After marrying a successful Parisian writer known commonly as Willy, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette is transplanted from her childhood home in rural France to the intellectual and artistic splendor of Paris. Soon after, Willy convinces Colette to ghostwrite for him. She pens a semi-autobiographical novel about a witty and brazen country girl named Claudine, sparking a bestseller and a cultural sensation. After its success, Colette and Willy become the talk of Paris and their adventures inspire additional Claudine novels.
This reconstruction refers to a meeting that allegedly took place on 25 November 1804 at Fontainebleau between Pope Pius VII and Napoleon to discuss the coronation.
Young Terwilliger, an orphan boy in New York City, "adopts" Old Archer, the caretaker of Gramercy Park, after the man is arrested for beating Terwiliger for picking a flower for his dead mother. As Terwilliger grows up, he falls in love with Helen Raymond, a pretty neighborhood girl, but finds a rival for her in Harvey Livermore. When World War I breaks out both boys enlist in the army and are sent to the front lines. Complications ensue.
Dr. Burke Ryan is a successful self-help author and motivational speaker with a secret. While he helps thousands of people cope with tragedy and personal loss, he secretly is unable to overcome the death of his late wife. It's not until Burke meets a fiercely independent florist named Eloise that he is forced to face his past and overcome his demons.
In a Belgian village during the start of World War I, the Lambert family finds themselves thrust into the heart of the conflict in The Last Front. Leonard Lambert, a devoted husband and father, grapples with protecting his family as German forces advance to their village. Amidst the war, a tender love story blossoms between Adrien Lambert, Leonard's son, and Louise Janssen, a local villager.
Vincent Miles, a gunsmith and shooting instructor at the National Police, is an expert in combat shooting who stubbornly refuses to join a field brigade, a choice which his colleagues do not understand. When he meets Milo Cardena, a mysterious and skilled cop, his life changes in such way that he cannot ignore his true nature anymore.
General Candy, who's overseeing an English squad in 1943, is a veteran leader who doesn't have the respect of the men he's training and is considered out-of-touch with what's needed to win the war. But it wasn't always this way. Flashing back to his early career in the Boer War and World War I, we see a dashing young officer whose life has been shaped by three different women, and by a lasting friendship with a German soldier.
A single mother and her embattled son struggle to subsist in a small Mississippi Delta township. An act of violence thrusts them into the world of an emotionally devastated highway store owner, awakening the fury of a bitter and longstanding conflict.
Author Rudyard Kipling and his wife search for their 17-year-old son after he goes missing during WWI.
After a young inventor discovers a powerful new explosive, agents from a German chemical firm induce him to study at a German university. While there, he is repelled by certain aspects of the people, and he leaves for Belgium. When the war begins, the inventor saves a Belgian burgomaster's daughter from Prussian invaders. The inventor and the girl endure horrible suffering because of the war, but they find happiness at its end, while the formerly fighting nations direct their effort towards world peace at the Paris conferences. The assassination of Kurt Eisner of Bavaria occurs at the end.
Singing sailor Hannes, who now entertains the crowd at St. Pauli's Hippodrome after years at sea, promises his dying brother that he will take care of his ex-girlfriend Gisa. Taking Gisa to Hamburg to live with him, Hannes quickly falls in love with her, but soon has to face Gisa's affection for another man, Willem.
When an English cartographer arrives in Wales to tell the residents of the Welsh village of Ffynnon Garw that their 'mountain' is only a hill, the offended community sets out to remedy the situation.
Will Keane, a Manhattan restaurateur, is content with his playboy lifestyle until he meets Charlotte Fielding, a free-spirited young woman. Together the pair pursue a passionate affair that forces them both to reevaluate what they want out of life, even as fate threatens to steal away their future.
In 1415, in the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France.
In 1916, the New Zealand Government secretly shipped 14 of the country's most outspoken conscientious objectors to the Western Front in an attempt to convert, silence, or quite possibly kill them. This is their story.
After a brief and unhappy marriage, Gladys Dale finds work as the companion to Diana Dorset, the daughter of a society matron. Mrs. Dorset also has a spendthrift son, Robert, who makes a number of unwelcome advances to Gladys. However, with the arrival of Edwin Fairfax, Mrs. Dorset's younger brother, Gladys finds a soul mate. But then Fairfax has to report for duty in France (being as World War I is going on) and he leaves.
A writer returns home to his estate after service in World War I. He has developed a very bad case of depression due to a war wound concerning his genitalia. He contemplates suicide, but recovers after becoming interested in his caretaker's 12 year-old war orphan niece, who now lives in the manor.
Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.
Gus Van Sant tells the story of a young African American man named Jamal who confronts his talents while living on the streets of the Bronx. He accidentally runs into an old writer named Forrester who discovers his passion for writing. With help from his new mentor Jamal receives a scholarship to a private school.
Michel takes up pickpocketing on a lark and is arrested soon after. His mother dies shortly after his release, and despite the objections of his only friend, Jacques, and his mother's neighbor Jeanne, Michel teams up with a couple of petty thieves in order to improve his craft. With a police inspector keeping an eye on him, Michel also tries to get a straight job, but the temptation to steal is hard to resist.