Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial) (March 1, 40 AD – between 102 and 104 AD), was a Latin poet from Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula) best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan. In these short, witty poems he cheerfully satirises city life and the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticises his provincial upbringing. He wrote a total of 1,561, of which 1,235 are in elegiac couplets. He is considered to be the creator of the modern epigram.
Knowledge of his origins and early life are derived almost entirely from his works, which can be more or less dated according to the well-known events to which they refer. In Book X of his Epigrams, composed between 95 and 98, he mentions celebrating his fifty-seventh birthday; hence he was born on March 1 (x. 24) 38, 39, 40 or 41 AD, under Caligula or Claudius. His place of birth was Augusta Bilbilis (now Calatayud) in Hispania Tarraconensis. His parents, Fronto and Flaccilla, appear to have died in his youth.
Plot
Sree Nath falls in love with a poor woman and both get intimate, resulting in her getting pregnant. When the time comes for Sree to marry her, he renounces her and instead marries the daughter of wealthy Mr. Saxena. She gives birth to a boy, Vikram, and shortly thereafter passes away. Sree's step-brothers, Badri and Kedar, move in with Sree, and soon his health starts to deteriorate. They hire a nurse to look after him, but he keeps on getting worse. Then he gets more bad news when the police inform him that Vikram has killed an orphanage manager and is on the run from the police. Then a policeman is killed and CBI Inspector Tirandaz is assigned to track Vikram and he does arrest Vikram, who denies ever killing anyone. Then finally a clue emerges - the killer is wearing a false eye. The doctor who has performed this surgery is Dr. Philips, but he too is killed before Tirandaz can get to him, and the person who was with the doctor is none other than Vikram himself. The question remains: Is Vikram telling the truth? If yes, who is the real killer, and what exactly was his/her motive in framing Vikram?
Keywords: blackmail, conspiracy, fake-identity, interview, murder, police-officer-killed
Plot
Marc Lacroix is a psychiatrist, a student of the brain, with a rocky marriage, a mistress, and a ten-year-old son. He also has a secret laboratory where he's built a machine he thinks will allow him to penetrate the mind of any person hooked up to the machine with him. He tests it with Zyto, a psychopath who has killed three women. The machine fails and exchanges the men's brains. Zyto passes himself off as Marc, and Marc (now in Zyto's body) escapes from the asylum to the flat of his mistress. She tries to warn Marc's wife, exposing herself to Zyto. All are now in grave danger. Can Lacroix find a way to get Zyto back to the machine before irreversible damage is done?
Keywords: based-on-novel
A doctor's obsession... A killer's madness... The machine that made them one.
Plot
Simon is a police officer at the Crime Repression Brigade. His boss, Pierre Tramoni, was his colleague for a long time before he became director of the Brigade. Tramoni is brilliant. He wants to move up fast and he's making it. Simon, for his part, likes the street, its odors, its mysteries. He's a hunter. For a few months, Simon and his men have been following a dangerous gang of young hoods; the Dijan brothers. Their goal: to catch them red-handed. In conducting his investigation, Simon discovers strange links between Tramoni and the gangsters he is after. The relationship between Simon and Tramoni takes another turn as Simon carefully prepares a ploy to uncover his boss' covert actions.
Keywords: gang, police-officer
A friendship which turns into outright conflict.
Plot
In a rural French village an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers, so are dismayed to hear the man who has inherited it is moving in. They block up the spring and watch as their new neighbour tries to keep his crops watered from wells far afield through the hot summer. Though they see his desperate efforts are breaking his health and his wife and daughter's hearts they think only of getting the water.
Keywords: 1920s, agronomy, anisette, avarice, based-on-novel, bocce, carnation, character-name-in-title, coffin, con-trick
Cesar Soubeyran: Now let's talk about other things. I'm going to write to Scratcher.::Ugolin: Who's she?::Cesar Soubeyran: You don't know her because she left here before you were born. She had the body of an angel. They called her Scratcher because when the boys tried to kiss her she scratched their faces. She used to sharpen her nails especially. But because of this she ended up a spinster and when her parents died she went to work for the priest at Mimet. About 4 or 5 years ago the pope moved him to Crespin and she should still be with him.::Ugolin: So long as she didn't scratch him.::Cesar Soubeyran: Oh, at her age you don't scratch people, and because she was a friend of Florette she must still visit her. I'm going to write immediately.::Ugolin: And if she's dead?::Cesar Soubeyran: Not everyone my age is dead.
Cesar Soubeyran: A farmer may become a hunchback but it's rare for a hunchback to become a farmer.
Casimir: I suppose you are going to be charitable and buy the farm?::Ugolin: That depends, what do you think it is worth?::Casimir: Not much, certainly not the life of a man.
