Cannes, the French Riviera. Armand Teillard is happy with life; a busy store downtown, a delightful girlfriend, a magnificent record collection and lunch every day at Sofia and Martial's family restaurant with a perfect sea view. So when Sofia tells Armand that Zapetti, a property developer with mafia connections, is putting the squeeze on her to sell up, he is horrified. Armand is an easy-going guy, but when he gets mad... actually, Armand never gets mad. He leaves that to his twin brother, Maurice, The Whistler. When Maurice rides into town in his Aston Martin and designer suit, Zapetti, his mob and the corrupt local politicians are in trouble. But what if, behind the dyed hair and tinted contact lenses, Maurice and Armand are one and the same guy? Is Cannes big enough for the both of them?
Seaside takes place in a small coastal town on the Bay of Somme. The year-round inhabitants find ways to make their lives work; Paul, a lifeguard in the summer, works at the grocery all winter. His mother, Rose (Ogier) likes to play the slots just about anytime; his girlfriend Marie works in the local factory - the town's biggest business - but watching the summertime vacationers each year just makes her increasingly curious about what else might be out there. From these and several other stories, aided by close, revealing observations, we see a community perched between transition and stasis.
In August 1792, on the eve of the attack on the Tuileries, Catherine Hubscher, a laundress in Paris, met a sergeant and an artillery lieutenant who would become respectively Marshal Lefèvre and Emperor Napoleon I. 1810. Napoleon was about to marry Marie-Louise. Fearing the inconstancies and moral lessons of Marshal Lefebvre, the emperor asked her husband to keep her away from the wedding ceremonies. He is unaware that the hotheaded young woman has received a personal invitation from the Austrian embassy.