social climbing

In early 19th-century England, ambitious and ruthless orphan Rebecca Sharp advances from the position of governess to the heights of British society.

A tale of secrets and scandals set in 1840s London. When the Trenchards accept an invitation to the now legendary ball hosted by the Duchess of Richmond on the fateful evening of the Battle of Waterloo, it sets in motion a series of events that will have consequences for decades to come as secrets unravel behind the porticoed doors of London’s grandest postcode.

Chris, a former tennis pro, takes a job as an instructor and befriends his wealthy young student, Tom. After being introduced to his family, Chris is soon engaged to Tom's sister, Chloe. Despite the professional and financial advantages that this relationship affords him, Chris becomes obsessed with Tom's fiancee, American actress Nola.

When an exclusive clique of teenage socialites accidentally murder their best friend on the morning of her birthday, the three girls responsible conspire to hide the truth.

In early 19th century England, ambitious and ruthless orphan Rebecca Sharp advances from the position of governess to the heights of British society.

Ever since her birth in Newgate Prison, Moll Flanders has survived by her cunning wit, and considerable powers of seduction. She goes through five husbands and countless lovers to escape a life on the streets. In between using and deceiving her besotted paramours, she isn't above picking a pocket or two! All the while, though, her heart belongs to the charismatic Jemmy. Inevitably, even the most clever criminal's luck runs out and she is soon facing the noose. As her execution approaches, she devises on last desperate ploy to save not only her own neck, but also the life of her one true love.

A strong-willed peasant girl is sent by her father to the estate of some local aristocrats to capitalize on a rumour that their families are from the same line. This fateful visit commences an epic narrative of sex, class, betrayal, and revenge.

Diana, a beautiful but shallow and easily distracted model and failed actress, toys with the affections of several men while attempting to gain fame and fortune in Swinging London.

Joe leaves working-class, industrial Dufton behind him and takes a job as senior audit clerk at the town hall in affluent Warley. He takes lodgings at the poshest part of the town and starts to make his mark on local society.

Ulrich Mott is an eccentric and versatile social climber with grandiose plans to affect United States foreign policy. Encouraged in his attempts by his strategically chosen (and much older) wife, the well-connected journalist Elsa Brecht, Mott has a knack for making himself indispensable and impossible to ignore. The only one seemingly immune to his charms is Elsa's daughter Amanda, who might simply disapprove of her mother marrying a much younger man - or perhaps she senses something more sinister beneath the smooth-talking surface?

In the mid-1960s, wealthy debutant Edie Sedgwick meets artist Andy Warhol. She joins Warhol's famous Factory and becomes his muse. Although she seems to have it all, Edie cannot have the love she craves from Andy, and she has an affair with a charismatic musician, who pushes her to seek independence from the artist and the milieu.

Set in Hong Kong in the 1980s, the film follows a fisherman’s son who rises to become a powerful tai pan.

Racketeer Steve Recka, art patron and political power-maker, rules his town and Madame Lan Ying, his beautiful friend and hostess (read:mistress), with an iron hand. He meets Margaret Van Kase, a socialite not impressed by his power nor his wealth, having no money herself, and Steve makes frantic efforts to win her and turns away from the loyal Lin Yang.

Lil works for the Legendre Company and causes Bill to divorce Irene and marry her. She has an affair with businessman Gaerste and uses him to force society to pay attention to her.

A social climber charms a debutante, seduces a factory worker and commits murder.

"If I had the money, I'd buy me a banjo!" says struggling sales clerk Arthur Kipps. Soon he'll inherit enough to buy a whole bloomin' orchestra. But can his newfound wealth buy happiness?

Oklahoma mechanic Pike Peters finds himself part owner of an oil field. His wife Idy, hitherto content, decides the family must go to Paris to get "culture" and meet "the right kind of people." Pike and his grown son and daughter soon have flirtatious French admirers; Idy rents a chateau from an impoverished aristocrat; while Pike responds to each new development with homespun wit. In the inevitable clash, will pretentiousness and sophistication or common sense triumph?

A drunken college student invites a dance hostess to the big college dance and then forgets he asked her. When she shows up at school, he tries to get rid of her, but she won't leave. Instead, she stays and shows up both him and his classmates' snooty dates.

Count Moffat becomes infatuated with Nana, a presumptuous stage actress, vulgar, hypocritical and promiscuous, willing to do anything to succeed.

Hired actors posing as Russian royalty complicate a social-climbing mother's efforts to fix up her son with the daughter of a wealthy Texas rancher.

An oil heir and the daughter of a social climbing family are set to marry.

A story of an young girl who tries to escape from memories of the past and while doing so she alienates herself from her family. Since she was a little girl, Clarissa has always wanted to get out of the slums that she lives in. She has always been close to her rich god-mother Monina Gardamonte and to Monina's daughter, Therese. Too close in fact that she confides to her god-mother more than to her own mother, Naty and her elder sister, Nancy. Because of her closeness to her god-mother, Clarissa tasted the high life and has always wanted to be a part of it. When she grew up, she became more determined to be a part of high society, and Clarissa takes every opportunity at all cost to achieve her desires.

In a not so fictional Italy trying to solve the N.Ε.Ε.Τ. problem, the government decides to reintroduce compulsory conscription for one million young people under 30 who are not studying, working or looking for work, who will have only one month to find real employment and thus avoid the entire year of conscription. Facing this doom four guys try to cheat the system by growing hemp and meanwhile really discovering themselves.

The daughter of straitlaced parents, Bessie Bowden is attracted to the social life of the fast set and finds Austin Trull, lounge lizard and sometime artist, more interesting than hard-working John Hargraves. Mr. Bowden and John try to compete with Bessie's new friends and spend all the family savings on making the Bowden home appear wealthy and a part of the social whirl. Bessie and Geraldine Horton finally catch Trull at his double-dealing, and Bessie wisely returns to home and Hargraves.

A young, ambitious man employs every means necessary in order to climb to the top of the social ladder. But the whirlpool of compromises and corruption eventually threatens to render his life meaningless.