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A French version of a Woody Allen movie—not the funny ones—director and actress Jaoui examines the lives of Paris' effete intelligentsia. Each character, whether the two writers, their wives or a daughter, are all utterly self-absorbed, each within his or her own orbit, the other people in their lives merely tangential to their own existence.
Etienne Cassard is the planet with the strongest gravity, the established author. His overweight daughter, Lolita, hates the way his fame overshadows her life, but that doesn't stop her from using it to get extra attention from her singing coach, Sylvia, who is married to a struggling writer, Pierre, who would greatly benefit from Etienne's acquaintanceship. But Pierre's increasing fame doesn't sit well with Sylvia, as she starts to lose his attention.
By film's end, nothing has truly changed. Lolita finally accepts as authentic the amorous overtures from a boy, but we know the romance is doomed; Etienne reconciles with his young wife but we already see his eye wandering to one of Lolita's fellow singers; and Pierre is on his way to becoming the next Etienne as Sylvia leaves him. C'est le Woody.