Peter von Kant is a successful film director. He lives with his assistant Karl, whom he likes to mistreat and humiliate. Sidonie is the great actor who was his muse for many years. She introduces him to Amir, a handsome young man of modest means. Peter falls in love with Amir on the spot and offers to share his apartment with him and help him break into the film industry. The plan works, but as soon as he acquires fame, Amir breaks up with Peter, leaving him alone to face his demons.
"/…/ it was clear how I should revisit the text: I would change the character of Petra into a man, Peter von Kant, and make him a director. This lets me talk about Fassbinder but also, in a mirroring effect, about myself. I “betrayed” Fassbinder in order to better find him and to find myself in this universal story of amorous passion, which is more topical than ever and explores questions of power, influence and submission in the creative process and in the muse-Pygmalion relationship." (François Ozon)