An old gentleman clinging to life, the Faust complex we might say, except here he fights and refuses old age and the slow decline of human abilities.
Mr. Salomon discovers the rare gem with Jean and will introduce this slightly lost kid to a former realistic singer. She had her fame, but it was before the war. Mr. Salomon, the king of trousers, becomes the king of lost causes, mending wounded souls with his SOS service.
The old singer, the lost kid, Mr. Salomon always impeccably dressed, are the heroes of this story where the former glories of the music hall are evoked. The old singer still believes in her star, at least she clings to this illusion and seeming to exist is already better than being nothing, an evaporated smoke, a void. The kid is torn between this woman and his friend, and he has a penchant for dictionaries.
Mr. Salomon should have been a virtuoso pianist, alas he became the king of trousers, and in his twilight, he becomes a conductor, manipulating the old glory of song and this kid. A virtuoso, he was meant to be as a child, an adolescent, he becomes even better, maestro by directing from his SOS service the lost and wandering souls in the whirlpool of life.
