That Night of Varennes

Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne (Jean-Louis Barrault), the aging writer who records Paris night by night, takes a seat in a coach bound for Varennes. His fellow passengers include Casanova (Marcello Mastroianni), Thomas Paine (Harvey Keitel) and Countess Sophie de la Borde (Hanna Schygulla), all riding a few hours behind the royal flight. Ettore Scola puts them in the same cramped carriage, where the countess and the old libertine keep circling each other.