Year: 1996
Runtime: 123 mins
Language: French
Director: Raúl Ruiz
Four interwoven vignettes set in Paris showcase uncanny events: a man mysteriously abducted by fairies, a professor reduced to a wandering tramp, a pair of lovers who inherit an eerie chateau, and a final story that weaves together the preceding threads, revealing how each oddity impacts the others.
Get a spoiler-free look at Three Lives and Only One Death (1996) with a clear plot overview that covers the setting, main characters, and story premise—without revealing key twists or the ending. Perfect for deciding if this film is your next watch.
In an atmospheric Paris where the ordinary and the uncanny sit side by side, Pierre Bellemare guides the audience through a series of four loosely connected tales that feel like a ritual of storytelling. The city itself becomes a character—its cafés, staircases, and hidden rooms pulse with a quiet mystery, inviting viewers to question how time, desire, and memory shape identity. The film’s tone blends melancholy wit with a dream‑like surrealism, offering a mosaic of lives that constantly reflect and refract one another.
The first vignette introduces Matteo Strano Marcello Mastroianni and the weary Andre Parisi Féodor Atkine. Their encounter in a modest café quickly spirals into a conversation about an apartment haunted by ethereal beings that seem to consume the very years of a person’s life. This strange premise sets a mood of whimsical danger, hinting at how ordinary choices can lead to extraordinary, almost magical consequences, while an enigmatic Maria Marisa Paredes lingers as a subtle thread linking past and present.
In the second story, Georges Vickers unknown is a professor whose scholarly routine is disrupted by an unseen force that nudges him toward unexpected paths. There he meets Tanya La Corse / Maria Gabri‑Colosso Anna Galiena, a figure who moves effortlessly between worlds of power and vulnerability. Their relationship becomes a delicate dance of perception and performance, suggesting that identity can be as fluid as the roles we inhabit, and that love itself can be both a refuge and a maze.
The final two vignettes focus on Cecile Chiara Mastroianni and Martin Melvil Poupaud, a young couple whose lives are gently buoyed by an inexplicable generosity, and on Luc Allamand unknown, an elderly businessman confronting the blurred boundaries between his remembered past and a surreal present. Both pairs navigate a Paris that feels simultaneously familiar and otherworldly, where gifts, memories, and chance encounters hint at deeper currents beneath the surface. The film remains a hypnotic meditation on how stories intertwine, leaving the audience to wonder where the true narrative ends and the characters’ own myths begin.
Last Updated: October 27, 2025 at 16:40
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Three Lives and Only One Death (1996) Scene-by-Scene Movie Timeline
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