Pardon Mon Affaire 1976

In Paris, four men in their 40s meet regularly to play tennis and socialize: Étienne Dorsay, a senior civil servant, is married to Marthe, with whom he has two teenage daughters; Simon, a hypochondriac doctor, lives with his overbearing Jewish mother; Bouly, a serial womanizer whose wife keeps leaving him; and Daniel, a car salesman, who keeps a secret relationship with another man while also having an affair with a much younger man. Marthe has resumed her studies to obtain a university diploma, and she constantly resists the unwanted advances of 17-year-old Lucien, a close friend of one of her daughters.

In the car park of his office building one morning, Étienne sees a striking young woman walk over a grate, and a sudden gust of air blows her dress up, a moment reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe. He becomes instantly drawn to her and begins to pursue her, despite his loyalty to Marthe. The woman is Charlotte, a photographic model who is amused by his attention and doesn’t discourage him strongly. She invites him to meet in London, where she is working on an assignment. Étienne tells Marthe he has to leave on a business trip, but his plane is diverted to Brussels because of fog.

Back in Paris, Daniel drives Étienne and Charlotte to the apartment of Étienne’s godmother, a woman he adores. There, they discover his wife and daughters gathered for a surprise birthday party for Étienne. Daniel covers for him by pretending that Charlotte is his girlfriend and escorts her home. Later that night, as Étienne leaves with his family, his friends devise a plan to take him to Charlotte’s apartment, where the two of them finally give in to their mutual attraction.

The next morning, Charlotte’s husband calls to say he’s downstairs, having unexpectedly returned from a trip. She quickly asks Étienne to wait on the eighth-floor ledge outside her apartment, assuring him that her husband won’t stay long. They have sex, and Étienne ends up stranded on the ledge above the Champs-Élysées as a crowd gathers below. The fire brigade arrives with a life net, and a television crew films the rescue, watched by his wife, daughters, and friends. Charlotte waves goodbye to Étienne from below as she departs with her husband. Looking out at the crowd for potential conquests, Étienne notices a blonde reporter and, with a wry smile, leaps into the net, declaring > “only at the beginning of [his] ascent.”