Sylvain, no longer a young man, lives in the small seaside village of Ault in Picardy. His life revolves around his friends and his Playstation and does not offer him much chance to meet women. When Patricia and Juliette, a young mother and her grown daughter, arrive in town for a week-long vacation, Sylvain can’t help but fall under their charm. Nor can his best friend, Gilles. These four characters set the scene for a comedy of gallant seduction in which desire ebbs and flows among the protagonists as surely as the tide. However, the film greatly exceeds this simple narrative thanks to its attentive portrayal of the village and its inhabitants. Without falling into ethno- logy, Guillaume Brac joyfully combines actors with extras, big emotions with little arrangements to express the fragile and fleeting charm of a holiday crush with arresting insight. Carried by the magnificent acting of the four leads, especially Vincent Macaigne as Sylvain, A World Without Women has a freshness and urgency that call to mind the films of Jacques Rozier. And leaves us with the lingering melancholy that haunts summer flings like sand clinging to skin. Preceded by LE NAUFRAGÉ | Guillaume Brac