The film tells of Marguerite Gautier (Greta Garbo). She's born into a lower-class family, but in time becomes the well known Dame Camille living in high society in Paris.
L'histoire de Marie Duplessis, courtisane aimée par Alexandre Dumas fils qui la nommera Marguerite Gautier dans son roman. Après sa montée à Paris, elle devient prostituée puis courtisane. Bien qu'elle soit mariée, elle aura Dumas fils pour amant avant de le quitter pour Franz Liszt et de mourir de la tuberculose.
A young law student, Armand (Rudolph Valentino) becomes smitten with a courtesan, Marguerite (Alla Nazimova). Marguerite is constantly surrounded by suitors, whom she entertains at her lavish apartment. She also has consumption and is frequently beset by bouts of illness.
The film opens in the Paris home of courtesan Violetta Valery, where sheets cover the furniture in dimly lit rooms. Creditors, appraisers, and movers are removing much of the artwork and ornate furnishings. One of them curiously wanders through the rooms, until he comes upon Violetta, bedridden and looking pallid and weak, and he stares at her with undisguised awe. She is startled to see him and follows him to see what he is doing. As she gazes down the long hallway, her delirious mind drifts back to a happier time, and via flashback we are transported to a lavish party she is hosting to celebrate her recovery from an illness. One of her guests, Count Gastone, has brought with him his friend, the young nobleman Alfredo Germont, who has long adored Violetta from afar. She becomes dizzy and retires to her bedroom to recover; he follows her and declares his love. At first Violetta rejects him, telling him love means nothing to her, but she is touched by his concern and offers him a camellia, telling him to return it when it has wilted. He promises to see her the next day.
The movie, based on a book by Jorge Franco, deals with the life of a beautiful woman involved with the subculture of sicarios, the motorcycle-riding hitmen of the slums of Medellín, Colombia, in the late 1980s-early 1990s. Rosario, a dangerous woman who was molested and raped as a child, and now claiming to be owned by no man, lives a life on the edge while trying to come to terms with her past and the men in her life, not making the best choices along the way.
Le film suit les répétitions de la mise en scène de La Traviata de Jean-François Sivadier pour le Festival d'Aix-en-Provence en 2011 : les premières mises en place en salle de répétition, puis le travail en coulisse et sur scène au théâtre de l'Archevêché.
La Dame aux camélias a pour thème une histoire d’amour entre une courtisane atteinte de phtisie, Marguerite Gautier, et un jeune bourgeois, Armand Duval. La narration de cette histoire d’amour constitue un récit dans le récit, puisqu’Armand Duval raconte son aventure au narrateur initial du roman. (voir résumé détaillé La Dame aux camélias)