garcia) is a popular physician whose aggressive need to be funny and get people's attention annoys his girlfriend, Camille (Doval), to the point that she leaves him. He begins to suspect she might have been onto something when his behavior begins causing people to die.

Down-on-his-luck, unemployed Alexandre has two months to prove to his wife he can take care of his two young kids and be financially independent. Now, the thing is, although The Box, a user-friendly startup, wants to hire him on pro- bation, the company’s slogan is “No kids!” and Séverine, his future boss, is a short-tempered “killer”. So if Alexandre wants to land the job, he’s bound to lie... Will his meeting with Arcimboldo, an “entrepreneur of himself” and the king of online odd jobs, help the brave, disoriented Alexandre overcome all those challenges?

Housemaid Georgette loves to gossip and this causes major trouble to people around her.

Louis is a super nice guy. But in his lawyer's office, this is not a compliment. When his doctor wrongly diagnoses a serious disease, his colleagues behaviour changes : they care about him, they ask him questions and they listen his answers. Finally, Louis exists ! So, obviously, he hesitates over telling the truth.

With "little captain" Cambrai raising serious doubts about the reality of the so-called "super spy," Colonel Toulouse kidnaps Christine and forces Francois to play again the character of "The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe" in some fake adventures. All this to stop the investigation into the death of Colonel Milan.

La vie n’est pas rose tous les jours pour Solweig, caissière dans un supermarché. Mais elle garde le sourire, malgré les remarques souvent déplaisantes des clients et un chef teigneux. Peut-être grâce au blog qu’elle tient en secret, où elle s’épanche avec humour sur son quotidien difficile… Un soir, sous la neige, son destin croise celui de Charles. Le jeune homme tombe aussitôt amoureux d’elle, sans se douter qu’ils ne sont pas du même monde. Mais si un simple blog peut changer le sort de milliers de caissières, n’est-il pas permis de croire aux contes de fées ?

Jerome, 35, is a yacht salesman in Nice. But if you listen to him, in his spare time Jerome is also an astronaut, a karate world champion and a close friend of Miss Universe. As a matter of fact Jerome is a compulsive liar: he lies to everyone about everything! No one believes him, but that doesn’t prevent him from accumulating more lies. But one day Jerome wakes up to find out that all his lies have come true... and it’s just the beginning of the troubles ...!

Marcia, a classy young Parisian singer, is recording an album with her idol Daredjane, a '70s rock icon. When Daredjane dies accidentally, Marcia needs to get approval from Daredjane's rights-holder, Anthony, a suburban market vendor in his thirties, to release their album. But Anthony never liked his distant relative, let alone her music. Their two worlds clash between good and bad taste, sophistication and rudeness, sincerity and lies. Unless love gets in the way...

Lea and her husband Marc have known Francis and his wife Karine for a very long time. Over the years, each one of them has been assigned a specific role. The balance and dynamic of the group is blown up when Lea decides to write a novel, which turns into an immediate bestseller…

In a small French village, everything would be quiet if the local wildlife cop was not being ridiculed by a smart poacher.

A pathetic police chief, humiliated by everyone around him, suddenly wants a clean slate in life, and resorts to drastic means to achieve it.

A detective, fresh out of the academy (lowest mark in class), gets the assignment to bodyguard a spoiled rich girl reporter. She's been interviewed on TV and has questioned the virility of a mobster who kidnaps her later.

Gerard is tired of being taken for a good apple by his beautiful family. He leaves everything and starts a garage in a village nestled at the bottom of the Gâtinais ... In front of the garage, there is a lovely inn, run by Barbara: a beautiful woman, disconcerting, mysterious, unpredictable. Their encounter will spark ...

Léonard Monestier owns a large fortune, alas his wife Cynthia made a bad investment in a worthless oil concession. Far from letting this get him down, Léonard decides to find a sucker to buy this concession from him. Right on cue appears Antoine Brévin, a befuddled billionaire who is very interested in Léonard's beautiful daughter Patricia and would do anything to win her hand...

On the eve of a vote to greenlight the construction of a leisure centre where a primal forest currently stands, an unashamedly right-wing mayor sets out to trap his ecologist opponent. But both will end up being outwitted by a group of feminist activists who will confront the two men with their own contradictions, once and for all.

