Synopsis: A stately period drama about the relationship between an ascetic 17th-century French composer, Monsieur de Sainte Colombe, and Marin Marais, the ambitious young musician who seeks out his tutelage. Monsieur de Sainte Colombe is a reclusive master of the viol who turned his back on society... A stately period drama about the relationship between an ascetic 17th-century French composer, Monsieur de Sainte Colombe, and Marin Marais, the ambitious young musician who seeks out his tutelage. Monsieur de Sainte Colombe is a reclusive master of the viol who turned his back on society after the death of his beloved wife. Living only for his music and her memory, Sainte Colombe spends almost every waking hour playing his viol or instructing his two daughters on the instrument. This strictly circumscribed universe is disrupted by the arrival of Marais, a musical prodigy whom Sainte Colombe considers facile and condemns for his worldly ambitions. Marais wins the love of Sainte Colombe's emotionally fragile daughter, but as the aspiring young man strives to establish himself as a court musician at Versailles, the rift between student and master deepens. [More]