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| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| 100% Arabica(100% Arabic) | In this light-hearted musical comedy with a message, a North African pop group called Rap Oriental uses music to triumph over the bigotry and violence in 100% Arabica, the housing project on the outskirts of Paris that they call home. The band and their devoted fans are pitted against religiously conservative elders who want to stop the music. The film features Khaled and Cheb Mami, two real-life stars of rai music--a combination of North African sounds and western-style rap. The pair offers a message with a beat as they rock, groove, and ultimately soothe their 'hood with their unique sound. |
| 400 Blows, The | Francois Truffaut's first feature was this 1959 portrait of Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a boy who turns to petty crime in the face of neglect at home and hard times at a reform school. Somewhat autobiographical for its director, the film helped usher in the heady spirit of the French New Wave, and introduced the Doinel character, who became a fixture in Truffaut's movies over the years. Poignant, exhilarating, and fun (there's a parade of cameo appearances from some of the essential icons and directors from the movement), this film is an important classic |
| 8:17 Darling Street | A former journalist, three times divorced, Gerard is now a member of Alcoholics Anonymous who lives in a small apartment on Darling Street. By a combination of circumstances, he isn't home when his building explodes one evening, causing the death of six people. Moved by the fact that he has escaped death, Gerard finds his old journalistic instincts returning and decides to research his dead neighbors' past to understand what occured, but also to give meaning to this terrible event. |
| Accompanist | Sophie, a masterful pianist is hired by opera singer Irene to be her accompanist onstage during Nazi occupied Paris. Irene's husband, Charles, a businessman, is also introduced, and director Miller takes us through the kind of story an American studio would not even dream of making anymore. Irene is having an affair with Jacques, and she and Sophie and Charles decide to leave France for London. They are attacked by a single German plane on their way, but make it. The climax, involving death and lost love, is chilling. |
| Adolphe | The action takes place at the turn of the 19th Century. Adolphe (Stanislas Merhar) is a carefree, somewhat jaded 22-year-old, scion of a preeminent aristocratic family, with a very promising political career ahead of him. To Adolphe, love means conquest, and since he is bored, love is a good pastime. At a soirée given by the Count (Jean Yanne) in his sumptuous castle, Adolphe sets his eyes on the beautiful Ellénore (Isabelle Adjani), a young widow, ten years his elder, mother of two children. She also happens to be the Count's mistress. Adolphe falls in love with Ellénore, for lack of a better thing to do. At first, Ellénore resists Adolphe's feverish advances. He insists, becoming an overwhelming presence (and nuisance) in Ellénore's life. Eventually, she surrenders. Soon after, the novelty of this adventure wearing out, Adolphe tries to liberate himself from his new lover, who has become a burden in his life, an obstacle to his freedom. However, he cannot bring himself to altogether sever his relationship with Ellénore, as the idea of making her suffer is to him unbearable. |
| Adventures of Felix | A tale revolving around the carefree and bon-vivant, Felix, who is content living with his boyfriend, Daniel in the town of Dieppe in Northern France. When Felix is laid off from his job, he decides to take a road trip to Marseilles to track down the father he's never met. Backpack in tow, Felix sets out walking, hitching and borrowing cars to get to the south of France. Springtime is budding, nature is at its best, and some unique characters await Felix along the dirtroads and byways of the French countryside. |
| Africa, I'm going to Fleece you 'Afrique, je te plumerai... | 1990, thirty years after most of the African countries attained independence, the end of the cold war and the dramatic political changes taking place around the world inspired a generation of young Africans to take the streets and challenge the one-party state and its attendant nepotism, corruption and economic failure. |
| Africans, The (1-The Nature of a Continent) | Examines Africa as the birthplace of humankind and discusses the impact of geography on African history, including the role of the Nile in the origin of civilization and the introduction of Islam to Africa through its Arabic borders. |
| Africans, The (2-A Legacy of Lifestyles) | Shows how contemporary African lifestyles are influenced by indigenous, Islamic, and Western factors. Compares simple African societies with those that are more complex and centralized, and examines the importance of family life. |
| Africans, The (3-New Gods) | Examines the factors that influence religion in Africa, with particular emphasis on how traditional African religions, Islam, and Christianity coexist and influence each other. The extent to which Christianity and Islam are becoming Africanized is also discussed. |
| Africans, The (4-Tools of Exploitation) | The impact of the West on Africa and the impact of Africa on the development of the West are contrasted with an emphasis on the manner in which Africa's human and natural resources have been exploited before, during, and after the colonial period. |
| Africans, The (5-New Conflicts) | Provides an overview of the history of Africa and examines major influences on this complex continent: indigenous heritage, Western culture, and the Islamic religion. Outlines how urbanization, warrior traditions, European-created national boundaries, the Islamic jihad tradition, and nationalist movements have affected Africa's postcolonial period. |
| Africans, The (6-In Search of Stability) | Gives an overview of the several means of governing in Africa. Examines new social orders to illustrate an Africa in search of a viable form of government in the post-independence period. |
| Africans, The (7-A Garden of Eden in Decay) | Identifies the problems of a continent that produces what it does not consume and consumes what it does not produce. Shows Africa's struggle between economic dependence and decay. |
| Africans, The (8-A Clash of Cultures) | Discusses the conflicts and compromises which emerge from the coexistence of many African traditions and modern life. Explores the question of whether Africa can synthesize its own heritage with the legacies of Islam and the West. |
| Africans, The (9-Global Africa) | Provides an overview of the history of Africa and examines major influences on this complex continent: indigenous heritage, Western culture, and the Islamic religion. Focuses on Africa's role in international politics and economics. Reviews the country's U.N. participation, cobalt production, and its political crisis in South Africa. Other issues include the International Monetary Fund, food aid, and tourism. |
| Afrique Francophone | |
| After You (Apres Vous) | Antoine (Auteuil) saves Louis (Garcia) from hanging himself, though in his attempt to get Louis back on his feet, Antoine gets caught in a romantic triangle. |
| Age of Innocence | A tale of nineteenth-century New York high society in which a young lawyer falls in love with a woman separated from her husband, while he is engaged to the woman's cousin. |
| All the Mornings of the World (Tous les Matins du Monde) | In the dazzling tradition of Amadeus, Tous les Matins du Monde is a seductive tale of music and passion set in provocative 17th century France. Academy Award® nominee Gérard Depardieu stars in a fascinating story filled with romance, lust, desire, devotion, revenge and intrigue. A reclusive composer and his two beautiful daughters’ lives are forever changed by a flamboyant young student who enters their lives. |
| Amadeus | Based on a Viennese urban legend and hit Broadway play, recounts the downfall of 18th-century musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. |
| Amelie | A painfully shy waitress working at a tiny Paris cafe, Amélie makes a surprising discovery and sees her life drastically changed for the better! From then on, Amélie dedicates herself to helping others find happiness ... in the most delightfully unexpected way! But will she have the courage to do for herself what she has done for others? |
| American Experience: Last Days in Vietnam | In the final weeks of the Vietnam War, American servicemen and others begin the difficult mission of evacuating as many friends, family members and South Vietnamese collaborators as possible before Saigon falls to the North Vietnamese. |
| Andalusian Dog, An (Un Chien Andalou) | A surrealistic film with input from Salvador Dalí. Director Luis Buñuel presents stark, surrealistic images including the slitting open of a woman's eye and a dead horse being pulled along on top of a piano. A mysterious film open to interpretations ranging from deep to it all meaning absolutely nothing. |
| Angano... Angano... Tales from Madagascar | Angano...Angano... pioneers a new approach to ethnographic filmmaking, at once scrupulously non-interpretive yet deeply evocative. The central character in Angano...Angano... is the oral tradition itself, passing down the wisdom of the ancestors - the 'ear's inheritance' - through myths and folktales. Venerable storytellers recount for the camera and their listeners the founding myths of Malagasy culture. The filmmakers do not dramatize these tales; rather they document storytelling itself by placing it in its social and geographical context. The tales flow into and out of stunning shots of the daily Malagasy life which gave birth to them and which they in turn explain. |
| Antilles Guadaloupe- Martinique | The French Caribbean Island Guadeloupe looks from above like two butterfly wings. Its two islands Grande Terre and Basse Terre are separated only by a narrow channel. The modern infrastructure and the good food are mixed with the local culture. Gwoka is the music of Guadeloupe, which is reminiscent of slavery. |
| Around The World in 80 Days | A Victorian Englishman bets that with the new steamships and railways he can circumnavigate the globe in eighty days. |
| Asterix & Obelix Contre Cesar | The well-known little village from the Asterix and Obelix-comic books is in trouble: It is the last place not controlled by Rome. When Tax collector Claudius Incorruptus does not get his money from the villagers, Julius Caesar himself comes to the place to see what's so special about their resistance. A special magic potion, prepared by the village's druid, gives incredible power to those who drink it. And Obelix, who fell into the pot as a child has been invincible ever since. With the help of Tullius Destructivus, an intrigeur, the Romans try to get Obelix and the druid into their hands in order to wipe the little village off the map, when the last potion of it's stock has been used up. But each individual also has some plans of his own... |
| Augustin | Jean-Chretien Sibertin-Blanc is the delightfully quirky AUGUSTIN – a 32-year-old insurance clerk who dreams of becoming a great dramatic actor yet is totally unaware that he’s already a one-man comedy show. The odd parts Augustin has landed – in an insecticide commercial, as run-over pedestrian, and a cod thief, are due not to his acting but to his naturally droll personality. Augustin’s charm is such that everyone who encounters him laughs at him when they might just as easily swat him. Even real-life French film idol Thierry Lhermitte can’t help but be amused rather than offended when the geeky Augustin audaciously offers him acting tips during an audition! |
| Aunt Danielle (Tatie Danielle) | Auntie Danielle, supposedly in ailing health but in reality just a nasty old bitch, lives with a paid housekeeper who she regularly abuses. When the housekeeper dies falling off a ladder, Danielle moves in with her great-nephew and his family. She continues using her nastiness to manipulate everyone into doing things her way until the family goes on vacation to Greece. The young housekeeper they hire to watch after her knows what Auntie is doing, and deals with her accordingly, and they begin forming respect for each other. |
| Avenue Montaigne | AVENUE MONTAIGNE centers around Jessica (Cecile de France) a beautiful young woman from the provinces who comes to Paris and lands a job waiting tables at a chic bistro on fabled Avenue Montaigne, the city's nexus for art, music, theater and fashion. Jessica's customers include a popular TV actress (Valerie Lemercier) who is courting a major Hollywood director (Sydney Pollack) for her first serious film role; a wealthy art collector (Claude Brasseur) who is about to liquidate a lifetime's worth of treasures at auction; and an illustrious classical pianist (Albert Dupontel) who is at odds with his manager/wife (Laura Morante) as to where his career is headed. Precisely because Jessica doesn't know how celebrated these people are, her guileless and completely unintimidated engagement in their lives has a transforming effect on them - and ultimately her |
| Babette's Feast | Some movies can only be described as delicious. In Babette's Feast, a woman flees the French civil war and lands in a small seacoast village in Denmark, where she comes to work for two spinsters, devout daughters of a puritan minister. After many years, Babette unexpectedly wins a lottery, and decides to create a real French dinner--which leads the sisters to fear for their souls. Joining them for the meal will be a Danish general who, as a young soldier, courted one of the sisters, but she turned him away because of her religion. The village elders all resolve not to enjoy the meal, but can their moral fiber resist the sensual pleasure of Babette's cooking? Babette's Feastdeservedly won the 1987 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This lovely movie is impeccably simple, yet its slender narrative contains a wealth of humor, melancholy, and hope. |
| Baker's Wife, The | In this little Provencal village, a new baker, Aimable, settles down. His wife Aurelie is beautiful and much younger than he. She departs with a shepherd the night after Aimable produces his first breads. Aimable is so afflicted that he can not work anymore. Therefore, the villagers, who initially laughed at his cuckoldry, take the matter very seriously (they want the bread) and organize a plan to find Aurelie and to bring her back to the bakery.(Written by Yepok for IMDB) |
| Barbarian Invasions, The | Academy Award(R) winner for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003, THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS is a provocative look at the many ties that bind a group of friends and lovers. It's not easy for a narrow-minded professor (Rémy Girard) to reconcile with his equally stubborn son. But soon, father and son find themselves gathering with their wide and colorful circle of family and friends to confront their differences, confess their secrets, and celebrate life! Winner of the Best Actress (Marie-Josée Croze) and Best Screenplay awards at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival -- critics everywhere hailed this outstanding motion picture as one of the year's best! |
| Battle of Algiers | In the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government. |