Diagnosed «crap with girls» by his friends, Anis’ love life has barely a pulse. Three years after the loss of Isma, his best friend and mentor, Anis takes his courage in both hands and decides finally to get out and meet people again. And the person he meets is Madeleine. Thinking she’s way out of his league, Anis gets tangled in a web of silly lies trying to impress her. But something huge is about to start. An unexpected thing. A thing called love.

François Gautier is stingy! Saving puts the joy, it causes pay sweats. His life is set for the sole purpose of never spend anything. A life that will switch in one day: he falls in love and discovers he has a daughter he did not know existed. Forced to lie in order to hide his terrible default, this will be the beginning for François problems. Because lie can sometimes be expensive. Very expensive…

Sophie is far from being the model little girl one would like her to be, unlike her friends Camille and Madeleine. She always insists on having her own way, often getting into trouble, to the despair of one and all. But her mother is unbending and otherwise inclined. She will not let her get away with anything, and poor Sophie will often have to live with the consequences of her bad behaviour and learn her lesson.

Ariane Felder is pregnant! This is surprising with her being a young hardened judge with strict morals. But what is more surprising is that, according to paternity testing, the child's father is none other than Bob, a criminal from the prosecution charged with an atrocious attack! Ariane doesn't remember any of what has happened, so she has no idea what to expect...

Stéphane, Cathy and Thierry are the best employees of the Employment Agency of their city. But their results are so good that the agency will have to close because of a lack of unemployed. The three colleagues then have the crazy idea of creating unemployment to save their job.

Internet humor star Thomas the Lama gets out of hand in a video. He becomes the target of all haters and his life falls apart. To win back his girlfriend and his audience, he decides to go meet his 10 biggest detractors to see if they can say, face to face, what they write on his page - Each meeting promises to be epic.

A successful psychoanalyst's life is turned upside down by a very anxious and extremely clingy patient who starts dating his daughter.

Unlucky in love, Alfred tries to commit suicide, only to be thwarted by police efforts to prevent a simultaneous attempt by a nearby young woman. Recovering, the young lady puts him up at her house, as he has run out of places to live. He joins a Parisian sporting team and seems to have transferred his bad luck to a corrupt television boss who is attempting to manipulate the game so that Alfred's Paris team loses.

Agathe Clery, a marketing manager for a cosmetics company, is snobbish, stubborn and racist. When she is diagnosed with Addison Syndrome, an disorder that darkens the pigmentation of one's skin, she suddenly finds herself resembling a black woman.

Pierre Gastié-Leroy is the son of a wealthy director of a factory of weapon manufacturing. Despite his parents, two generous uncles and a bishop godfather who try to inculcate him the rigid values of his social level, Pierre is a dreamer, antimilitaristic, social educator who dreams of saving three thugs, his "little guys" at the limit of delinquency. After several resounding failures that sent him to prison, Pierre is ordered by his father to join his factory to direct the social service. Tired of the venality of his father and the foolishness of the "little guys", Pierre hires them at the factory...

Alphonse Tram is unwittingly involved in several murders despite having no memory of committing the crimes. His confusion lead him to confess to his neighbour, Inspector Morvandieu. Alphonse and Morvandieu become the axis around which murders occur.

The members of an apparently happy couple, each with their respective lovers, have the same idea: spending the weekend at their holiday home. Finding each other there is only the beginning of an awkward and hilarious weekend.

A group of bad cops look to dispose of a body that one of them accidentally shot.

Clement, a young philosophy teacher, is sent to Arras for a year. He meets Jennifer, a pretty hair stylist, and the two freely share their hearts and bodies as they try to overcome the cultural and social divide between them.

Guillaume Canet is told by a young co-star that he's no longer Rock'n' Roll and can't sell films anymore. He then tries to prove her wrong and gets help from his girlfriend, Marion Cotillard.

Paris, France, 2001. Octave Parango, a young advertiser working at the Ross & Witchcraft advertising agency, lives a suicidal existence, ruled by cynicism, irresponsibility and debauchery. The obstacles he will encounter in developing a campaign for a new yogurt brand will force him to face the meaning of his work and the way he manages his relationship with those who orbit around his egotistic lifestyle.

