Jean-Noël Picq

A group of friends listen as one man tells them a story about a time when, in a small cafe, he discovered a peephole into the ladies' bathroom and became addicted to looking through it at female genitals. They ask him questions and come to conclusions about sex. This is a filmed, scripted version. Then, the actual person who this happened to relates the same story; this time, however, it is an unscripted documentary, in which the same things occur as in the scripted one.

This standard romantic drama focuses on three different couples who happen to come together in a small hotel in Rome and play out their differences in that setting. The couples are made up of a Parisian woman and her Slavic boyfriend out to spend some quality time together; a Frenchman (Jean-Noel Picq) searching for his sexually awakened teenage mistress; and a woman out to reunite with her Italian lover (Michele Placido). These people manifest different approaches to a romantic partnership that are tested in their brief encounters in Rome.

Aimless young Alexandre juggles his relationships with his girlfriend, Marie, and a casual lover named Veronika. Marie becomes increasingly jealous of Alexandre's fling with Veronika and as the trio continues their unsustainable affair, the emotional stakes get higher, leading to conflict and unhappiness.

Daniel lives with his grandmother and, after a year of high school, goes to live with his mother in the south of France; a harsher environment which rapidly changes his perception of friends, work, and women.

Filmed by Jean Eustache for the television program, Les Enthousiastes, Hieronymous Bosch's Garden of Delights presents a series of unstructured observations, free associations, and interpretations on the third panel of Bosch's well-known oil on wood triptych.