Cesar Soubeyran: What kind of man is he?::Ugolin: He's a typical city-hunchback type.
Cesar Soubeyran: If you start to strangle a cat, finish it off.
Cesar Soubeyran: I know all about springs. They're like pretty girls - ignore them and they're gone.
Cesar Soubeyran: A farmer may grow a hump, but a hunchback rarely becomes a farmer.
Cesar Soubeyran: Remember, it's much easier to push something downhill than uphill, so push him in the direction where he'll fall.
Ugolin: It's not me that's crying. It's my eyes.
[first lines]::[dialog in French, lines from English subtitles]::Ugolin: Papet! Papet! It's me, Ugolin!
Plot
In this, the sequel to Jean de Florette, Manon (Beart) has grown into a beautiful young shepherdess living in the idyllic Provencal countryside. She determines to take revenge upon the men responsible for the death of her father in the first film.
Keywords: based-on-novel, carnation, cave, countryside-of-provence, drought, duology, engineer, family-pride, family-relationships, farm
Cesar Soubeyran: He's such a bigot he might confess other people's sins.
[first lines]::[dialog in French, lines from English subtitles]::Le Fleuriste: Voila! [pause] Next time I won't pay this much. The competition from Italy is ruining me.::Cesar Soubeyran: This barely pays for the fertilizer for the flowers. Next year we'll grow chickpeas.::Le Fleuriste: I'll miss our aperitifs together.
[last lines]::[dialog in French, lines from English subtitles]::Cesar Soubeyran: [voiceover] Dear little Manon, the notary will tell you that I'm leaving you my whole estate. It may surprise you, but it's the truth. The lawyer will give you all the documents because your father was my son. He was the Soubeyran I'd hoped for all my life, whom I tormented to death because I didn't know who he was. If I had told him about the spring, he'd still be playing his harmonica, and you'd all be living in our family home. No one knows it, but I'm too ashamed to face anyone, even the trees. In the village, there's a person who knows. She will tell you everything. It's Delphine, the old blind woman. She'll explain that it's all because of Africa. I don't deserve to kiss you, and I never dared speak to you, but maybe now you can forgive me and even say a little prayer for poor Ugolin and me. I'm so pathetic, I even pity myself. Out of sheer spite, I never went near him. I never knew his voice or his face. I never saw his eyes, which might have been like his mother's. I only saw his hump and the pain I caused him. Now you understand why I want to die, because next to my torments, even hell would be a pleasure. Besides, I'll see him up there. I'm not afraid of him. Now he knows he's a Soubeyran. He's no longer a hunchback because of me. He knows it was all a foolish mistake. I'm sure that instead of blaming me, he'll defend me. Farewell, my darling girl. Your grandfather, César Soubeyran.
Cesar Soubeyran: Do you know who she looks like?::Ugolin: Nobody!::Cesar Soubeyran: Yes, she does. She looks like someone you never knew. She's the splitting image of her grandmother.::Ugolin: Did you know her?::Cesar Soubeyran: Florette de Camoins. A great beauty.
Ugolin: [to Manon] Manon, don't run away! It's not to give you work. I was lying to you! It's because I love you, Manon. I love you with all my heart! Manon! I want to marry you! I'm all alone! I've got no-one! My grandparents are dead. My father hanged himself when I was little. My mother died of the flu. There's only Uncle Papet! He's rich, he's old. He's going to die. He's going to leave me all his money. It'll be yours, because I love you. I love you! I am sick for the love of you. It's suffocating me! I saw you bathing in the rainwater. I watched for hours. You were so lovely. I was tempted to commit a crime.
Ugolin: Papet, my spring has dried up!::Cesar Soubeyran: What?::Ugolin: No water.::Cesar Soubeyran: None at all?::Ugolin: No. I dug a deep hole. Not a drop. My carnations are budding.
Man #1: There must be a frog blocking the pipe.::Man #2: We're stuck, like Ugolin.::Man #3: Impossible! It's flowed for fifty years.
Ugolin: [to Manon] You know that. I told you so in the hills. I love you unbearably. Listen... please listen, Manon. Ever since I saw you, ever since I spoke to you, food has been turning to sawdust in my mouth, sleep has been a torment. If you reject me, I will die or go mad.::Cesar Soubeyran: Shut up, you fool. Shut up. Let's go.
Cesar Soubeyran: [to the villages] Come on, you men! You're natives like me: tell him there was no spring! Listen: anyone who knew was one, and didn't tell the hunchback is responsible for his death.
Cesar Soubeyran: Destiny doesn't exist. Only good-for-nothings talk about destiny.