Two years have passed. After missing their separation, the Leroy seem perfectly successful in their divorce. But the appearance of two new lovers in the life of Vincent and Florence will set fire to the powders. The match between the former spouses resumes.

When the little haberdasher Arras discovers she's won 18 million in the lottery and can now afford anything she wants, she has only one fear: losing the small joys of life made simple it cherishes above all. But fate is obstinate, and this is giving too long this good fortune will trigger it, despite herself, a hurricane that will change everything. Everything except her.

Jobless loner Eddie Vuibert gets a lucky break when a rich Jewish entrepreneur mistakes him for a Jew and gives him a sweet job in the Parisian fashion district.

Beatrice celebrates with her family the release of her book: she tells about the accident of her husband Frederic. He became blind and without filter - always so funny and seductive, he is totally unpredictable. But this book, hymn-to-life, will turn into a joyful fist because if Beatrice changed the names, each of his friends seeks to find his character. The book awakens secret jealousies, while the group of friends and family pitch.

A hapless orchestra player becomes an unwitting pawn of rival factions within the French secret service after he is chosen as a decoy by being identified as a super secret agent.

After five years enduring horrible work conditions, Sophia finally gets chosen for a long-awaited transfer from her thankless teaching job at a rough middle school. Ecstatic to start a new life teaching at the French Lycée in Barcelona, her hopes are dashed to bits when a well- connected, over-qualified teacher at an upscale Paris school cuts in to take the position. Determined to stand her ground, Sophia and her clever neighbour Mr. Picard join forces to sabotage her competitor’s candidacy.

In a small town lost in the middle of nowhere, Edmond Zweck's funeral business is on the wing. The company now has only two employees: Georges, Zweck's right-hand man, and Eddy, a young man still a novice in the trade. One fine morning, however, a dead man pointed his nose. Hope is born again. Georges and Eddy are responsible for leading the deceased to his last abode. But in search of the cemetery that can not be found, the funeral convoy goes astray and the journey turns into a fiasco.

An average guy meets an actress who is more beautiful than he could ever imagine. But then a pesky girl materializes to make his life a living hell. His perfect girlfriend now thinks that he is involved with this Caprice.

Grégoire Lecomte, the unlucky actor anxious to find a "real job", goes to take a screen test for a role of a killer, but gets to mafiosi by mistake. He takes their don for a producer, and they mistake him for a hitman with whom they had an appointment. Deluded Lecomte signs contract with them. He is supposed to kill gun dealer Otto Krampe at his birthday party in Saint-Tropez by piercing him with a cap of the umbrella with a built-in syringe with potassium cyanide. Lecomte is not aware that it has to be a real murder.

An ageing punk-with-a-dog and his brother the conformist decide to get their revenge on a shopping mall. Directing duo Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern, longstanding comic crusaders against capitalism, again set out to surprise and shock the bourgeois audience.

Amelle and Noom are two young thirties are total opposites and that fate will bring. Serious She manager at Starbucks, and dynamic IT dilettante, smart, and apprentice comic. Both victims disappointments in love, they swore that it does take longer. So how do when despite all these opposites attract? A game of seduction then sets up for our greatest happiness. But all is not so rosy, families, friends, colleagues get involved, wars are declared, quarrels explode. Caught between the roots of their education and the fire of their feelings, which side will they choose? The love he will triumph? One thing is sure, they will make us have a good loads of fun and excitement ...

A middle-aged woman leaves her partner and drifts back to her ex-husband, while the lives of her middle class friends intersect with her own.

A man spreads the rumor of his fake homosexuality with the aid of his neighbor, to prevent his imminent firing at his work.

A clique of four young teachers at a high school looks critically at their colleagues. To avoid falling in the same routine, they bring new ideas into the school lessons and play little games and pranks in their spare time -- sometimes get even more childish than their pupils. When they get opposition from the other teachers, they play tricks to get rid of them.

When the boss' unlucky daughter is missing in South America, Campana is sent to watch the boss' most unlucky employee who is sent as a private detective in hopes he can duplicate the daughter's mistakes.

