All the Mornings of the World

Monsieur de Sainte Colombe (Jean-Pierre Marielle) is a renowned viola da gamba player who, after his wife dies, withdraws from the court of Louis XIV and gives his days to music. A young man, Marin Marais (Gérard Depardieu), comes asking to be his pupil. Alain Corneau tells it as an old man's memory of that short apprenticeship, about whether music exists to please a king or to speak to the dead.