Americano

Martin (Mathieu Demy) is a real-estate broker in his thirties living with his girlfriend Claire (Chiara Mastroianni) in Paris. Claire wants to start a family, but Martin can't seem to commit. When news arrives from the United States that his estranged mother is dead, Martin sets off with dual passport in hand to tie up the loose ends of a rocky maternal relationship he hasn't addressed since childhood, when he returned to France with his father in wake of his parents' divorce in California. Arriving in Los Angeles, Martin is greeted by his mother's best friend Linda (Geraldine Chaplin), who helps him navigate his inheritance and close up his mother's affairs in Venice. He finds himself immersed in uncomfortable memories from the past - in the form of real-life footage culled from veteran French filmmaker’s Agnes Varda’s actual 1981 film DOCUMENTEUR, in which Varda’s son Mathieu Demy appeared as a child. Martin combs Los Angeles for his mother's mysterious friend and companion, Lola, finding no trace of her. Traumatized at the sight of his mother's body in the morgue, he steals Linda’s convertible and drives to Tijuana in search of Lola, thinking she should inherit his mother's apartment. He finds Lola in a seedy strip club named Americano. But is she truly the woman who brightened his mother's life in Los Angeles - or is she a darker femme fatale, echoing the titular screen character from late French New Wave veteran Jaques Demy, Mathieu Demy's own father?