La Grande Bouffe

Four friends arrive at Philippe's villa to reconnect during a weekend of excess. They are greeted by the old caretaker Hector, who has prepared everything for a grand feast, and a Chinese visitor whose offer Philippe sharply rejects with a Virgil quote. The scene establishes the decadent mood and the plan to eat themselves to death.

Ugo and Marcello lead the opening round as they race to see who can eat oysters faster, setting the tone of competitive gluttony. The friends discuss inviting a feminine presence to spice up the gathering, and they decide to invite three prostitutes the next evening. The atmosphere becomes increasingly charged as the feast continues.

Having glimpsed the pleasures to come, they decide to invite three prostitutes to the house the following evening, excluding Philippe who resists participation. The plan sharpens the undercurrent of transgressive indulgence that will permeate the weekend. The men prepare for a night of uninhibited excess.

During breakfast the next day, a school class arrives, drawn by the villa's famed Boileau linden tree and the old Bugatti in the garage. The four invite the class to tour the garden and kitchen, and Andrea, a young teacher, joins their plans for dinner. Philippe warns Andrea about the company, but she remains unfazed and intrigued.

That evening, the prostitutes arrive and the party becomes frivolous and sexually charged, with the men howling in unrestrained joy. Andrea embraces the lively atmosphere and even engages with Philippe, who awkwardly contemplates marrying her. The orange glow of the feast signals a descent into uncontainable appetite.

Michel, raised to meticulous propriety, battles a rising indigestion as the others urge him to release his wind. The room fills with laughter and crude humor as the feast pushes past social boundaries. The physical discomfort foreshadows the wreckage to come.

At dawn the prostitutes flee, leaving Andrea behind to join the others in their perverse convergence. She cements a tacit agreement to stay and participate in the binge, aligning herself with the doomed plan. The four continue to revel in spite of their fading humanity.

Andrea becomes an active participant, sharing intimate moments with each man and remaining at the center of the group's delirium. Her presence turns the event into a perverse alliance where sex and gluttony reinforce their self-destruction. The crew's appetite intensifies as night deepens.

Marcello dies after an outburst about impotence; he goes to the toilet, the pipes explode, and he attempts to flee in the repaired Bugatti during a snowstorm. He is found the next morning frozen in the car, and his body is placed in the cold room for preservation.

Michel, overwhelmed by indigestion and being crammed with food, experiences a final bout of flatulence while playing the piano and collapses on the terrace. His body is moved to the cold room beside Marcello to join the other victims.

Backyard dogs cause a stir as Ugo unveils a colossal three-liver pâté shaped like the Dome of Les Invalides and serves it to Philippe and Andrea in the kitchen. They cannot bring themselves to eat, while Ugo presses on, intensifying the ritual. Andrea and Philippe watch as the feast takes on a macabre edge.

The binge reaches its grotesque apex as Andrea helps push the group toward the end. Ugo is fed on the kitchen table while Philippe participates, and they finally die together as the act is completed with explicit sexual escalation. His body is left in place in his domain on the kitchen table.

The last to die is Philippe, dying on the lime-tree bench of Boileau while Andrea holds him and a dog sits nearby. A delivery of meat arrives; Andrea instructs the delivery men to leave whole animals and sides of pork and beef in the garden, sealing the grotesque ritual. The garden becomes a site of silence as the living collapse into the feast.

With all four dead, the garden fills with dogs that begin to feast on the carcasses and scraps, finishing the weekend's deadly circle of appetite. The villa becomes a tomb of gluttony as the last echoes of laughter fade away. The final image is a grotesque tableau of animals feasting where the friends once gathered.