A beautiful and willful prostitute puts her appearance and body to use to become the toast of the town.
In Zola's Paris, an ingenue arrives at a tony bordello: she's Nana, guileless, but quickly learning to use her erotic innocence to get what she wants. She's an actress for a soft-core filmmaker and soon is the most popular courtesan in Paris, parlaying this into a house, bought for her by a wealthy banker. She tosses him and takes up with her neighbor, a count of impeccable rectitude, and with the count's impressionable son. The count is soon fetching sticks like a dog and mortgaging his lands to satisfy her whims. She bankrupts him, arranges the debauching of his wife, and seduces his son on his wedding day. What else can she accomplish before she leaves Paris airborne?—<[email protected]>
In 19th-century Paris, Nana is the beautiful young assistant to Georges Méliès, acting in his stag films and stage act at a bordello, The Minotaur. All men who see her are instantly infatuated with her. The night of her debut, the wealthy banker Steiner pays the bordello owner 500 francs to sleep with her, and Nana realizes she can use her feminine wiles to get the most out of life.
Her courters soon include the Count Muffat, a respected government official, and his young son Hector, who is engaged to his uptight cousin Renée. On the advice of her loyal maid Zoe, she gets Steiner to buy her a splendid château so she can live in luxury. The Count and his son both visit her at separate times, and she begins an ongoing relationship with the elder Muffat, hoping to court more money out of him. Having gotten what she wanted out of Steiner, she cuts him off completely and locks him out of the house, which he bought in her name. She also takes a female lover, Satin, her only non-transactional relationship.
Nana leads the Count to financial ruin, when she convinces him to invest 500,000 francs on a "human cockfighter" who loses after his manager sabotages the fight by drugging him as part of a scam. The Count is forced into a duel with Steiner, who repossessed his estate as collateral, which he loses. Nana later crashes Hector's wedding, spiriting him away for a romantic tryst.
The Count is later appointed Minister of Finance and recompenses with Steiner. Nana, who announces she's leaving Paris for India to seek enlightenment, is sent off by her many acquaintances and friends in a hot air balloon, while she snuggles her coach driver and lover inside.