| Beat That My Heart Skipped, The | In this follow-up to his critical smash 'Read My Lips,' Jacques Audiard has adapted and updated James Tobacks cult 1978 noir 'Fingers' to come up with this memorable character study about a young man torn between a life of crime and classical music. |
| Beautiful Memories 'Se Souvenir Des Belle Choses' | Although barely 30, Claire believes she is showing the first symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, a condition from which her mother has recently died. Her sister, Nathalie, is certain that her memory loss, caused by a lightning strike, is temporary. In the clinic where she is being treated, Claire is attracted to Philippe, a man who is still traumatized after a car accident in which his wife and child were both killed. In spite of their personal tragedies, Claire and Philippe fall in love. When Philippe recovers, Claire moves into his home. Then Claire's condition takes a turn for the worse... |
| Beauty and the Beast | Poet of the French cinema Jean Cocteau transforms fantasy into reality in this exquisite adaptation of Mme. Marie Leprince de Beaumont's fairy tale. Breathtaking imagery draws viewers into the enchanted realm of the magnificent beast and the gentle beauty who discovers the sensitive soul hidden beneath his monstrous exterior. Cocteau invites us to suspend disbelief as we enter an amazing world where a splendid white horse has magical powers, candelabra have human arms, and tears turn to diamonds. |
| Being Jewish In France | A three-hour documentary film originally shown on French TV, about the history of Jewish life in France from the 19th century to the present day. |
| Big Picture, The | Paul Exben (Romain Duris, Russian Dolls, Paris) is a handsome and successful Parisian lawyer with a beautiful wife, two children, and a glimmering future in the firm he co-owns with his mentor, Anne (Catherine Deneuve). But behind this deceptively perfect façade lies a restless spirit who's uncomfortable in his conformist life and envies the freedom of his neighbor Greg, an uncompromising photojournalist. After Greg's unexpected death throws his life into chaos, Paul embarks on a cross-continent odyssey of self-discovery and reinvention, leading him to uncover the answer to the question: is it possible to become someone else? |
| Big Trip (Le Grand, The Voyage) | A few weeks before his college entrance exams, Reda, a young man who lives in the south of France, finds himself obligated to drive his father to Mecca. The wide cultural and generational gap between the two is worsened by their lack of communication. Reda finds it hard to accommodate his father, who demands respect for himself and his pilgrimage. From France, through Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan to Saudi Arabia, the two embark on a road trip that will change their lives forever. Named one of the top films of the decade by the London Times. |
| Black Robe | From acclaimed director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Tender Mercies) and adapted by screenwriter Brian Moore from his novel of the same name, Black Robe is 'amazing an adventure film that is as intelligent as it is enthralling' (US)! French Jesuit missionary Father Laforgue travels to the magnificently austere Canadian wilderness to save the souls of a 'savage and godless' peoplethe native tribes of the Huron and Algonquin. But the natives, who have their own spiritual value system that differs drastically from Christianity, are immediately suspicious, resentful and openly hostile toward the intrusive 'Black Robe.' And when Laforgue hires a reluctant group of Algonquin to escort him on a harrowing 1500-mile journey up the broad and sinuous St. Lawrence River, a devastating chain of events not only causes him to question his deeply held beliefs but also forever changes the course of history for the natives' way of life. |
| Bloody Week: 1870, The | May 21-28 of 1871 in which the National army entered Paris and fought the Communards for control of the city. This was highly violent and is seen as a turning point in French history. The national army, led by MacMahon marched from Versailles and was made up of rural French, lost 3,500. |
| Blue | The first part of Kieslowski's trilogy on France's national motto: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. 'Blue' is the story of Julie who loses her husband, an acclaimed composer and her young daughter in a car accident. The film's theme of liberty is manifested in Julie's attempt to start life anew, free of personal commitments, belongings, grief or love. She intends to numb herself by withdrawing from the world and living completely independently, anonymously and in solitude in the Parisian metropolis. Despite her intentions, people from her former and present life intrude with their own needs. However, the reality created by the people who need and care about her, a surprising discovery and the music around which the film revolves heal Julie and draws her back to the land of the living. |
| Bizarre Bizzare( Drole de Drame) | From the creators of Children of Paradise comes a screwball comedy about a vegetarian serial killer. When the Archbishop of Bedford suspects his eccentric cousin of poisoning his wife and disposing of the body, he sets off a wild and uproarious series of events spurred on by an upper-class disdain of scandal. A wonderful farce set in Edwardian London, this decidedly French comedy owes more to artifice and comic twists of plot reminiscent of René Clair and films like Le Million than the tragic pessimism found in the later work of Carné and Prévert such as Quai des Brumes or Children of Paradise. |
| Breathless (A bout de souffle) | Michel Poiccard, an irresponsible sociopath and small-time thief, steals a car and impulsively murders the motorcycle policeman who pursues him. Now wanted by the authorities, he renews his relationship with Patricia Franchini, a hip American girl studying journalism at the Sorbonne, whom he had met in Nice a few weeks earlier. Before leaving Paris, he plans to collect a debt from an underworld acquaintance and expects her to accompany him on his planned getaway to Italy. Even with his face in the local papers and media, Poiccard seems oblivious to the dragnet that is slowly closing around him as he recklessly pursues his love of American movies and libidinous interest in the beautiful American. |
| Brotherhood of the Wolf | A dangerous, thrilling mystery of chilling proportions, Brotherhood of the Wolf leaps from the screen with breathtaking action and incredible suspense blended with high-flying martial arts excitement. When a mysterious beast ravages the countryside, two unlikely heroes are called in to fight the evil. The only way they can save the land from this unspeakable terror is to face their greatest fears, unearth a dark power and reveal a deadly secret. Harry Knowles of Ainticoolnews.com raves, 'A Remarkable Film. As Cool As They Come!' Jami Bernard from The New York Daily News praises it as 'An Unexpected Touch of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.' |
| Burnt by the Sun | Winner of the Academy Award(r) for Best Foreign film and the Cannes Grand Jury Prize, BURNT BY THE SUN is the unforgettable story of a Soviet hero whose happy family is suddenly targeted by Stalin's secret police. Nikita Mikhalkov directs and stars as Colonel Serguei Kotov, a hero of the Revolution who is spending the summer in the country with his young daughter (Mikhalkov's real-life daughter), his wife and her eccentric family. But when his wife's childhood love suddenly appears, the idyllic summer day takes a surprising turn. A lyrical film filled with beauty and warmth, BURNT BY THE SUN isalso an indelible account of a man dedicated to family and fatherland, cruelly destroyed by political paranoia. |
| Butterfly, The | When eight-year-old Elsa and her oft-absent mother move into the apartment next to Julien, an onary butterfly collector, the persistant and curious Elsa adopts the reluctant old man as her surrogate grandpa. But when Julien leaves town for a week long hiking expedition in the Alps to find a rare butterfly, he instead discovers an uninvited companion -- Elsa! |
| Bye Bye | In Paris, Ismaél, a young Tunisian, cares for two brothers, Nouredine, a cripple, and streetwise Mouloud, 14. In haste, Ismaél and Mouloud go to Marseilles where an uncle lives. Nouredine has died in a fire, and Ismaél feels guilt on top of grief. Ismaél becomes friends with Jacky, a white man whose father and brother hate immigrants. Mouloud hangs out with cousin Rhida who breaks Islamic rules and deals hash. Ismaél decides Mouloud must return to Tunisia, but the boy runs off, becoming an acolyte to Rhida's supplier. Ismaél and Jacky's Arab girlfriend start an affair, friends betray friends, and the racism gets ugly. Can Ismaél rescue himself and Mouloud or will life in France crush them? |
| Camille | One of the world’s most famous love stories comes to vibrant life in this lavish production filled with stunning scenery and a once in a lifetime cast! Nicknamed “Camille,” the beautiful Marguerite (Greta Scacchi, Brideshead Revisited) sacrifices her honor to become a high society escort who only entertains the richest men in Paris. However, the young and dashing Armand Duval (Academy Award® winner Colin Firth, The King’s Speech) falls hopelessly in love with her and determines to win her heart. As their love blossoms, Armand’s father (Academy Award® winner Ben Kingsley, Gandhi) feels Marguerite is unworthy of his son and begins to interfere… while Marguerite has a shocking secret of her own that will alter the course of their lives forever. Also starring Academy Award® winner John Gielgud (Arthur), Denholm Elliott (A Room with a View), and Billie Whitelaw (Quills), this Emmy Award-winning gem, from the director of Clash of the Titans, is an unforgettable romance for the ages. |
| Camille | Life in 1847 Paris is as spirited as champagne and as unforgiving as the gray morning after. In gambling dens and lavish soirees, men of means exert their wills and women turned courtesans exult in pleasure. One such woman is Marguerite Gautier (Greta Garbo), the Camille of this sumptuous romance tale based on the enduring Alexandre Dumas story. Garbo's aloof mystique and alabaster beauty illuminate this George Cukor-directed film featuring what many call her finest performance. Her Camille is a movie paragon of true love found (in suitor Armand Duval, memorably played by Robert Taylor), then sacrificed for a greater good. Garbo earned an Academy Award nomination and the New York Film Critics Best Actress Award for her memorable work. |
| Camille Claudel | Biography of Camille Claudel. Sister of writer Paul Claudel, her enthusiasm impresses already-famous sculptor Auguste Rodin. He hires her as an assistant, but soon Camille begins to sculpt for herself and for Rodin. She also becomes his mistress. But after a while, she would like to get out of his shadow... |
| Carmen | All the passion and spectacle of Bizet's Carmen comes to life in this dazzling screen opera starring Placido Domingo and Julia Migenes-Johnson. In 19th century Seville, the lusty, tempestuous Carmen (Migenes-Johnson) seduces a naive Army corporal, Don Jose (Domingo), newly assigned to the village fortress. Jose abandons his career, his fianc‚e and even his dying mother for the love of this sultry gypsy. But soon she spurns him in favor of a toreador, Escamillo (Ruggero Raimondi). Crazed with jealousy, Jose begs Carmen to return to him, but her taunting declaration of independence results in tragedy. Shot entirely on location in Andalusia Spain, Bizet's Carmen has been hailed as the definitive version of this classic opera. |
| Cathedral | Using a combination of spectacular location sequences and cinema-quality animation, the program surveys France's most famous churches. Travel back to 1214 to explore the design of Notre Dame de Beaulieu, a representative Gothic cathedral. The program tells period tales revealing fascinating stories of life and death, faith and despair, prosperity, and intrigue. |
| Chef, The (Le Chef) | A veteran chef faces off against his restaurant group s new CEO, who wants the restaurant to lose a star from its prestigious Michelin rating, in order to bring in a younger chef who specializes in molecular gastronomy. |
| Chinese Puzzle | A 40-year-old father of two still finds life very complicated. When the mother of his children moves from Paris to New York, he cant bear them growing up far away from him so he decides to move there as well. |
| Chinese Puzzle | Xavier is now forty years old. So are Wendy, Isabelle and Martine. At forty you are supposed to be more mature and live a a steadier life than at twenty. But not Xavier. Well, to be fair, he has made some progress in the field of thoughtfulness (he has even become a writer) but as concerns his everyday life, it is far from well-ordered. To be totally honest it is not entirely Xavier's fault if his wife Wendy has suddenly left him for a new companion in New York and taken their two children with her. Realizing he can't stand living without them, Xavier decides to settle down in Big Apple in order to remain close to them. He finds a home in Chinatown and it does not take long before trouble comes his way. |
| Chocolat | Nobody could have imagined the impact that the striking Vianne (Binoche) would make when she arrived in an old-fashioned French town. In her chocolate shop, Vianne begins to create mouth-watering confections that inspire the villagers to abandon themselves to happiness! But it is not until another stranger, the handsome Roux arrives in town that Vianne is finally able to recognize her own desires! |
| Chorus, The | An inspirational story in the rich tradition of MUSIC OF THE HEART and MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS, THE CHORUS has moved critics everywhere to declare it one of the year's very best films! When he takes a job teaching music at a school for troubled boys, Clément Mathieu is unprepared for its harsh discipline and depressing atmosphere. But with passion and unconventional teaching methods, he's able to spark his students' interest in music and bring them a newfound joy! It also puts him at odds with the school's overbearing headmaster, however, locking Mathieu in a battle between politics and the determination to change his pupils' lives! |
| Class, The | The Class (2008 Academy Award® Nominee, Best Foreign Language Film) follows the year in the life of a French schoolteacher working at a high school in a tough neighborhood of Paris. Cultures and attitudes often clash in the classroom. As amusing and inspiring as the teenage students can be, their difficult behavior can still jeopardize any teacher's enthusiasm for the low-paying job. Insisting on an atmosphere of respect and diligence that's neither stuffy nor severe, his frankness often takes the students by surprise. But his classroom ethics are put to the test when his students begin to challenge his methods. |
| Closet, The | French humor, which isn't exactly subtle, is delivered via an especially broad premise in The Closet. A nebbish (Daniel Auteuil) who works at a condom manufacturer learns he's about to be fired; with the help of his neighbor, he pretends to be gay so his boss can't fire him without seeming prejudiced. Then a bigoted coworker (Gerard Depardieu) tries to worm his way into the nebbish's good graces because he's afraid of being fired. In the wrong hands, The Closet could be ham-fisted slapstick. What makes this movie truly delightful is the superb understatement with which every gag is handled; even the sight of Auteuil wearing a giant condom tip on his head has an impeccable deadpan grace. All the performances are excellent; Depardieu's smarm is particularly delicious. Each scene takes a new twist of social discomfort and befuddlement in this winning comedy. |
