Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) was one of the key artistic innovators of the modern era and a creator of enormous energy. This film is a survey of an artist who, more than any other, seems to epitomize joie de vivre. It covers every aspect of Dufy's work from ceramics and textiles to book illustration and paintings. His subject matter was leisure and joy, whether it was the great English social occasions such as Royal Ascot and the Henley Regatta, the yachts and bathers of Deauville, or the casinos and palm-fringed promenades of the French Riviera. Footage of these events and places is interwoven with images from his work to emphasize the influence of the former on the latter. Tributes and commentary are provided by associates, dealers and art historians, and through the film Dufy emerges as the embodiment, in artistic terms, of style, charm and wit: 'Life hasn't always smiled on me but I have always smiled on life.'