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Le Reve (The Dream) was based on a novel by Emile Zola. Raised by a middle-class family, a foundling grows up to become an embroiderer. She dreams of escaping her humdrum existence by marrying a handsome man and living happily ever after. She gets her wish when she weds the foster son of a well-to-do bishop. As for "happily ever after," this is technically the case, since the heroine dies immediately after the wedding! In the original novel, the girl's soul ascends to heaven, where she realizes total and everlasting bliss; this is the sort of denouement that is virtually impossible to pull off successfully on film, and Le Reve barely comes close.