“A far-reaching meditation on the relationship between individual and society” (Film Comment), LE JOLI MAI is a portrait of Paris and Parisians shot during May 1962.

It is a film with several thousand actors including a poet, a student, an owl, a housewife, a stockbroker, a competitive dancer, two lovers, General de Gaulle and several cats.

Filmed just after the March ceasefire between France and Algeria, LE JOLI MAI documents Paris during a turning point in French history: the first time since 1939 that France was not involved in any war.