The voice-over narration by Satie (Nicholas Pennell) is mostly in the composer's own words, taken from his writings or as quoted by his friends.
The film is a dance fantasy woven around composer Erik Satie's stormy affair with painter Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938), which lasted six months in 1893. It was the only intimate relationship he is known to have had.
After Satie's death in 1925, his brother discovered a cache of old letters the composer had written to Valadon after their breakup but never sent. He gave them to Valadon, who burned them and never spoke of their contents. In the film this is alluded to in the pile of letters Satie pores over at the cafe.
The contortionist dances (performed by members of the Cirque du Soleil) are a tribute to Suzanne Valadon, who started out as a teenage trapeze artist. Her career was ended by a fall, after which she became a model and self-taught painter.
Last film of actor Nicholas Pennell. He died of cancer in February 1995, a few months after its CBC premiere.