| Coffee with Milk (Cafe au Lait) | Lola is pregnant. But she does not know who the father is : Jamal, the black muslim, son of diplomats, or Felix, the pennyless jewish messenger. Jamal and Felix meet at Lola's, and the race begins. |
| Conspiracy | By the winter of 1942, Hitler's dream of Aryan supremacy had become a nightmare. His armies could be found freezing and starving on the Eastern front, and America's fighting forces had just entered the war to the West. On January 20th of that year, 15 officials attended a conference at Wannsee on the outskirts of Berlin. Comprised of mid-ranking SS commanders and a variety of government ministers, the meeting was organized by SS Major Adolf Eichman, under the direction of the ruthless and efficient Chief of Security Reinhard Heydrich. It was to be a polite conference with food, wine and some debate, but beneath this thin veneer of manners lay an evil intent. By the meeting's close, the fate of six million lives would be decided, and a terrible machine put into operation that would alter the shape of the world. Conspiracy is based on the only surviving record of that meeting. It would be the blueprint for Hitler's 'final solution.' |
| Count of Monte Cristo, The | The Count of Monte Cristo tells the dramatic story of Edmond Dantès, a young French sailor who is falsely denounced as a traitor and unjustly imprisoned for eighteen years without a trial. After a daring escape, Dantès secures a treasure hidden on the island of Monte Cristo bequeathed to him by a dying inmate. Using these riches, he assumes a new identity and devises a plan to seek vengeance against all those who betrayed him. |
| Crimson Rivers, The | When Commissaire Pierre Niemans (Jean Reno), France's leading serial killer investigator, is calledto investigate a grisly murder, he enters a world of secrets, lies and unthinkable horrors. The dead, whose hands and eyes have been removed, are clues to a terrible tradition the killer can no longer bear. Each murder means something more; each victim, a guilty conspirator in a grand immoral experiment. Filled with blood-chilling suspense, twisted turns and breathtaking locations, this tense thriller has the style, action and intelligence to keep you wondering what's really happening right up until the shocking conclusion. |
| Cross My Heart | La Fracture du myocarde is the French title. The film was written and produced by Jacques Fansten in 1990. It tells the story of a group of Middle School kids who decide to hide the passing of the mother of one of the kids in the group. The reason is that they don't want to be separated (their friend has never known his dad). A must see movie! |
| Cyrano De Bergerac | Cyrano (Depardieu), a master swordsman and poet, feels he cannot woo his beloved Roxane (Anne Brochet) due to an unfortunate physical flaw: his grotesquely large nose. Resigning himself to helping another suitor, the dashing yet tongue-tied Christian (Vincent Perez), Cyrano uses his mastery of words to win Roxane for him. But when Roxane finds that she has fallen for Christian's mind and not for his beauty, which of her two suitors will finally possess her heart? |
| Dangerous Liaisons | In 18th century France, the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont play a dangerous game of seduction. Valmont is someone who measures success by the number of his conquests and Merteuil challenges him to seduce the soon to be married Cecile de Volanges and provide proof in writing of his success. His reward for doing so will be to spend the night with Merteuil. He has little difficulty seducing Cecile but what he really wants is to seduce Madame de Tourvel. When Merteuil learns that he has actually fallen in love with her, she refuses to let him claim his reward for seducing Cecile. Death soon follows. |
| Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King | In a dark age long passed, young Siegfried witnesses the horrible murder of his father, King Siegmund of the Netherlands. Vowing to take back one day what is rightfully his, Siegfried is granted refuge at an allied royal court. Under the watchful eye of his spell-casting mother, Hjordis, Siegfried rigorously trains for his big day of revenge, becoming a powerful warrior. Acquiring a magical sword forged from a fallen star, he sets out to rid the land from the brutal reign of the dragon Fafnir and to gain control over the gold Fafnir stole from the mythical Nibelungs. Victorious, Siegfried baths in the dragon's blood, making him invincible. His merriment is quickly tarnished, however, when the Nibelungs appear, wanting their gold back. Frustrated that they will not even negotiate their fair share, Siegfried, leaves the a portion, but takes for himself The Ring- the beautiful core piece of the Nibelung treasure. He unwisely chooses to ignore the Nibelung curse: he who possesses the Ring |
| Day In Paris, A (Une Journee a Paris) | In this program, viewers join Sophie and Pierre as they spend a day in Paris visiting some world- famous attractions: the Louvre Museum, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral. The teens travel by boat on the Seine, board the Paris Metro, and then proceed on foot down the Champs-Elysees, where they stop for lunch at an outdoor cafe. An engaging and informative Cultural experience at entry level, Sophie and Pierre's rapid and authentic delivery will expand the vocabulary and listenning skills of students. |
| Days of Glory (Indigènes) | Algeria, 1943, through Italy and France, to Alsace in early 1945, with a coda years later. Arabs volunteer to fight Nazis to liberate France, their motherland. We follow Saïd, dirt poor, an orderly for a grizzled sergeant, Martinez, a pied noir with some willingness to speak up for his Arab troops; Messaoud, a crack shot, who in Province falls in love with a French woman who loves him back; and Abdelkader, a corporal, a budding intellectual with a keen sense of injustice. The men fight with courage against a backdrop of small and large indignities: French soldiers get better food, time for leave, and promotions. Is the promise of liberty, equality, and fraternity hollow? |
| Deceits of Scapin | Scapin constantly lies and tricks people to get ahead. He is an arrogant, pompous man who acts as if nothing were impossible for him. However, he is also a diplomatic genius. He manages to play the other characters off of each other very easily, and yet manages to keep his overall goal — to help the young couples — in sight. In their fathers' absence, Octave has secretly married Hyacinthe and Léandre has secretly fallen in love with Zerbinette. But the fathers return from a trip with marriage plans for their respective sons. Scapin, after hearing many pleas for help, comes to their rescue. Thanks to many tricks and lies, Scapin manages to come up with enough money from the parents to make sure that the young couples get to stay married. But, no one knows who Hyacinthe and Zerbinette really are. It ends in the classic 'And they lived happily ever after,' and Scapin is even brought to the head of the table at the ending feast (even though he has to fake a fatal wound to make it happen). |
| Decline of the American Empire | Four very different Montreal university teachers gather at a rambling country house to prepare a dinner. Remy (married), Claude (a homosexual), Pierre (involved with a girlfriend) and Alain (a bachelor) discuss sex, the female body and their affairs with them. Meanwhile, their four female guests, Louise (Remy's wife of 15 years), Dominique (a spinster), Diane (a divorcée) and Danielle (Pierre's girlfriend) are spending the time at a downtown health gym. They also discuss sex, the female body and, naturally, men. Later in the evening, they finally meet at the country house and have dinner. The discussion? Well, you can guess it... However, a ninth guest, named Mario, who used to know Diane, drops in on the group for some talk and has a surprise of his own. |
| Delicatessen | From Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the award-winning director of AMÉLIE, comes a unique and surreal dark comedy that received overwhelming critical acclaim! In a post-apocalyptic society where meat is scarce, cannibalism is no longer unsavory. And when a young ex-clown takes a job in a dilapidated deli, he's completely unaware that the butcher plans to serve him to the building's bizarre tenants! But when the butcher's nearsighted daughter falls for the clown, she'll go to absurd lengths to foil her father's plan! |
| Department 36 (36 Quai Des Orfèvres) | In the underbelly of the Parisian criminal world, the Police are frustrated by a gang committing a series of violent robberies. Leo Vrinks and Denis Klein are two cops seeking promotion and the imminent departure of the Chief sets the scene for them to compete for the vacant throne. Their competition between them becomes increasingly ruthless and blurs the usual lines of morality until there seems no difference between the police and the criminals they chase. Vrinks, meeting with a source, becomes involved with a murder. Klein seizes the opportunity to up the ante and arranges for the arrest of Vrinks but when he goes further and viciously involves Vrinks' wife, Camille, revenge is inevitable. |
| Destination (The City of Quebec) | Welcome to North America's oldest and most romantic city. Old Quebec is a masterpiece of preserved history. A walled city poised high above the beautiful St. Laurence River. Experience the culture, sights and attractions of Quebec City. Visit: Old Quebec, Citadel and Chateau, Frontenac, Musee de la civilization, The Quebec Aquarium, The Huron Village and The magnificent Quebec Winter Carnaval. |
| Diabolique | Before Psycho, Peeping Tom, and Repulsion, there was Diabolique. This thriller from Henri‑Georges Clouzot (Le corbeau, The Wages of Fear), which shocked audiences in Europe and the U.S., is the story of two women—the fragile wife and the willful mistress of a sadistic school headmaster—who hatch a daring revenge plot. With its unprecedented narrative twists and unforgettably scary images, Diabolique is a heart-grabbing benchmark in horror filmmaking. |
| Diary of a Country Priest, The | A young priest arrives in the French country village of Ambricourt to attend to his first parish, but the apathetic and hostile rural congregation rejects him immediately. Through his diary entries, the suffering young man relays a crisis of faith that threatens to drive him away from the village and from God. The fourth film by Robert Bresson (Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne) finds the director beginning to implement his stylistic philosophy as a filmmaker, stripping away all inessential elements from his compositions, the dialogue and the music, and exacting a purity of image and sound. |
| Dinner for Cretins (Le Diner De Cons) | To amuse themselves at a weekly dinner, a few well-heeled folk each bring a dimwit along who is to talk about his pastime. Each member seeks to introduce a champion dumbbell. Pierre, an avid participant of the game, runs into one problem after another that devilishly compromises his secrets, turning the tables on him and his objective, which diverges as the movie progresses. Firstly, wishing to be certain he has selected a winner, he invited his guest, Mr. Pignon, to meet him at home before setting off; but night of all nights, Pierre has put his back out and it is questionable whether he can manage to get to the dinner. The blundering Mr. Pignon will continually spring forward to help relieve Pierre of his troubles, which have drastically compounded, pointing in the direction of friends, taxes and women, and Pierre's dimwit Pignon accordingly will prove his substance to the end. |
| Doctor Despite Himself, The (Le medecin malgré lui) | An attack on doctors, written seven years in advance of The Imaginary Invalid, and was a loosely structured farce, in which a woodcutter, again, by the name of Sganarelle, (Moliere, himself, by the way, played all the Sganarelles) finds himself mistaken for a doctor, when his angry wife plays a trick on him. Of course the patient that he is called in to see is only faking an illness to keep from being married off to someone she doesn't love. In the meantime, however, Sganarelle develops an irresistable urge toward the household's wetnurse, discovering that the disguise of doctor provides a cover for any number of abuses. |
| Dog of Flanders, A | Thanks to the support of a loving dog that he helps nurse back to health, an aspiring young artist never gives up hope, despite being subjected to all sorts of terrible hardships. |
| Dom juan | The story of this play follows the last two days in the life of a young courtier, Dom Juan Tenorio, a libertine, a seducer of women and an atheist. He is accompanied throughout the play by his valet, Sganarelle, a truculent, superstitious, cowardly, greedy fellow who engages with his master in intellectual debates. The unrepentant Don Juan will not escape the vengeance of Heaven, and he is ultimately punished. The various settings are all in Sicily. |
| Dreamlife of Angels, The | In Lille, two penniless young women with few prospects become friends. Isa moves in with Marie, who's flat-sitting for a mother and child in hospital in comas following a car crash. Isa is out-going, unskilled, with hopes of moving south to warmer climes. Marie usually is either angry or detached. Then, while Isa begins to visit the child in whose flat they live, going to hospital to read to her, Marie slowly falls for a rich youth. At first Marie keeps him at bay, then she not only pursues him, she begins to dream he is her life's love. When Isa tries to warn Marie, their friendship flounders. How will Marie handle the inevitable? And once they lose the flat, where will they go? |
| Dreamlife of Angels, The | 42-year-old Erick Zonca first gained international success with this chronicle of a tenuous friendship between two young women in northern France. Élodie Bouchez and Natacha Régnier shared the Best Actress award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival for their work as the two directionless girls, who find romance and meager work as the situations arise. Zonca uses the two characters as representatives of the kinds of positive and negative emotional choices that affect people for the rest of their lives: while Bouchez's Isa shows an affinity for neglected, sensitive souls like herself, Régnier's Marie deepens her wounds by taking up with men who reinforce her low sense of self-worth. Régnier's short-fused performance commands immediate attention, but it's Bouchez's delicate, reserved compassion that makes the film worth seeing. Zonca is an affectionate but distanced director; events in the film occur with an unhurried authenticity. |
| Drummer-Crab ( Le Crambe Tambour) | A dying French naval frigate captain tries to make a last rendezvous in the winter storm-tossed seas off the Grand Banks, with 'le crab tambour,' a French war hero he had betrayed twenty years earlier. 'Le crab tambour' the drummer crab' was a boyhood nickname for the handsome young Alsatian whom the film depicts proving his courage, first in the war in French Indochina, and then again in the 'Generals' Revolt' in Algeria. Courtmartialed because friends like the French naval captain were afraid to risk their own careers by testifying for him, the exiled 'crab tambour' and his trawler, The Shamrock, is now a legend among the Grand Banks fishermen. |
