Some people seem really sure of themselves, or full of good intentions, or even radiate joy of life. But you have to see behind the mask, see the pain and suffering, know if it is necessary to help these people and not let yourself be perverted by bad decisions or destructive desires.
Professor Henri Laborit uses three people's stories to discuss behaviourist theories of survival, combat, rewards and punishment, and anxiety: René is a technical manager at a textile factory and must face the anxiety caused by corporate downsizing; Janine is a self-educated actress/stylist who learns that the wife of her lover is dying and must decide to let them reunite; and Jean is a controversial career-climbing writer/politician at a crossroads in life.
In the 1980s, Anna, a Czech sprinter, starts training for the Olympics. After she collapses during training, she learns she is being given steroids and decides to stop using them until her mother helps the coaches give them to her.
A restaurant owner going over the edge when an armed robbery is attempted at his establishment. He holds everyone captive at gunpoint – criminals and customers alike – and situations corrode into a nightmare state, guided by manipulation and raw compulsion.
A female forensic psychiatrist discovers that all of one of her patient's multiple personalities are murder victims. She will have to find out what's happening before her time is finished.
Supermarket Sweep
A young boy experiences a home invasion and tries to survive, but wakes up to realise he is a psychotic monster causing real-life terror.
A psychologist takes on the daunting task of getting into the mind of prisoners. He must gain the trust and cooperation from a group of men who have no reason to help him and who might enjoy killing him.
18th century justice catches up with a pair of grave robbers. With only a few hours to go before his date with the guillotine, Arthur Blake tells his life story to Father Francis Duffy. Before long, Arthur spills the beans on how he got started in the grim corpse peddling business with seasoned ghoul Willie Grimes.
A young painter battling depression finds solace in her art and alcohol, but her inner thoughts eventually surface, forcing her to confront them. Through this introspection, she undergoes a transformative journey.
Some friends are spending a weekend in a rural house. A remote and apparently quiet place, where nothing is what it seems, not even friendship.
Walter Lee Younger is a young man struggling with his station in life. Sharing a tiny apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother, he seems like an imprisoned man. Until, that is, the family gets an unexpected financial windfall.
An intense and imaginative artist, revered Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh possesses undeniable talent, but he is plagued by mental problems and frustrations with failure. Supported by his brother, Theo, the tormented Van Gogh eventually leaves Holland for France, where he meets volatile fellow painter Paul Gauguin and struggles to find greater inspiration.
Sankara Shastri is a devout and famous classical singer who finds a fan in Tulasi, a prostitute's daughter. She wants to devote herself to his service, but her mother has other plans for her.
The lives of three disparate families are illuminated by a meteor shower on a winter night.
Eusebio José Fernández López Reboredo Bergamín is a teenager in the 1960s whose dream is to be a movie director, but General Francisco Franco prohibited in 1964 all types of art. A coincidental encounter with another artist, named Antonio Mínguez, will change his life.
A prom queen-to-be must break free from her small town’s ominous legacy of prom queens who die after their crowning.
A reclusive telemarketer has only one semblance of a friend: His telecommuter boss. But the telemarketer's social circle seems to improve greatly when a whimsical co-worker enters his life. Only, as he begins to sketch his new friend's portrait, disturbing "voices" from the phone man's past threaten to lead him into a network of destruction.
In 1848, Phineas Gage suffers an unspeakable brain injury when a tamping rod plunges through his skull, causing dramatic shifts in his personality. His physician Dr Harlow watches over his recovery and must choose whether or not to fight for this outcasts place in the local community.
A dangerously unstable man addresses the unseen followers of his video log about his obsession with an old army buddy.