Hélène leads a sad life as editor of cheesy romance novels. But one day, when the old and delightfully eccentric American Mrs. Mills moves into the apartment next door, there is a sudden return to her everyday life. The two unequal women make friends in a hurry and Mrs. Mills is finally even the new face for Hélènes publishing - and that brings great success. But actually the old lady pursues a completely different plan. And is she even a lady?

A divorced teacher suddenly becomes jealous of everyone, including her daughter, friends and neighbors.

Antonio, an honest citizen, seeks his revenge against Simone, a dishonest politician. Antonio initially wanted to report him but then, knowing Italy, a country in which the justice process is very long and uncertain, he decides to take revenge in another way: he discovers that his enemy has hidden the proceeds of his misdeeds in a Swiss bank and decides to organize a hit to get back what was stolen from him. To accomplish the feat, Antonio sets up a small gang, made up of non-professionals who have only one thing in common: they too have been defrauded by corrupt politics. The heist takes place in Zurich where the bank in which Simone hid the money is based. With a series of unpredictable consequences, and with a funny substitution of people (Antonio and his wife pretend to be Simone and his partner), a comic clockwork mechanism starts. And the heist begins.

Don Sallust is the minister of the King of Spain. Being disingenuous, hypocritical, greedy and collecting the taxes for himself, he is hated by the people he oppresses. Accused by The Queen, a beautiful princess Bavarian, of having an illegitimate child to one of her maids of honor, he was stripped of his duties and ordered to retire to a monastery.

After learning of her husband's infidelities, a housewife invites an itinerant lesbian to move in with them. None of their lives will ever be the same again.

"Smoking" and "No Smoking" are two segments of the film which are based on closely connected plays. The original plays covered eight separate stories, which have been pared down to three each for these movies. At a certain point in the story of each segment, the five female characters (all played by Sabine Azema) and the four male characters (all played by Pierre Arditi) have their lives skillfully recapped in terms of "what might have happened" if they had made or failed to make certain choices. For example, "No Smoking" focuses chiefly on the relationship between the mild-mannered Miles Coombes and his infinitely more aggressive and ambitious wife, Rowena.

A man tries to make his wife fall in love with him again, after waking up in an alternate reality where she never knew him.

Marcel, a simple-minded factory worker, is tricked into buying a high-priced American convertable car by a widow determined not to let it fall into the hands of her late husband's secretary/secret lover. Once in pocession of the car, Marcel only encounters one bad luck episode after another with the excessive gasoline consumtion, his wife trying to sell it to make ammends meet, getting into traffic jams, accidently riding into a car wash with the top down, and more.

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.

For Pierre Brochant and his friends, Wednesday is “Idiots' Day”. The idea is simple: each person has to bring along an idiot. The one who brings the most spectacular idiot wins the prize. Tonight, Brochant is ecstatic. He has found a gem. The ultimate idiot, “A world champion idiot!”. What Brochant doesn’t know is that Pignon is a real jinx, a past master in the art of bringing on catastrophes...

Louis just found the corpse of a man in front of his apartment building. Taken in for custody by Captain Buron, he finds himself on the wrong end of a surreal interrogation. But how can you prove you are innocent when the cops are crazy?

Dominique Pinon takes the viewer through various examples of what he "likes and dislikes."

Les Acteurs is the absurd story of Jean-Pierre Marielle desperately waiting for a cup of hot water, the story of a conspiracy against actors, the story of aging actors whose careers are slowly less active than they used to be, but a stunning tribute to French actors and their cinema.

A forged 500-franc note is passed from person to person and shop to shop, until it falls into the hands of a genuine innocent who doesn't see it for what it is—which will have devastating consequences on his life.

Two couples, Pierre and Aimée, Éric and Pénélope, all share four years of friendship without cloud. Only concern, Penelope and Pierre have become lovers ... The situation becoming untenable, they decide to break. But after a final night of passionate love, fate plays a trick on them: Peter and Penelope each wake up in the body of the other! To protect their secrecy, they each find themselves having to live the life of the other. This is the beginning of the complications ...

Two neurotics, working for a suicide hotline on the night of Christmas Eve, get caught up in a catastrophe when a pregnant woman, her abusive boyfriend, and a transvestite visit their office.