| Elegant Criminal | On 9 January 1836, Pierre Lacenaire goes to the guillotine, a murderer and a thief. He gives Allard, a police inspector, his life story, written while awaiting execution. He also asks Allard to care for Hermine, a lass to whom he has been guardian for more than ten years. In flashbacks, from the prison as Lacenaire writes, from Allard's study as he and Hermine read, and from other readers' memory after the book is published, we see Lacenaire's childhood as he stands up to bullies, including priests, his youthful thieving, his first murder, his brief army career, his seduction of a princess, and his affair with Avril, a young man who dies beside him. |
| Equality for All (Egalite for All: Toussaint Louverture & Haitian) | Egalité for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolutiontells the story of the only successful slave insurrection in history. It grasped the full meaning of French revolutionary ideas — liberté, eqalité, fraternité — and used them to create the world’s first black republic. It changed the trajectory of colonial economics ... and led to America’s acquisition of the Louisiana territory from France. “It” was the Haitian Revolution, a movement that’s been called the true birth moment of universal human rights. Vaguely remembered today, the Haitian Revolution was a hurricane at the turn of the nineteenth century — traumatizing Southern planters and inspiring slaves and abolitionists, worldwide. |
| Eternal Return | In his adaptation of the Tristan and Isolde legend, Jean Cocteau modernizes its eternal theme while making his mark as a master of poetic realism. The tragic story of a young man who falls hopelessly in love with his uncle's wife conjures both beauty and agony through intense dramatic performances, romantic Wagnerian music, and imaginative settings. |
| Eye of Vichy | 'The Eye of Vichy' is a brilliantly chosen compilation of long forgotten film footage and newsreels produced by the Nazis and French collaborators during World War Two. From the small town of Vichy in central France, Field Marshall Petain's puppet government worked with their nazi overlords in creating pro-Nazi propaganda. Seeking to turn the tide of public emotion against both the Allied Forces and the Jews, they skillfully produced a strange alternative history of the war years that is shocking and grimly fascinating. French New Wave founder Claude Chabrol creates a masterful look at Nazis and media manipulation that is as engrossing as any of his thrillers. |
| Faat Kine | In Faat Kine, Ousmane Sembene, the unquestioned father of African cinema, calls his fellow Africans to a reckoning of the post-independence era at the beginning of a new century. At 77, he sums up 40 years of path-breaking filmmaking with a penetrating analysis of the interplay of gender, economics and power in today's Africa. Sembene accomplishes all this through the deceptively light domestic drama of Faat Kine, a gas station operator born, significantly, the same year as Senegalese independence, 1960. Faat Kine is, from its first shot to its surprising last, Sembene's tribute to what he calls the 'everyday heroism of African women.' In the opening frame, a procession of traditionally dressed women wends its way majestically through the hectic heart of modern Dakar. Faat Kine lets them pass and drives on as she carries their story into the present. Sembene has said: 'Africa's society and economy are held together today by women. But how can women have these responsibilities and yet be denied the same privileges as men?' Although the film covers several days, it feels more like a single day in the life of Faat Kine, from learning of her children's successful exam results in the morning to their party that night. This apparently uneventful plot is interspersed with brief flashbacks, announced by music cues, as Faat Kine recalls the struggles that made this moment of quiet achievement possible. Sembene dares in this latest film to reduce narrative to a minimum because Faat Kine is not so much a drama of events, as a drama of recognition, a long-overdue accounting which in its last scenes turns into a virtual public trial of a generation of misleaders. Throughout the film, it becomes clear that traditional roles, between males and females, parents and children, no longer apply and that it is time to start calling things by their real names. For example, Mammy describes herself as the 'daughter' of her daughter. |
| Far Side of The Moon | A man pondering the unrecognized aspects of space travel has more than a few problems to contend with on Earth in this French Canadian drama. Phillippe (Robert Lepage) is 'professional student' who lives with his ailing mother (Anne-Marie Cadieux) in a small, run-down apartment in Quebec. Phillippe has spent years working on his doctoral thesis, which looks at the philosophical and emotional consequences of the race into space between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1960s and '70s. Phillippe just barely supports himself as a telemarketer, his cold-calling has put him in touch with a former girlfriend who isn't especially happy to hear from him, and an attempt to discuss his research with a former Russian cosmonaut has near-disastrous results. Phillippe also has to put up with his younger brother André (also played by Lepage), a television weather announcer who has money, a small degree of fame, a handsome boyfriend, and almost no respect for Phillippe. As his mother's health takes a severe turn for the worst, Phillippe's luck seems to have changed at last when he's invited to Russia to discuss his recently published thesis on the space program, but André is not willing to help look after their mother. Far Side of the Moon (aka La Face Cachée de la Lune) was written, directed, and edited by leading man Lepage, who adapted the script from his own stage play. |
| Farewell, My Queen | In July 1789, the French Revolution is rumbling. Far from the turmoil, at the Château de Versailles, King Louis XVI, Queen Marie-Antoinette and their courtiers keep on living their usual carefree lives. But when the news of the storming of the Bastille reaches them, panic sets in and most of the aristocrats and their servants desert the sinking ship, leaving the Royal Family practically alone. Which is not the case of Sidonie Laborde, the Queen's reader, a young woman, entirely devoted to her mistress; she will not give her up under any circumstances. What Sidonie does not know yet is that these are the last three days she will spend in the company of her beloved Queen |
| Father And Son (Hautot Pere et Fils, Chez Maupassant) | Victim of a hunting accident, Hautot father is a rich peasant who reveals his double life to his son and asks him to take care of his mistress. |
| Fire Within | An alcoholic French intellectual (Maurice Ronet) sets a date to die, then shoots himself. |
| Flower of Evil | A seemingly respectible and distinguished family's foundations begin to crack after one of its members decides to run for mayor, a body turns up in their home, and all the family's secrets and criminal activities come to light. |
| France the visit | Following American director Mark Daniels' camera you can marvel at the incomparable harmony of the countryside, the architecture and the encounters between man and the earth throughout 2000 years of history. The journey will introduce you to, among others, Louis XIV at Versailles, Monet at Giverny, Vercingetorix at Alesia, the Plantagenets at Fontevrault, the shadow of Chateaubriand over Saint Malo… Those interested in history, and particularly that of art, will be delighted by the visit to the castles of the Loire Valley, which describe the Gothic, Renaissance and classical styles. This is an exceptional initiation to France. A visit which draws to a close by flying over the rocky inlets of Cassis and with the view from the port of Marseilles, on the Mediterranean coast, inviting us on other journeys. |
| French Calendars (CALENDRIER DES FRANCAIS) | Daily life in France is punctuated by a series of appointments that return to a fixed date. |
| French Chronicles | In Paris, Mireille Belleau hurries to class at the Sorbonne. On her way, she exchanges greetings with several friends and acquaintances. |
| French City Speaks , A (Tape II) | Forty episodes with views on France and the French motivated by the information and opinions of the inhabitants of Nogent-le-Rotrou. |
| French City Speaks, A (Tape I) | Forty episodes with views on France and the French motivated by the information and opinions of the inhabitants of Nogent-le-Rotrou. |
| French Commercials | |
| French in Action 1: Orientation 2: Genesis I | Lesson 3 – Genesis II- Definite and indefinite articles- Masculine and feminine forms- Infinitive of verbs- The immediate future tenseLesson 4 – Genesis III- Gender of nouns; agreement in gender and number- Elision and liaison- Masculine and feminine endings, review and extension- Forms of –er verbs in the present tense- Forms of être in the present tense |
| French in Action 3: Genesis II 4: Genesis III | FAMILIES: Talking about family relationships; asking the identity of people and things. Numbers 100-999,000,000; dates; partitive; possessive adjectives. PORTRAITS: Describing others; talking about games; expressing agreement and disagreement; talking about time; talking about the weather. Present tense with il y a ... que and ça fait ... que; possessive and demonstrative adjectives; stressed pronouns; venir; savoir versus connaître. |
| French in Action 5: Families 6: Portraits I | The birth of the intellectual: Zola and Proust; the Great War: pacifism and surrealism; the Bolshevik Revolution, the new religion of Communism, André Malraux; the growing signals of terror from Moscow, which go unheeded. |
| French Intellectuals in the 20th Century Part 1 | Great Expectations: The birth of the Intellectual: Zola and Proust; the Great War; pfacifism and surrealism; the Bolshevik Revolution, the new religion of Communism, Andre Malraux; the growing signals of terror from Moscow, which go unheeded. |
| French Intellectuals in the 20th Century Part 2 | Days of Contempt: The rise of Facism, which at first seemed like a logical outgrowth of the October Revolution; the Nazi occupation of France and French collaboraation, the Spanish Civil War; resistance. |
| French Intellectuals in the 20th Century Part 3 | Lost Illusions: The French Communist Party and anti-Stalinism; the Algerian War; Jean Genet, Franz Fanon, Satre, and the cause of Third World Revolution. |
| French Intellectuals in the 20th Century Part 4 | The Demise of the Prophets : Intellectuals and the new models like Communist Cuba; birth of the Maoist intellectual, with Sartre and Simone de Beauvior distributing Maoist tracts in the street; the latest revolutions: Iran and Cambodia, whose excesses lead the intellectuals to a new cause- human rights; the death of Sartre--and the death of Chinese support for Communism, as seen at Tiananmen Square. |
| French Negatives | A Highly visual and humorously dramatic introduction to the concept of the negative in language and specifically to the nature and proper usage of ne, pas, plus, jamais, rien, and personne. Produced by the Inner London Education Authority, whose success in teaching French is attested to by the large number of Londoners who now speak a fluent, correct, and well-accented French. (25 minutes) |
| French Revolution: And Royalty (La Revolution Francaise: et la Royauté) | The Etats Generaux covered at Versailles on May 5, 1789 and was immediatley beset by conflict. This program follows the stormy proccedings as the king was transformed from sovereign to premier office-holder. Paris on July 14, turmoil; July 17, the king leaves Versailles-- Unrest begins in the provinces; August 4, the feudal regime is abolished; August 26, the Declaration des droits de l'bomme et du citoyen is published; October 5 Parsians march to Versailles and on the following day seize the King. The imprisonment of the king had begun. |
| French Revolution: Terror (La Revolution Francaise: La Terreur) | Where the Monarchy had represented government without citizens, the Revolution represented citizens without government. This program covers the rise of the Jacobins, the trial of the king, the fall of the Girondists, the revolutionary government, suspension of the constitution, centralization of power in the hands of the Committes- the Reign of Terror. The program concludes with the effects of the Terror: panic, the death of the Republican dream, the rise and fall of the Danon and Robespierre. |
| French Revolution: The Consulant and the Empire (La Revolution Francaise: Le Consulat et L'Empire) | With the coup d'etat of the 18th Brumaire, Napoleon overthrew the Directory. This program covers the creation of the new government, the civil code, and the administrative organization. It also covers the story of Napoleon. It ends as the Revolution ended with the coronation of Napoleon. 'Joseph, si Papa nous voyait...' |
| French Revolution: The Executive (La Revolution Francaise: Le Directoire) | The Terror ended, the Thermidoreans were in power, and the armies of France expanded in all directions. The nobility had emigrated; those who had been liberals become bourgeois; the ideas of the Enlightenment resurfaced, but in a darker mood. The program covers Talleyrand, the Constitution of 1795 (year 3 of the Revolution), the Italian campaign, the victories of 1796. The birth and growth of the Bonaparte legend culminated with his triumphant return from Egypt in 1798 and his alliance with the Royalists. |
| French Revolution: The Old Regime (La Revolution Francaise: L'Ancien Regime) | This program shows Versilles and its political purpose and the arbitrary applications applications of despotism: revocation of the Edict of Nantes, deportation of Huguenots, persecution of Jansenists, and the relationship between the King and the Church. When Louis XIV died, new political concepts were prevalent. the program covers Monterquieu, the parliament, the Encyclopedie, the ideas of Voltaire and Rousseau, and the satires of Beaumarchais. Financila difficulties beset the crown and Louis XVI convoked the Etats-Generaux, which had not met since 1614. |
| French Revolution: The Revolution and the Church (La Revolution Francaise: La Revolution et L'Eglise) | The revocation of the Edict of Nates and the close collaboration between the clergy and the monarchy fed the fires of anti-clericalism in France. This Program covers the dissolution of ecclesiastical orders and the civil organization of the clergy, and the beginning of anti-Revolution sentiments in the West. The program follows the development of the two types of clergy, Pretres assermentes and pretres refractaires; and the growing hostilities in the West as the Revolution came to be seen as anti- Catholic. |
| French Twist (Gazon Maudit) | After learning of her husband's infidelities, a housewife invites a lesbian to move in with them. None of their lives will ever be the same again. |
