“I feel I go through life like an American tourist, doing as many towns as possible", explains Jean, a camera man and aspiring film director.

He is straight and although living with his girlfriend, Marianne, he has no qualms about his homoerotic relationship with Jean, who has a big crush on him.

Laura has emotional problems too; at one point she erupts at the owner of the dress shop where she works and loses her job.

In these sex encounters, Jean releases his self-destructive drive and finds refuge from the frustrations brought by his illness and his affairs with Laura and Samy.

After a fight with racist skinheads, Samy finally consummates his relationship with Jean and tells him that he loves him.

After a night out of drinking and partying Jean yells "I want to live" to his friends but mostly he seems in denial that he is dying.

Laura throws a big tantrum and from then on, she leaves endless, long messages on Jean's answering machine.

Reaching the breaking point, Laura threatens Jean with committing suicide and tells him that he has infected her with HIV.

Collard's longtime companion, Corine Blue, plays the role of Laure's mother in the film.

Released in October 1992, Savage Nights caused an immediate stir across France where it had 2,811,124 admissions and was the 9th highest-grossing film of the year.

"AIDS, like tuberculosis in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, is just a backdrop [in Savage Nights].