Elisabette Hunter is an elderly and brilliant lady who seeks to make the most of the last days of her life. She lives in an elegant house with a housekeeper and two nurses, awaiting the arrival of her children.

Her son, Sir Basil, who is now mature, tries to establish himself as an actor in London, while her daughter, Princess Dorothy, shows some hostility towards her mother.

Both of them are waiting for their mother's inheritance and trying to place her in a nursing home, considering the elderly lady's reckless spending. They will not succeed because the family's elderly lawyer, who has long been in love with the mother, will not allow it.

The reasons for the children's estrangement from a woman who had not been able to love them as they desired will start to surface. She was a woman who certainly did not live in self-denial of family life, a great lover of luxury and worldly pleasures.

Even on her deathbed, she wants to be transformed into a work of art, a lady for whom "life is made up of unforgettable moments amidst routine," even if "lust is difficult to understand and sometimes ends badly."

These phrases foreshadow the complex past of a family and scenes that hint at a threatening future.

"When you have love to give, it is unwanted," Elisabette claims, "and when it is wanted, it is too late."

And if balance is often just a matter of luck, one mistake in life, one single mistake, can be fatal and irreversible.

A beautiful family saga about the vices of nobility swept away by the hurricane of lust...

A sublime Rampling.

14-Jun-2023 by Beatrice