| Fullbright The Man, The Mission & The Message | America, in the middle of the 20th Century, was a country searching for a domestic and international identity. The end of World War II, followed by the Cold War, Korean, and Vietnam Wars; the American debate over civil rights; and, a global, economic sea change that laid a foundation for new alliances in Europe and Asia, were among the major events that shaped policies and programs, many of which continue to influence the lives of Americans today. Standing tall in the midst of these changes was Senator J. William Fulbright, a man whose political and intellectual influence helped define the United Nations, establish the Fulbright Program, and shape United States foreign policy. The vision of Senator Fulbright was of global, peaceful coexistence based upon a deep understanding and respect of other cultures as an alternative to conflict. When Fulbright died in 1995 his wife, Mrs Harriet Mayor Fulbright, began to explore ways to keep alive Fulbright's vision, his words, and ideas - many still relevant today. Harriet Fulbright understood one significant characteristic of her late husband's lifework: he was always examining the next horizon, searching for new, and better ideas in international relations. Senator Fulbright would not have wanted a reiteration of his own life to be his only legacy. His messages and his work should be debated, applied, even amended to new situations and events that shape our lives in the 21st Century. |
| Game of Love and Chance, The (Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard) | Orgon and his friend have decided to have their children marry, provided that the young folks take a liking to each other. Silvia has a maid, Lisette, and Dorante has a valet, Arlequin. Dorante decides that he can best observe the character of his fiance? by disguising himself as his own valet and having his valet pretend to be him. |
| Games of Love and Chance | A sensitive, daringly original and deeply human portrait of a group of teenagers living in the projects outside Paris and surviving in a world marginalized by society. Set during preparations for a school production, it captures their affections, quarrels and jealousies as well as the budding romance between shy Krimo and Lydia, the fiery blonde star. Krimo, a pre-thug with great, big dreams forms a tight crew with his friends that carries its weight around their dangerous ‘hood. Confident and sassy, Lydia is a romantic, stunning beauty driven by passion. Friends throughout their lives, as they move into adolescence, Krimo realizes he has fallen in love. Using the show as a way to get closer to Lydia, Krimo persuades his friend, Rachid, to give up the lead role. Krimo wants Lydia and he's far too smitten to be scared of looking ridiculous in front of his crew. Rejection, seduction, betrayal, and love are the heart of this universal coming-of-age story. |
| Gervaise | Rene Clement (Forbidden Games) faithfully re-creates Emile Zola's (Germinal) tragic tale of a heroic young mother who struggles to raise her children amidst the squalor and cruelty of the slums. Filled with powerful and moving images, Gervaise is an honest portrayal of the harshness of life for 19th-century working-class Parisians. Maria Schell and Francois Perier received major honors for their touching performances as the struggling Gervaise and her alcoholic husband. |
| Gigi | Weary of the conventions of Parisian society, a rich playboy and a youthful courtesan-in-training enjoy a platonic friendship, but it may not stay platonic for long. |
| Girl from Paris, The | Can a thirtysomething gal from the city find happiness with a goat farm and its aging overseer? Sandrine (Mathilde Seigner) is a computer expert who has successfully pursued a career in business; however, her career path was chosen to please her family more than herself, and Sandrine has decided to move away from the fast pace of city life to rural France. Hoping to put her job skills to work in a new context, Sandrine begins studying agriculture, and arranges to buy a goat farm from Adrien (Michel Serrault), an elderly farmer who is nearing retirement. Adrien will spend another year and a half at the farm in order to insure a smooth transition to Sandrine's management, but his attitude toward her speaks less of gratitude than resentment; he isn't eager to show her the workings of the farm he helped to build, and his behavior is more than a bit hostile. Using her computer skills, Sandrine creates a website that generates a whole new market for the goat cheese and fruit preserves the farm generates, which helps her win Adrien's grudging respect, and when Adrien falls ill and it looks possible he may not live out his final stay on the farm, he begins to open up to her, sharing all he knows about the farm, and a new level of admiration and trust grows between them. |
| Girl On The Bridge | It's night on a Paris bridge. A girl leans over Seine River with tears in her eyes and a violent yearning to drown her sorrows. Out of nowhere someone takes an interest in her. He is Gabor, a knife thrower who needs a human target for his show. The girl, Adele, has never been lucky and nowhere else to go. So she follows him. They travel along the northern bank of the Mediterranean to perform and in the process win a big fortune through gambling. Although both of them continue a platonic relationship, the sex-starved girl attempts to sleep with handsome guys she encounters throughout the journey. Finally, Adele falls in love with a newly-wed groom and both of them elope to Greece, while Gabor is stuck in Turkey. Then Adele is dumped by the groom. Only by now both Gabor and Adele realize that luck isn't with them unless they get together again. But both of them are so broke that they can't even feed themselves, let alone getting back to Paris and reunite... |
| Gleaners and I, The | Varda trains her ever-seeking eye on 'gleaners,' those who pick at already- harvested fields for the odd potato or turnip, who insist on finding a use for what society has determined it has no use for. Her investigation leads us from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets in Paris where her diverse and resourceful subjects share their life styles and choices. Varda's own ruminations on her life as a filmmaker (a gleaner of sorts), gives her a connection to her subjects that creates a touching human portrait that the L.A. Weekly called 'a protest film that's part social critique, part travelogue, but always an unsentimental celebration of human resilience. |
| Glimpses (West Africa) | |
| Good Cop Bad Cop (Bon Cop Bad Cop) | Two Canadian detectives, one from Ontario and the other from Quebec, must work together when a murdered victim is found on the Ontario Quebec border line. |
| Goodbye Children (Au revoir, les enfants) | This autobiographical recounting of Malle's most tragic memory begins in 1944 at an all-boy Catholic school. A young boy befriends a new student whom the others feel is different. When he discovers the new student is a Jew, he tells no one and remains a true friend. Tragedy strikes when a school employee tells the Gestapo they are hiding Jews and the student is arrested and taken away. |
| Grand Illusion | During the First World War, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are sent to a seemingly impenetrable fortress which seems impossible to escape from. |
| Grocer's Son, The | It is summer, and thirty-year-old Antoine is forced to leave the city to return to his family in Provence. His father is sick, so he must assume the lifestyle he thought he had shed driving the family grocery cart from hamlet to hamlet, delivering supplies to the few remaining inhabitants. Accompanied by Claire, a friend from Paris whom he has a secret crush on, Antoine gradually warms up to his experience in the country and his encounters with the villagers, who initially seem stubborn and gruff, but ultimately prove to be funny and endearing. Ultimately, this surprise French box-office hit is about the coming-of-age of a man re-discovering life and love in the countryside. |
| Haramuya | Fousseini tries to take care of his family according to the old precepts and the code of honor inherited from his ancestors. |
| Harem of Madame Osmane, The (Le Harem de madame Osmane) | In Algiers in 1993, while the civil war is starting, Mrs Osmane's tenants have to endure her bad temper. Her husband left her and the fear to lose her respectability haunt her. The former member of the Resistance during the Independence War persists in controlling the slightest moves of the households rather than struggle against her own frustrations. Learning her daughter is in love, the possibility of finding herself alone will push her to the limit: The symbolical Mrs Osmane 'harem' is about to collapse. |
| Hate | The film follows three young men and their time spent in the French suburban 'ghetto,' over a span of twenty-four hours. Vinz, a Jew, Saïd, an Arab, and Hubert, a black boxer, have grown up in these French suburbs where high levels of diversity coupled with the racist and oppressive police force have raised tensions to a critical breaking point. During the riots that took place a night before, a police officer lost his handgun in the ensuing madness, only to leave it for Vinz to find. Now, with a newfound means to gain the respect he deserves, Vinz vows to kill a cop if his friend Abdel dies in the hospital, due the beating he received while in police custody. |
| Haute Cuisine | Hortense Laborie is a celebrated chef living in the Perigord region. To her great surprise, the President of the Republic appoints her as his personal cook. She accepts reluctantly but once she has accepted her nomination, Hortense works her heart and soul to produce both a stylish and authentic cuisine. For a while, she manages to impose herself thanks to her sturdy character and despite the jealousies she arouses among the other chefs. For a while only, unfortunately for her and for... the President. |
| Heartbreaker | In a frothy, sexy feature The Huffington Post called an effervescent delight, Alex (Romain Duris of The Beat That My Heart Skipped) is a romantic for hire. If your daughter or sister or friend is falling for the wrong man, Alex will get her to fall for him, watch her dump the loser...and then break her heart by walking away. She ll be sad but wiser and lucky to have avoided a bad relationship. It s a highly profitable business with one rule: don t fall in love. When Alex is hired to woo Juliette (Vanessa Paradis of Girl On The Bridge), he breaks her heart...and his own rule. Starring two of the most beautiful actors in the world, Heartbreaker is the perfect date movie with a sweetly hilarious, Dirty Dancing-inspired finale that you ll never forget. |
| Hedgehog, The (Le Herisson) | Paloma is a serious and highly articulate but deeply bored 11-year-old who has decided to kill herself on her 12th birthday. Fascinated by art and philosophy, she questions and documents her life and immediate circle, drawing trenchant and often hilarious observations on the world around her. But as her appointment with death approaches, Paloma finally meets some kindred spirits in her building's grumpy concierge and an enigmatic, elegant neighbor, both of whom inspire Paloma to question her rather pessimistic outlook on life. |
| Henry V | He ruled a massive empire...and fought a mighty war! Kenneth Branagh, Paul Scofield, Derek Jacobi, Ian Holm, Emma Thompson and Judi Dench star in this heroic, action-packed epic based on the timeless play by William Shakespeare. 'Magnificent, passionate and steeped in powerful emotion' (The Washington Post), Henry V is a 'stunning,' (Leonard Maltin) OscarÂ(r)-nominated* adventure that takes its place amongst the greatest war films of all time.Having recently been crowned King of England, Henry (Branagh) commands a massive invasion to assert what he believes is his legal right to the throne of France. But a mighty army stands in his way...and the young monarch must rely on untested reserves of courage and cunning as he personally leads his outnumbered forces into a desperate battle for the honor and glory of the British Empire. |
| Heritage, The (L'Heritage, Chez Maupassant) | Based on the shorty story, The Heritage or L'Heritage by classic French author Guy de Maupassant. César Cachelin, an employee of the Ministry of the Navy, married his daughter Coralie to one of his colleagues, Léopold Lesable. The whole family lives in the expectation of rich Aunt Charlotte's legacy. But on the death of the latter, the will reveals that the fortune is destined for the child of the couple. The family then struggles unnecessarily to have this baby. |
| Hiroshima Mon Amor | A French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war. |
| Hockey Sweater, The | Based on a short story by Canadian author Roch Carrier. The Hockey Sweater is based on a real experience Carrier had in 1946 in his home town of Sainte-Justine, Quebec. The story centres on the obsession he and his friends had with the Montreal Canadiens' organization and their star player, Maurice 'The Rocket' Richard.[1] He writes of how they emulated Richard's style and mannerisms, and on the ice: 'we were five Maurice Richards against five other Maurice Richards, throwing themselves on the puck. We were ten players all wearing the uniform of the Montréal Canadiens, all with the same burning enthusiasm. |
| Holidays In France (Les Fetes en France) | France’s long and colorful history has given its people many reasons to celebrate—the country’s calendar contains a large number of historical and religious festivals. Filmed entirely in France, this entertaining program explores five of the most significant French holidays |
| Horace | Based on the classic Emile Zola novel, Jean Renoir's La bete humaine was one of the legendary director's greatest popular successes, tapping into the fatalism of a nation in despair. Jean Gabin's emblematic portrayal of doomed train engineer Jacques Lantier granted him a permanent place in the hearts of his countrymen. Part poetic realism, part film noir, the film is a hard-boiled and suspenseful journey into the tormented psyche of a workingman. |
| Horse of Pride, The (Le Cheval d'orgueil) | Based on Pierre-Jakez Helias' best-selling autobiographical novel of the same name, The Horse of Pride (Le Cheval D'Orgueil) is a lyrical tale of Britanny from 1908 to 1918 . Chabrol's 32nd feature, The Horse of Pride lovingly details the hardships and joys of French peasant life focusing on the story of a young couple who meet, marry and soon have a son . Too poor to own a real horse, they are content to ride 'their horse of pride', an adage passe d down from generation to generation. In addition to exploring the customs and folklore of the Bretons, the film reveals the important changes brought about by World War I - when the real world began to impose itself on these primitive environs and an era of innocence gradually came to a close. |
| Horseman on the Roof, The | A rousing, passionate adventure! In a world ravaged by revolution and violence, two strangers -- a handsome renegade (Oliver Martinez, UNFAITHFUL) and a beautiful countess (Binoche) -- find their only chance for survival in each other! Together they undertake a perilous cross-country journey where they will also discover unmatched danger, excitement ... and passion! |
| Human Resources | The 35-hour work week has all of France in its thrall. This film turns it into a feature about economic and familial politics. Frank, a business school graduate, returns to his provincial hometown to take a management position in the factory where his father has been working for 30 years. First Frank makes the mistake of actually asking the workers on the assembly line for their opinions. Then upper management manipulates his findings to lay off employees. This creates a huge rift, not only between labor and management, but between father and son. A human morality tale that evokes paternal and filial love, and illustrates the personal risk behind political ideas. |
