Balzac

Contemporary paintings, manuscripts and lithographs are used in this film depicting the life of Balzac, nineteenth century French novelist. Beginning with shots of the workroom in which Balzac wrote many of his novels, the film flashes back to the Napoleonic era during which the writer was born. The film traces his boyhood, his career, the mounting of his debts, his love affairs, and concludes with his death which came after he had recreated a whole society in his ninety-six novels.