Husband does not understand his wife? Conflict with children? Do you want to be heard and stood in your place? Be afraid of your desires. In this family, everything changed places, including grandmother.

Lucien de Rubempré, a young, lower-class poet, leaves his family's printing house for Paris. Soon, he learns the dark side of the arts business as he tries to stay true to his dreams.

When Spirou, supposedly a groom in a Palace, meets Fantasio, reporter scupper, everything starts very hard … and rather badly!

The story of Aleksandra and Cyrille, a prominent, trendy, and very well-off Parisian couple, whose life is not quite the same after seven-year-old Alekseï from Russia suddenly pops up in their 100% cashmere, childless home. Aleksandra soon realises that this little boy they have adopted is not quite what she had been hoping for...

Corrupt and sleazy entrepreneur Cetto La Qualunque comes back to Italy and "jumps into politics" lest his law-abiding opponent, Giovanni De Santis, is elected as mayor.

Ralf Milan, a hitman, arrives in Montpellier to kill an important witness. He checks in a hotel without knowing that his neighbour has become neurotic after his wife left him.

Thirty-year-old Ben is about to marry Juliette. His quiet, ordered life will fall to pieces when he meets up again with the person he secretly wants to see the most: Vanessa, the high school bombshell who never so much as looked in his direction. She's back in Paris, and the only person she now knows is him…

Sebastien Nicolas is a reclusive realtor leading a double life – in his spare time he creates complex disguises based on acquaintances. Combined with minutely studied and rehearsed impersonations, Sebastien can disappear completely into other people's lives. Things spiral out of control after he impersonates the wrong man.

To spice up a dinner party, old friends agree to share every private message that pops up on their phones -- with disastrous results.

A closeted gay man's attempt to "act straight" for the sake of his job has unexpected consequences.

Vincent Machot knows his life by heart. He shares it between his hair dressing salon, his cousin, his cat, and his too-invasive mother. But life sometimes holds surprises, even for the most prudent of people... He crosses paths with Rosalie Blum by accident. She is a mysterious and solitary woman whom he is sure he has already met. But where? Intrigued, he decides to follow her everywhere, in the hope of knowing more about her.

Set in France at the end of World War II Albert Dehousse finds out his father wasn't a war hero and his mother is a collaborator.

A heartbroken literary critic turns his despair into creativity following a bitter divorce, only to encounter an enchanting beauty who poses a major challenge to his newfound cynicism. Marc Marronnier thought his marriage was going well until his wife deemed him immature, and left him for a high-profile writer. Devastated, he began filtering all of his heartache into a misanthropic manuscript decrying the virtues of true love. But later, when Marc falls hard for his cousin's radiant and gorgeous wife, his entire life is turned upside down. Louise Bourgoin and Gaspard Proust star in a film by actor and author-turned-director Frederic Beigbeder.

A struggling actor, Stéphane arrives with his troupe at the Avignon Festival to perform a boulevard play. There, he meets Fanny, a renowned actress, and falls under her spell. Taking advantage of a misunderstanding to get closer to her, Stéphane sinks into a lie that he will have to keep going for the duration of the festival... but which will quickly overwhelm him!

At 33 years old, and after numerous failed attempt to make it as a musician, Chris still lives with his mother. One day he crosses paths with a young missionary in need of a guitarist for his new religious band, he recruits Chris and disguises him as Father Christophe.

Jocelyn is a selfish and misogynist businessman. He tries to seduce a young pretty woman by pretending to be handicapped, till the day he meets her sister, who is also in a wheelchair.

38-year-old Alice has everything to become the next editor-in-chief of Rebelle magazine except for her uptight image. But when the young and charming Balthazar, barely 20, crosses Alice's path, she realizes that he holds the key to her promotion.

Alexandre Taillard de Vorms is a force to be reckoned with. With his silver mane and tanned, athletic body, he stalks the world stage as Minister of Foreign Affairs for France, waging his own war backed up by the holy trinity of diplomatic concepts: legitimacy, lucidity, and efficacy. Enter Arthur Vlaminck. Hired to write the minister's speeches, Arthur must contend with the sensibilities of his boss and the dirty dealings within the Quai d'Orsay, the ministry's home.