| Hypocrite (Depardieu) (Le Tartuffe) | Moliere's timeless comedy, starring the incomparable Donald Moffat portraying the scoundrel Tartuffe, who manipulates his way into the confidence and affection of Orgon, an affluent bourgeois concerned with his own salvation. |
| I want well (J'veux Bien) | Filmed on location in Paris and surrounding areas, the 'J'veux bien!' video is a lively mix of narrated cultural segments and situational presentations illustrating language use. This 120-minute video coordinates with the eight chapters of the introductory program 'J'veux bien!' by Jeannette Bragger and Donald Rice |
| If I Really Understand (Si je comprends bien) | A documentary that captures sentiments toward francophone cultures between France, Quebec, and New England in the context of Quebec's 1980 sovereignty referendum. |
| Imaginary Invalid, The | To reduce his medical fees, hypochondriac M. Argan decides to marry off his daughter Angelica to a physician's son. Unfortunately, Angelica loves Clíante. Argan's brother Bíralde and Toinette, an inventive maid, save the situation for the lovers and expose Mme Argan's schemes to bleed her husband of his fortune. Then they persuade the hypochondriac to turn physician so that he can quack himself free of charge. |
| Impromptu | Composer Frédéric Chopin (Hugh Grant) is living in France, and his health is slowly deteriorating. Author Baroness Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin (Judy Davis), who writes under the name George Sand, admires Chopin from afar and makes plans to meet the composer. After being advised to stay away from Chopin, Sand shows up at a party he is attending and observes his fragile health. While Chopin tries to resist Sand, he is intrigued by a love letter written by an unknown admirer. |
| Incendies | A mother's last wishes send twins Jeanne and Simon on a journey to the Middle East in search of their tangled roots. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's acclaimed play, Incendies tells the powerful and moving tale of two young adults' voyage to the core of deep-rooted hatred, never-ending wars and enduring love. |
| Indigènes | During WWII, four North African men enlist in the French army to liberate that country from Nazi oppression, and to fight French discrimination. |
| Indochine | Deneuve stars as Elaine Devries, the seemingly repressed owner of a prosperous rubber plantation in French Indochina. Her steely exterior, however, is only a mask intended to hide her torrid love affairs from upperclass society. But when her adopted Indochinese daughter innocently falls in love with Eliane's secret lover, the scandalous lovers' triangle threatens to destroy their entire family. A sensual story of unbridled passionset against the violence of the bloody Communist uprising, INDOCHINE is a historically accurate, emotionally wrenching epic of love and war. |
| Intervision | Set in the future, this is the story of the success and fall of a man. |
| Intouchables | When Driss, an ex-con from the projects, is hired to take care of an eccentric French aristocrat named Philippe, his newfound job quickly becomes an unpredictable adventure. Speeding a Maserati through Paris, seducing women and paragliding over the Alps is just the beginning, as Driss turns the often humorous world of upper-class Parisian society upside-down. As this unlikely duo overcome adversity of every flavor in this true story, they also shatter their preconceptions of love, life and each other. |
| Is Paris Burning? | In this sprawling, star-laden film, we see the struggles of various French resistance factions to regain control of Paris near the end of World War II. The Nazi general in charge of Paris, Dietrich von Cholitz (Fröbe), is under orders from Hitler himself to burn the city if he cannot control it or if the Allies get too close. Much of the drama centers around the moral deliberations of the general, the Swedish ambassador (Welles), and the eager but desperate leaders of the resistance. |
| Italian Straw Hat, The (Un Chapeau de Paille D'italie) | Rene Clair s sparkling comedy of manners is a witty, delicate, inspired satire on propriety and behavior in the bourgeois mind-set. Transposing the action of the perennial stage farce from 1851 to a summer wedding day in 1895 the birth of cinema Clair recalls detail, costume and design captured by the first movies. The Italian Straw Hat Un Chapeau de paille d Italie triumphantly survives its 1927 journey from stage to screen; a dozen eccentric characters, superbly acted, try desperately to keep up appearances in the face of disaster, their attitudes, concerns and gestures exquisitely stylized under Clair s deft orchestration. The sets and costumes, too are a charming combination of the suffocating and the exact. A bridegroom is riding to his marriage when his horse eats a straw hat hanging on a branch while its owner, a married lady, enjoys a tryst behind the bush with her lover, a fierce hussar. She cannot go home without her hat, so the groom interlaces his wedding with an attempt to find madam a twin chapeau, launching a series of misunderstandings and embarrassments. |
| Jean de Florette | A greedy landowner and his backward nephew conspire to block the only water source for an adjoining property in order to bankrupt the owner and force him to sell. |
| Journey From the Fall | April 30 1975: the Fall of Saigon. American troops withdraw from Vietnam and the 21-year civil war is at an end. Four million Vietnamese are dead. Half a million South Vietnamese who fought with the Americans or worked in the government are sent to re-education camps. Close to two million Vietnamese flee by boat but before they reach safety thousands of them will die. From the jungles of Vietnam to the streets of Southern California Journey From the Fall tells the untold story of what happened to millions of Vietnamese in the aftermath of the war. |
| Jules and Jim | French New Wave filmmaker François Truffaut's third film tells a dilettantish ménage-â-trois taking place around World War I, with Jeanne Moreau as the femme fatale at its center. The major theme of the film is the inability of the characters (Jules, Jim and the woman both are infatuated with, Catherine) to abandon a stage of youthful idealism and the longing for an illusory freedom. Changing constantly from pathos to whimsy and back again, the film is still fascinating to watch after almost half a decade. Jeanne Moreau's tired beauty has an erotic suggestibility that remains unmatched in the history of cinema. |
| King is Dancing, The | The King is Dancing tells the story of Louis XIV (Benoit Magimel) heir to the throne of a troubled kingdom. The future king, a shy young man, has his destiny altered when muscian Jean-Baptiste Lully (Boris Terral) and the famed playwright Moliere (Tcheky Karyo) enter his life. They immediately recognize the young king's talent for dance and with breathtaking artistry they compose and stage ballets that glorify Louis's image. The young monarch is transformed into the The Royal Dancer - The Sun King, a God on earth. |
| King of Hearts | During the latter part of World War I, Private Charles Plumpick is chosen to go into the French town of Marville and disconnect a bomb that the German army has planted. However, Charles is chased by some Germans and finds himself holed up at the local insane asylum, where the inmates are convinced that he is the 'King of Hearts.' Feeling obligated to help the inmates, Charles attempts to lead them out of town, but they are afraid to leave and frolic about the streets in gay costumes. Will Charles be able to deactivate the bomb in time and save his newfound friends? |
| Kings of Pastry | The collar awarded to the winners of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman in France) is more than the ultimate recognition for every pastry chef - it is a dream and an obsession. The 3-day competition includes everything from delicate chocolates to precarious six foot sugar sculptures and requires that the chefs have extraordinary skill, nerves of steel and luck. The film follows Jacquy Pfeiffer, founder of The French Pastry School in Chicago, as he returns to France to compete against 15 of France's leading pastry chefs. The filmmakers were given first time/exclusive access to this high-stakes drama of passion, sacrifice, disappointment and joy in the quest to have President Sarkozy declare them one of the best in France. |
| Kirikou and the Sorceres | This animated film exquisitely recounts the tale of tiny Kirikou -- a clever, courageous little boy born in an African village in which Karaba the Sorceress has placed a terrible curse -- as he sets out on a quest to free his village of the curse and find out the secret of why Karaba is so wicked. Kirikou depicts a precocious newborn infant who battles ignorance, and so-called evil, with endearing perseverance. This film speaks to the child within us all who yearns to express and defend the best in others and ourselves. Kirikou's stunning visuals are accented by a traditional music soundtrack by African music giant Youssou N' Dour. |
| Kirikou and the Wild Beasts 'Kirikou et les bêtes sauvages' | Kirikou's Grandfather says that the story of Kirikou and The Witch was too short, so he proceeds to explain more about Kirikou's accomplishments. We find out how little boy became a gardener, a detective, a maker of pottery, a merchant, a traveler and a doctor. |
| Kirkou and the Witch 'Kirikou and the Sorceress' | In a troubled African village, an unusual baby is born. |
| Korkoro | In this passionate WWII drama, a tightly-knit family of Gypsies journeys through occupied France, trying to avoid the violent Vichy patrols. Directed with wit and vigor by Tony Gatlif (Latcho Drom), Korkoro unearths the hidden story of the Romany people s joys and struggles during the war.Along the way a young French orphan named Claude (Mathias Laliberté) joins their ranks, and is initiated into their culture. Under the tutelage of acrobatic wild man Taloche (James Thiérrée), Claude learns to love his adoptive family. As the Vichy government passes a law restricting their movement, they avoid capture with the help of a local mayor and schoolteacher, who also have ties to the Resis- tance. But the longer they avoid arrest, the more dangerous their lives become.With free-spirited humor and soaring emotion, Korkoro is a revelatory movie about a little known chapter in WWII history. The phenomenal performances, especially Thiérrée s intensely physical efforts, truly make history come alive. |
| The Birdcage(La Cage aux folles) | A likable 1977 French farce (and the basis for the 1996 American remake, The Birdcage), this popular comedy was one of the most successful international films of all time, and even spawned a Broadway musical and two sequels. It tells the story of a gay couple who--when one man's son from a previous liaison brings home his fiancée--masquerade as husband and wife for their prospective in-laws. The film is saved from becoming an exercise in silliness by the heartfelt characterizations of the gay nightclub owners. La Cage aux Folles is one of the funniest imports from Europe and a great comedy in any venue. |
| The Novena(La Neuvaine) | The faith of a caring physician and an unquestioningly religious youth is shaken to the core when the pair is inexplicably brought together. |
| La Vie en Rose | Edith Piaf is the subject of La Vie en Rose, director Olivier Dahan's powerful if emotionally redundant biographical film about the iconic French superstar whose life, as depicted here, seems to have been a numbing succession of tragedies interrupted on occasion by artistic triumph. Dahan's portrait begins with Piaf's stay in a brothel as a young girl. Left to the care of her grandmother (who runs the place) after her father pulls her away from a narcissistic mother, Piaf undergoes significant health problems and grows up to sing on the street in lieu of outright prostitution. The film pulses along with the usual biopic rhythms, with pivotal moments in the life of Piaf (played as an adult by Marion Cotillard) turning up regularly only to be smacked aside by the unseen hand of perpetual misfortune. There's the impresario (Gerard Depardieu) who recognizes Piaf's great but raw talent only to have a run-in with the criminal element around her. There's the heavyweight fighter (Marcel Cerdan) who becomes the love of Piaf's life but can't be with her. Drug addiction, random car accidents, tax problems, you name it, it's all here, topped by an unnerving revelation that pops up in La Vie en Rose's final moments. After awhile, with such a concentration of bad news squeezed into 140 minutes, one begins to wish Dahan had taken a more expansive approach to Piaf's life and times. But the film is never less than interesting, and the lead performance by Cotillard is often astonishing. --Tom Keogh |
| Lancelot of the Lake | This 1974 masterpiece by the late Robert Bresson (Mouchette) is a remarkable act of mythic revisionism. Stripped bare of its enduring romance, the Arthurian legend in Bresson's hands becomes an ugly and uncomfortably familiar vision of powerful men capable of cruelty, rivalry, disillusionment, and self-destruction. Lancelot (Luc Simon) is portrayed as a ruthless and ignoble opportunist who returns from his impossibly futile mission to locate the Holy Grail, only to callously rekindle his affair with Guinevere (Laura Duke Condominas). The emotional impact of the film is that of pure shock: the Arthurian ideal turns out to have little chance in the real world, and as there may be nothing worse than a hollow dream, the Knights of the Round Table descend into selfishness. Known as the great minimalist of French cinema, Bresson uses his trademark repression of energy--editing action sequences so that the visual emphasis is on tiny details--to create a tension that finally snaps with the mucky dissipation of the dream on unhallowed ground: Camelot ending not with a bang or a whimper but with the last clank of armor in a deluded cause. |
| Last Year At Marienband Connoisseur Video Collection VHS (Alain Resnais )' | In a huge, old-fashioned luxury hotel a stranger tries to persuade a married woman to run away with him, but it seems she hardly remembers the affair they may have had (or not?) last year at Marienbad. |
| Laurence Wylie | A walking tour of the village of Roussillon, France known as Peyrane. Wylie comments on the social changes which have occurred since his first visit in 1950. He interviews several of the inhabitants who add insights into contemporary French culture. |
| Le Chemin du retour (All Roads Lead Home) | The story is about a 12 year old girl who loses her mother in an automobile accident. Her father struggles with the loss of his wife and trying to raise his young daughter who believes her father is partly responsible for her mother's death. Belle's maternal grandfather is a changed man since losing his daughter in the accident. He finds it difficult to have a relationship with Belle since she is a constant reminder of her mother. It is Atticus the new puppy who will change Belle's life and the lives of those who love her. |
