Bernard Dartigues

The filming of Mnouchkine's "Molière" comes to an end and the entire troupe of the Soleil learns that the film has been selected for the Cannes Festival. Ferdinand, a neophyte star, is going to come up against the festival's fauna and, finally, free himself from Ariane's grip and take his freedom as an adult actor.

Ferdinand Faure, our hero, comes up from Aix-en-Provence to join the Cartoucherie Theatre company along with his pals : Jean-Claude, a brash, self-assured Parisian, and Max, a teacher of American literature, Provencal to the bone, and in love with his flighty wife, Bernadette. At the Cartoucherie, director Ariane is surrounded by a motley crew including one Clémence, who walks the high wire while juggling with clubs.

On a beautiful summer afternoon, in a large apartment, a charming young couple methodically prepares for their departure and a very strange move.

Portraits of single farmers and farming families whose children have left to work in the city.

After "Les Enfants du Soleil" in which ferdinand Faure, a young actor from Aix-en-Provence arrived in Paris and received his sentimental education at the hands of Clémence, our hero now tackles the terrible hardships of stage training. Indeed, poor ferdinand finds himself up against Ariane, Ariane the Great of the Cartoucherie Theatre. The actors all do improvisations in Commedia dell'arte masks. Between the distress of Bruno who can't manage to "get into" the troupe and the insistence of Ariane who urges all the masked actors to step beyond their private defences, something crazy, funny and desperate emerges : the Golden Age !

We are in the aftermath of 1968, when terrible angers erupt, those of Ariadne against the comedians who do not find their characters and the rebellion of the comedians who can no longer stand Ariadne's demands. These days of anger are those during which, in extremis, the show is made and finally played.