The Secret Lives of People in Love

'Little Birds' is narrated by a teenage boy of uncertain parentage who sketches his life with his devoted foster father, Michel, in working-class Paris: 'It is the afternoon of my birthday, but still the morning of my life. I am walking on the Pont des Arts.' In 'Some Bloom in Darkness,' an aging railroad station clerk's witness of a violent scene between a man and woman translates in his mind into an infatuation with a store mannequin. Other tales are set in Rome.