Life Dances On

Recently widowed and living in a mansion by an Italian lake, Christine sifts through her late husband’s papers and a dance card from her youth. She becomes a keen observer of how time has altered the men she once danced with, and she pursues Gerard to reconcile memory with reality. Her introspection is gentle, non-judgmental, yet tinged with melancholy as she confronts the consequences of her memories.

A once-promising lawyer and poet who descends into cynicism, becoming a nightclub owner and, in effect, a mob boss. His path tells of how a brilliant mind can be twisted by power and circumstance. He is a figure whose memories of Christine highlight what time and choices do to idealism.

A relatively fit, well-adjusted bachelor who has secluded himself on a mountain and now devotes himself to his privacy and the town’s ski rescue crew. He embodies a calmer, steadier path that contrasts with other former lovers’ fates.

An optimistic hairdresser with a fondness for card tricks, living a domestic life and repeatedly circling the same dance circuit. His buoyant exterior hints at possible hidden complexities within his personal life.

The doting mother whose son’s life and death haunt Christine’s recollections. She embodies memory’s lingering grip and the trials of denial in the face of loss.

The mistress of Thierry, a figure in the delicate social web surrounding the ball and memory. Her presence underscores the intimate and complicated relationships that threaded Christine’s youth.

A younger participant in the remembered night, whose life reflects the range of outcomes for a dancer’s peers across time.

The optimistic, possibly flamboyant figure associated with the memory of the dance circuit; his life story adds to the mosaic of happiness and hardship after the ball.