| The Grand Highway(Le Grand Chemin) | A really superior film, this story of a 9 year-old boy leaving his mother temporarily to live in a small French town. He becomes educated to the ways of adults with the help of a worldy-wise girl aged 10. Although children are featured, this definitely is an adult movie, not one for small children. Quite simply this is one of the Best French films of the last fifty years. The relatively unknown Jean-Loup Hubert has produced the kind of film that the overrated Godard could not turn out if you gave him a hundred years (to be fair to the semi-Amateur Godard he would probably have no interest in addressing the Human Condition in such a refreshing straightforward fashion). The tone is set from the first with a wistful, haunting music track leading us into a nineteen fifties French countryside preserved in amber as Christine Pascal entrusts her son (Antoine Hubert) to the care of her friend Marcelle (Anemone) and her husband Pelo (Richard Bohringer). This is a French film and French film in a rural setting so we meet Marcelle as she is removing the eye of a rabbit with a knife as a prelude to skinning it. It's a great metaphor for the changes Louis will experience in the next few weeks (you don't see this in Paris, kid) and it also prepares us, the audience, for an arguably alien lifestyle embracing outside privys and indoor chamber pots. Writer-director Hubert (he adapted his own autobiographical novel for the screen) bravely cast his own son, Antoine, in the key role of Louis, despite the boy's complete lack of acting experience and the experiment paid off handsomely. Nor can we argue that he found it easy to coax a performance from his own flesh and blood because he has coaxed an even better performance from Vanessa Guedi as Martine, the ten-year-old tomboy who teaches Louis so much in such a short time. |
| Learned Women 'Les Femmes Savantes', The | Les Femmes savantes (The Learned Ladies) is a comedy by Molière in five acts, written in verse. A satire on academic pretention, female education, and préciosité (French for preciousness), it was one of his most popular comedies. It premiered at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal on 11 March 1672. |
| Les Beurettes | |
| Les Boys | Ever wanted to know what guys say when they get together? This light- hearted comedy explores the male world through an amateur hockey team. Every male stereotype is analyzed, comically of course. |
| Les Fêtes en France | France's long and colorful history has given its people many reasons to celebrate- the country's calendar contains a large number of historical and religious festivals. Filmed entirely in France, this entertaining program explores five of the most significant French holidays: Pâques (Easter), Les Fêtes des Rois (Three Kings Day), Poisson dÁvril (April Fool's Day), La Fête Nationale (The National Celebration, also known in English as Bastille Day), and Nöel (Christmas). The video addresses the importance of cultural awareness in learning a language. |
| Les Miserables | This brilliant film manages to reinterpret the story of Victor Hugo's classic novel, critique it, and investigate the nature of art and life on top of that--all in three hours that zip past, fueled by the dynamic performance of French icon Jean-Paul Belmondo (Breathless, Le Doulos). In 1900, Henri Fortin (Belmondo) is wrongfully imprisoned for murder; his loyal wife is forced into menial labor and prostitution; then in the beginning of World War II, Fortin's son (Belmondo again) helps a Jewish family elude the Nazis, setting in motion his own imprisonment, escape, and adventures as a criminal. Not only is that just the first half of the movie, there are also the story lines of the husband, wife, and daughter of the Jewish family, who each have their own struggles. The conclusion is joyous and heartbreaking. Director Claude Lelouch (A Man and a Woman) handles the entire movie with supreme skill, humor, and compassion. |
| Liberation of Normandie, The | |
| Liberation of Paris, The | In August 1944, after four years of occupation, Parisians revolted against the Germans, ahead of the arrival of Allied troops. General de Gaulle welcomed the residents in his famous speech to the City Hall.To understand how this liberation did indeed take place, the director went to meet witnesses of the time, like veterans of the German army, resistance fighters, American soldiers and the simple people. |
| Life And Nothing But | January, 1920. 350,000 French soldiers remain missing in action. Major Dellaplane tirelessly matches the dead and the wounded with families' descriptions. Honor and ethics drive him; he hates the idea of 'the unknown soldier.' Into his sector, looking for her husband, comes a haughty, politically connected Parisian, Madame Irène de Courtil. Brusquely, Dellaplane offers her 1/350,000th of his time, but as their paths cross and she sees his courage and resolve, feelings change. After he finds a surprising connection between her missing husband and a local teacher, Irène makes Dellaplane an offer. This man of action hesitates: has he missed his only chance? |
| Life Is a Long Quiet River | Two babies are switched at birth. When the mistake is discovered 12 years later, it leads to complications in the lives of both families. One family is affluent, with dutiful and (apparently) contented children. The other family is poor, with rambunctious (even delinquent) children, often hungry, but with lots of laughter in the house. |
| Little Girl who sold the Sun, The (Cinema d'afrique DVD) | A twelve year old paraplegic becomes the first girl to sell a daily newspaper in the competitive world of young male newspaper vendors. |
| Little Nicholas (Le petit Nicolas) | This dark, slightly absurdist comedy from France topped the French box office in 2009, becoming a local phenomenon. It is narrated by Nicolas (Maxime Godart), an eight-year-old boy supremely happy with his loving, doting parents and a colorful group of friends. It seems that life couldn't possibly improve - until Nicolas eavesdrops on his folks and surmises that his mother is pregnant. Horrified, he envisions a scenario where a new baby brother arrives and crowds him out of the house, leaving his parents with no time to care for him. Nicolas and his friends then cook up a series of wild schemes to dispose of the baby. |
| Little Red Ridding Hood | These simple renditions of the Little Red Ridding Hood story privide a perfect opportunity to let students hear a foreign language in a context where understanding is virtually assured. |
| Living in France | Three attendees at a puppet theater don various roles in order to sing a variety of songs by Jacques Brel, all while hippies and other eccentrics cavort about them. |
| Look at Me | Celebrity has unexpected consequences for everyone who lives in its shadow, as the family, friends and hangers-on of a famous writer discover in Look at Me, a witty and amusing comedy that won Best Screenplay at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Lolita's father is a writer whose fame has made him so self-centered he has no clue the effect his egotistical behavior has on everyone around him. Now that she has grown up, Lolita becomes even more determined to make him notice her - especially since she's discovered a talent of her own and would like his approval. There are people who she thinks willhelp her, but she always winds up competing against them for her father's attention. And when she meets a guy who likes her for herself, Lolita finds she may actually be more like her father than shewould ever have imagined. |
| Looking for Life | Celebrate the bicentennial of the Louvre with three programs that explore the fascinating history of the museum, provide a look at the world's most precious art, and reveal how the museum and its extraordinary collections inspired great painters and sculptors throughout the ages. |
| Louvre 200 Series (Vol.1 A Museum In Time/ Vol. 2 Selected Places/ Vol. 3 At the Lour | Celebrate the bicentennial of the Louvre with three programs that explore the fascinating history of the museum, provide a look at the world's most precious art, and reveal how the museum and its extraordinary collections inspired great painters and sculptors throughout the ages. |
| Love (Amour) | Insightful. Original. Exquisite. Georges and Anne have known a lifetime of love within their intimate marriage. Though their bond has survived time’s test, it’s about to meet its greatest challenge. |
| Love Me If You Dare | LOVE ME IF YOU DARE depicts the romantic story of Julian and Sophie, who meet in grade school and create an intense game of 'Dare' to distract them from the harsh realities of their lives. Over time their game becomes a mutual infatuation that binds them for life. Ultimately the childhood game remains with them into adulthood where it challenges their most cherished fantasies. Eventually, each of them is forced to decide between the game and genuine romance. |
| Lover, The | The Lover brilliantly captures the essence of sexual awakening and forbidden desire like no other film has donebeforeor since. Jane March is mesmerizing in the role of a poor French teenager who engages in an illicit affair with a wealthy Chinese heir (Tony Leung) in 1920s Saigon. For the first time in her young life she has control, and she wields it deftly over her besotted lover throughout a series of clandestine meetings and torrid encounters. But though the lovers are able to transcend their differences in age, race and class'theirs is a future that French colonial Vietnamese society will never allow. |
| LUMUMBA | LUMUMBA is a gripping political thriller which tells the story of the legendary African leader Patrice Emery Lumumba. Called 'the politico of the bush' by journalists of his day, the brilliant and charismatic Lumumba, rose rapidly to the office of Prime Minister when Belgium conceded the Congo's independence in June, 1960. |
| Madame Bovary | Gustav Flaubert's celebrated novel of obsessive ardor undergoes a dazzling retrofit for the screen, courtesy of French neurosis-master Claude Chabrol. The basic story (a woman's selfish quest for happiness ends up obliterating all she holds dear) may be the same, but Chabrol's talent for biting through to the dark marrow of passion makes this a startling experience, even for people familiar with the source material or the numerous other cinematic adaptations. Casting Isabelle Huppert in the title role (she's at least a decade older than the standard conception of this willfully tragic heroine) was a potentially risky gambit that paid off big; underneath her glorious surface lies a startling foundation of brilliant ice. The same can be said about this stunning film. Viewers intrigued by this potent actress-director pairing may also want to check out The Story of Women and the wonderful La Ceremonie. In French with English subtitles. --Andrew Wright |
| Mademoiselle Chambon | A love story that has bewitched audiences and critics worldwide, Mademoiselle Chambon is an 'exquisite chamber piece' (LA Times) that delicately captures the initial stirrings of romance. Vincent Lindon plays Jean, a burly and happily married housing contractor. One fateful afternoon, he picks up his son (Arthur Le Houérou) from school and meets the teacher, a willowy beauty named Mademoiselle Chambon (Sandrine Kiberlain). Their flirtation slowly builds over lingering glances and an impromptu violin solo in Chambon s apartment. Like the classical music they swoon over, their relationship builds through subtle movements: the tilt of a head, or an inadvertent brush of the cheek, fills their hearts with longing. Jean soon comes to a crossroads, having to choose between the intensity of his bond with Chambon or the responsibility and care he feels for his wife (Aure Atika) and child. A 'beautifully observed' (NY Magazine) evocation of what it feels like to fall dizzyingly in love, Mademoiselle Chambon won the Cesar (the French Oscar) for best Adapted Screenplay, and is an unqualified triumph for director Stéphane Brizé |
| Maelstrom | A film about a beautiful young fashion designer and heiress who sleepwalks through her pampered life with little enthusiasm until an abortion, a disastrous business deal, and a traffic accident shake her out of her complacency. |
| Maids, The (Les Bonnes) | Solange and Claire are two housemaids who construct elaborate sadomasochistic rituals when their mistress (Madame) is away. The focus of their role-playing is the murder of Madame, and they take turns portraying either side of the power divide. The deliberate pace and devotion to detail guarantees that they always fail to actualize their fantasies by ceremoniously 'killing' Madame at the ritual's denouement. |
| Mama, There's a Man in Your Bed | This is a story about a rich white man who falls in love with Juliet the full figured black woman who cleans his offices at night. After learning of his wife's affair with one of his work partners and the sabotage of his business he is left broken and is taken in by Juliet who then shows him what real true love is ... If you have not yet seen this movie then you are missing out on what real true love means, it does not matter what color you are, or what size you are it's how your heart feels and that's what this beautiful love story shows us all ... a must see! |
| Manon of the Spring | A beautiful but shy shepherdess plots vengeance on the men whose greedy conspiracy to acquire her father's land caused his death years earlier. |
| Manon of the Springs (Manon des Sources) | Manon (Emmanuelle Beart), now fully grown, is a shepherdess who prefers to keep her distance from the local villagers. She is determined to uncover the truth behind the death of her father (played by Gerard Depardieu in Jean de Florette) and to wreak vengeance on the men she holds responsible. The more sympathetic of the two men, Ugolin (Daniel Auteil), is in love with Manon, but this does not weaken her resolve. She causes the village's water supply to diminish, blaming this action upon Ugolin and his duplicitous co-conspirator Cesar (Yves Montand). The upshot of this vengeful behavior ends in tragedy for all concerned. The joint winners of eight French Cesar awards, Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring were released to the U.S. in tandem in 1987. |
| Marguerite Duras | Adler, through her exploration of the events central to Duras's career, including her affair with and eventual denunciation of a Nazi collaborator and her childhood in Indochina, reveals Duras as the consummate pragmatist. She has combed through archives, unearthed letters, studied unpublished manuscripts, and interviewed scores of Duras's friends, lovers, enemies, and colleagues—as well as Duras herself—and she emerges with the richest portrait we have of Duras's life: her upbringing, her student days at the Sorbonne, her career as a novelist and filmmaker, and her involvement in French politics through the most complex decades of the twentieth century. 'The masks and the truth' was the headline of a French review of Marguerite Duras, and Adler explores both, probing the line between fiction and selfhood and between political activities and personal responsibility. |
| Marie Antoinette | The retelling of France's iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette. From her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at 15 to her reign as queen at 19 and to the end of her reign as queen, and ultimately the fall of Versailles. |
| Marie Antoinette | Her name is synonymous with the French monarchy and all its excesses, but there is more to the story of Marie Antoinette than the simple tale of how a frivolous sovereign helped provoke the uprising that became the French Revolution. Acclaimed documentary filmmaker David Grubin paints a surprising portrait of a courageous figure and traces her journey from the splendors of a childhood in the mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire to a French guillotine. |
