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Romance / Wonderland
Year - 2020
Studio - Cinétévé
Stars - Pierre Deladonchamps, Olga Kurylenko, Pierre Perrier, Simon Abkarian, Anne-Sophie Soldaini, Alain Fromager
Director - Hervé Hadmar
Writing Credits - Hervé Hadmar
Music - Éric Demarsan
Synopsis
Jérémy (Pierre Deladonchamps) lives with his sister after his wife left him, and is working in a record store after dropping out of medical school. Some sympathetic friends take him out to the opening of a night club in Paris, called Wonderland. He meets its charismatic owner, Tony (Simon Abkarian) and shows off his knowledge of classic R&B and rock music. Tony hires him to work as a bartender, and explains to Jérémy that his father founded the Wonderland in the seaside city of Biarritz, and later moved it to Paris.
On the walls of Wonderland are many photographs of musicians who have performed there, but also a photo of a beautiful woman by the sea. Jérémy is fascinated by it, and a waitress tells him that Tony is similarly obsessed with the "mystery woman."
One day he is given the task of cleaning up a basement storeroom, and organizing the hundreds of vinyl albums. He discovers an old album of songs by Odetta and puts the record on an ancient Victrola. Listening to Odetta's rendition of "Deep Blue Sea" he begins singing along and goes into a trancelike mood. Opening his eyes, he is stunned to see that he is on a stage of an empty ballroom. Outside he discovers that he is no longer in Paris, but in Biarritz, and he has gone back in time to the 1960s.
As the dazed Jérémy wanders the beach, a woman is seen in danger of drowning and a young man rescues the unconscious girl, calling out for a doctor. Jérémy responds and successfully performs resuscitation. The grateful young man introduces himself as Chris Desforges (Pierre Perrier) and the girl is his sister, Valéria (Anne-Sophie Soldaini). Jérémy claims that he is a cardiologist from Paris and says his car with all his belongings was stolen. Chris invites him to stay at the home of his family.
There, Jérémy is amazed to find the girl from the Wonderland photo, Alice (Olga Kurylenko), and she is engaged to be married to Chris. Later, they all go to the Wonderland club where he meets the owner, Tony's father (also played by Simon Abkarian).
Jérémy believes that Chris mistreats Alice and that she doesn't really love him. When he confronts her, her response is hostile, and she tells him he should return to Paris. Later, when they are all at the beach, Jérémy picks up a camera and takes pictures of Alice at the shoreline, then realizes he is actually taking the photo he saw in the Paris club. He again confronts Alice about her feelings for Chris, and she confesses that she is actually falling in love with with him, but that they can never be together.
In flashbacks, we learn that Alice's reason for being with Chris is that she actually plans to kill his father, André Desforges. He had been her Jewish family's landlord in the years leading up to the German occupation of France, and had turned her mother and sister over to the Nazis, where they perished in a concentration camp. Jérémy discovers this secret in an old box of correspondence and documents belonging to Alice. He desperately tries to convince her not to ruin her own life by killing André.
Trailer
The six episode mini-series, Romance was released under the title, Wonderland, in the US.