Writer's Block

Paris in the 1990s. Writer's Block is the story of Henri, a womanising, gambling, hard-drinking, drug-taking, struggling writer, with high literary aspirations. His failure to complete the novel he's working on and make the big time leads him into a spiralling decline of addictions, putting both his relationship to partner, Monique, and his health at risk. It is the story of Henri's bohemian friends, Louis, Jean, Maurice, Michelle, Rosalie and Dominique, a group with artistic ambitions who hang out and socialise on the Parisian Left Bank, and Jacques, Henri's one friendly contact in the book trade. As one by one his friends enter their thirties, they are slowly forced to reassess their lives, some opting for the more conventional path of professional advancement, others for a debauched life of further excess. Fearing only tragedy awaits, which eventually does strike, the real hero of the story is the long-suffering Monique, who stands by Henri through thick and thin, battling to keep a roof over their heads, as he idles away his time. The action proceeds against a background of the cafés, bars, streets and sights of Paris, until finally Monique faces a difficult choice of whether to stay with Henri and follow him wherever his dreams take him or start a new life alone.