Synopsis
PALOMA
My name’s Paloma. I live in Paris. My parents are rich and so my sister
and I are virtually rich. But in spite of all this luck and all this wealth,
for a long time now I’ve known that the final destination is the goldfish
bowl: where adults, like flies, spend their lives running into the same
piece of glass.
RENÉE
I’m a widow. I am short, chubby, have bunions on my feet and, if the
evidence of certain unpleasant mornings is anything to go by, the
breath of a mammoth. I live alone with a fat, lazy tomcat. I’ve never
studied, I’ve always been poor, discreet and insignificant. Since I’m
rarely amiable, although always polite, people don’t like me, but they
tolerate me because I correspond perfectly to the archetype of the
janitor.
THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG is the story of an unexpected
encounter, that of Paloma Josse, an exceptionally intelligent and
suicidal 11-year old girl, of Renée Michel, a discrete and solitary
Parisian porter, and of the enigmatic Mr. Kakuro Ozu.