| Marseillaise, La | A news-reel like movie about early part of the French Revolution, shown from the eyes of individual people, citizens of Marseille, counts in German exile and, of course the king Louis XVI, showing their own small problems. |
| May Fools | Like Vanya, in Malle's last film, Milou never left the family estate. His mother dies during the May 1968 student uprising in Paris. The brother who is the London correspondent for Le Monde keeps turning up the volume of the radio for the latest news. A deceased sister's interest in the estate is represented by a niece who is an antique dealer, who is most interested in grandmother's emerald ring that Milou's daughter Camille has already slipped on her finger. A non-relative, a truck driver who can't deliver his load of tomatoes in Paris, brings a nephew who was part of the uprising. Everyone is on strike and the matriarch can't be buried. |
| Memories of Immigrants (Memoires d'Imigres) | A three part story of the North African immigration to France. |
| Menu, The (Le Menu) | A gourmet walk through our countryside with exceptional craftsmen, a menu cooked by chef Bernard Pacaud of L'Ambroisie, one of the best cooks in the world.Libération: 'It is a little feast of Babette that has prepared Frederic Laffont, going to look for the fellows behind the cool dear. |
| Merry Christmas (Joyeux Noel) | Joyeux Noel captures a rare moment of grace from one of the worst wars in the history of mankind, World War I. On Christmas Eve, 1914, as German, French, and Scottish regiments face each other from their respective trenches, a musical call-and-response turns into an impromptu cease-fire, trading chocolates and champagne, playing soccer, and comparing pictures of their wives. But when Christmas ends, the war returns...Joyeux Noel has been justly accused of sentimentality, but if any subject warrants such an earnest and hopeful treatment, it's the horrors of trench warfare. The largely unknown cast--the more familiar faces include Diane Kruger (Troy), Daniel Bruhl (Good Bye Lenin!), Benno Furmann (The Princess and the Warrior), and Gary Lewis (Billy Elliot)--deliver low-key but effective performances as the movie dwells on the everyday elements of life in the face of war. Based on a true incident (though considerably fictionalized). |
| Mesrine 1 & 2 | PART 1: KILLER INSTINCT Mesrine: Killer Instinct introduces us to Jacques Mesrine (Cassel), a loyal son and dedicated soldier back home and living with his parents after serving in the Algerian War. Handsome and charming, he is soon seduced by the neon glamour of Sixties Paris and the easy money it presents. Mentored by Guido (Gerard Depardieu) Mesrine soon moves swiftly up the criminal ladder, choosing the high risk life of a gangster over the honest life of the hard working family. After pulling of an audacious heist he and his lover Jeanne (Cecile de France), flee to Canada where the opportunity of one big payout lures him out of hiding and propels him towards international notoriety. PART 2: PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER 1 The incredible and brutal story of Jacques Mesrine (Vincent Cassel) continues in Mesrine: Public Enemy no 1. Now back in France, Mesrine is finally in police custody and facing justice for his crimes but he is soon on the run once again. After escaping a courtroom and kidnapping the judge at gunpoint, Mesrine is declared public enemy number one and is eventually condemned to a maximum security prison where he writes his first memoirs, establishing himself as a household name and anti-hero across France. Mesrine stages another daring escape and disappears into the lawless underworld, taunting the police and reinventing himself as a celebrity criminal through his savvy manipulation of the media. after such a monumental rise, comes the inevitable fall as Broussard closes in, bringing the life of Jacques Mesrine to full bloody circle. Director: Jean-François Richet Cast: Vincent Cassel Special Features include: Trailer , 'Making Of ' Feature, War Situation Report Feature, Photo Gallery. Includes both movies + two soundtrack CDs in Digipak. |
| Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, The | A young girl receives a vision that drives her to rid France of its oppressors. |
| Micmacs | First it was a mine that exploded in the middle of the Moroccan desert. Years later, it was a stray bullet that lodged in his brain... Bazil doesn't have much luck with weapons. The first made him an orphan, the second holds him on the brink of sudden, instant death. Released from the hospital after his accident, Bazil is homeless. Luckily, our inspired and gentle-natured dreamer is quickly taken in by a motley crew of junkyard dealers living in a veritable Ali Baba's cave. The group's talents and aspirations are as surprising as they are diverse: Remington, Calculator, Buster, Slammer, Elastic Girl, Tiny Pete, and Mama Chow. Then one day, walking by two huge buildings, Bazil recognizes the logos of the weapons manufacturers that caused all of his misfortune. He sets out to take revenge, with the help of his faithful gang of wacky friends. Underdogs battling heartless industrial giants, our gang relive the battle of David and Goliath, with all the imagination and fantasy of Buster Keaton... |
| Misanthropist, The (Le Misanthrope) | The play satirizes the hypocrisies of French aristocratic society, but it also engages a more serious tone when pointing out the flaws which all humans possess. The play differs from other farces at the time by employing dynamic characters like Alceste and Célimène as opposed to the traditionally flat characters used by most satirists to criticize problems in society. It also differs from most of Molière's other works by focusing more on character development and nuances than on plot progression. The play, though not a commercial success in its time, survives as Molière's best known work today. |
| Miser, The (L'Avare) | Based on Molière's play. The children of Harpagon, Cléante and his sister Elise, are each in love but they still haven't spoken to their father yet. Harpagon is a miser who wants to choose the right man and the right woman for his children. When Cléante, at last, tries to speak to Harpagon, the old man informs the family that he wants to marry Marianne, the young girl loved by Cléante. Unaware of his son's sorrow, Harpagon doesn't understand why Cléante has become so angry with him. |
| Miss Harriet (Chez Maupassant) | During a long drive, Chenal, a renowned painter, agreed to make his friends' journey more enjoyable by showing them a work of youth that plunges him back years. At the time, still a student, he traveled across the countryside with his easel under his arm. In an inn he meets Miss Harriet, an exaggeratedly proud old Englishwoman. From a difficult point of view, the hardened bachelor is little by little charmed by Chenal. Exalted by nature, she finds affinities with the young painter of whom she appreciates the paintings of wild landscapes. Soon the two boarders get closer. |
| Mobutu, King of Zaire | Thiery Michel takes an in-depth look at the reign of Mobutu Sese Seko. A man of 'modest roots' who had a Catholic upbringing, Mobutu was sent to the army by his father for insubordination. Soon he would be Patrice Lumumba's right-hand man... |
| Moliere | Bubbling with wit, stellar performances and lavish cinematography, MOLIÈRE stars multi-Cesar(r)-nominated French actor Romain Duris as Molière, a down-and-out actor-cum-playwright up to his ears in debt. When the wealthy Jourdain (Cesar(r)-winner Fabrice Luchini) offers to cover that debt (so that Molière's theatrical talents might help Jourdain win the heart of a certain widowed marquise), hilarity ensues. Disguised as a priest, Molière becomes a guest in Jourdain's palace on the pretext of teaching Jourdain the craft of the stage, which annoys his wife, Elmire. But, soon after, the confrontation between Elmire and Molière turns seductive. Too busy to notice, Jourdain enlists the aid of a well connected and scheming acquaintance, to help him pursue the young widow. Romantic yearning, human foibles and laughs galore all characterize MOLIÈRE, a delightful film that slyly captures your heart. |
| Mondovino | MONDOVINO was shot on three continents, in five languages, over a three-year period. Juxtaposing artisanal wine growers with multi-national conglomerates, and peasants with billionaires, Jonathan Nossiter weaves together multiple family and multi-generational sagas, and uncovers a complex tapestry of rivalries, alliances, and conspiracies-all stemming from the production, distribution, and consumption of one of the oldest, most respected luxuries remaining. MONDOVINO gives voice to those who create, critique, and do commerce in wine, offering up a surprisingly prismatic, varied, and sometimes controversial glimpse into a product so many enjoy but so few truly understand. |
| Monsieur Ibrahim | Some crowded Parisian atmosphere and the burnished presence of Omar Sharif make this coming-of-age tale a pleasure. It's the early 1960s, and an adolescent Jewish boy (Pierre Boulanger), mostly left to his own devices by an ineffectual father, makes friends with the worldly wise Persian man (Sharif) who runs a small neighborhood grocery. The kid's fumbling experiences with sexual curiosity are the reliable stuff of many a French movie, but the unlikely friendship of young Jew and old Muslim make for an offbeat through-line. Francois Dupeyron's film shifts gears in its final section, moving from its flavorful location and into the wide-open spaces, and it goes on too long with too many pieces of advice. But overall this is a warm and winning experience, with Omar Sharif holding an instructive class in the power of understated movie-star charisma. --Robert Horton |
| Monsieur Lazhar | Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, MONSIEUR LAZHAR tells the poignant story of a Montreal middle school class shaken by the death of their well-liked teacher. Bachir Lazhar (Fellag), a 55-year-old Algerian immigrant, offers the school his services as a substitute teacher and is quickly hired. As he helps the children heal, he also learns to accept his own painful past. This moving film features exquisite performances by Fellag and a stunning ensemble of child actors. |
| Mood Indigo | Wealthy, inventive bachelor Colin endeavors to find a cure for his lover Chloe after she's diagnosed with an unusual illness caused by a flower growing in her lungs. |
| Mr. Hulots Holiday | When the ever-hapless Monsieur Hulot (Jacques Tati) decides to vacation at a beautiful seaside resort, rest and relaxation don't last long, given the gangly gent's penchant for ridiculous antics. While simply out to enjoy himself, the well-meaning Hulot inevitably stumbles into numerous misadventures, including an utterly disastrous attempt at playing tennis, as he encounters fellow French vacationers from various social classes, as well as foreign tourists. |
| My Afternoons With Margueritte | In a small French town, Germain (Gerard Depardieu, Cyrano de Bergerac, Potiche), a nearly illiterate man in his 50s who is considered the village idiot, takes a walk to the park and happens to sit beside Margueritte (Gisele Casadesus, Sarah’s Key), a little old lady who is reading excerpts from her novel aloud. She s articulate, highly intelligent and frail. Germain is lured by Margueritte’s passion for life and the magic of literature from which he has always felt excluded. As Margueritte broadens his mind via reading excerpts from her novel, Germain realizes that he is more of an intellectual than he has ever allowed himself to be. Afternoons spent reading aloud on their favorite bench transform their lives and start them both on a new journey to literacy and respect for Germain, and to the deepest friendship for Margueritte. |
| My Best Friend | Francois is a middled-aged antique dealer. He has a stylish apartment and fabulous life, but at a dinner with a group he considers his dearest acquaintances, he is blindsided by the revelation that None of them actually likes him. He's arrogant, self-centered and harsh, and they don't believe he knows the meaning of friendship. His business partner Catherine makes him a bet: if he can produce his best friend, she will let him keep the massive Greek vase he acquired that afternoon on the company tab. If not, it's hers. |
| My Father's Glory | A young boy's life in turn-of-the-century France. Marcel, witnesses the success of his teacher father, as well as the success of his arrogant Uncle Jules. Marcel and family spend their summer vacation in a cottage in Provence, and Marcel befriends a local boy who teaches him the secrets of the hills in Provence.Every holiday Marcel and his family go to their cottage in the Provence (France). He likes the hills in this region. Before they arrive at the cottage they have to walk about 5 miles. With the co-operation of an ex-pupil of Marcel's father, who's a teacher, they only have to walk 1 mile, since they can take a shortcut along a canal, through the backyards of some eccentric people. During one of these holidays he meets Isabelle, a pretty but conceited girl... |
| My Father's Glory / My Mother's Castle - 2-DVD Set | A young boy's life in turn-of-the-century France. Marcel, witnesses the success of his teacher father, as well as the success of his arrogant Uncle Jules. Marcel and family spend their summer vacation in a cottage in Provence, and Marcel befriends a local boy who teaches him the secrets of the hills in Provence.Every holiday Marcel and his family go to their cottage in the Provence (France). He likes the hills in this region. Before they arrive at the cottage they have to walk about 5 miles. With the co-operation of an ex-pupil of Marcel's father, who's a teacher, they only have to walk 1 mile, since they can take a shortcut along a canal, through the backyards of some eccentric people. During one of these holidays he meets Isabelle, a pretty but conceited girl... |
| My Life in Pink (Ma Vie En Rose) | One of the sweetest films to emerge from Europe in the 1990s, Alain Berliner's Ma Vie en Rose is the story of an innocent little boy, Ludovic (played with noncloying directness by Georges Du Fresne), who wants to be a girl. Convinced that he's the product of misplaced chromosomes (he imagines the mix-up in one of many delightful daydream sequences), he sets about righting the mistake by wearing dresses and high heels and experimenting with lipstick and makeup. The otherwise friendly suburban neighborhood becomes horrified by the gender confusion, though tellingly the cruelest blows come not from the teasing classmates but intolerant adults: one scene recalls the torch-and-pitchfork angry villagers from a Frankenstein movie. Ludo tries hard to be butch, but he can't deny his nature, especially when he meets a kindred spirit: a little girl who gladly trades her dress for his pants and shirt. This bittersweet mix of innocent fantasy and childhood cruelty has its moments of sadness and crushing misunderstandings, but the overall tone is loving, filled with tenderness and culminating in acceptance and togetherness. As the family stumbles and struggles to come to terms with Ludo, they find something special within him, an innocent conviction so powerful and pure that it's infectious. Ludo may not grow up to become a girl as he hopes, but his belief is so strong it's hard to deny him the possibility. This films reminds us that, to a child, anything is possible. --Sean Axmaker |
| My Mother's Castle | Every holiday Marcel and his family go to their cottage in the Provence (France). He likes the hills in this region. Before they arrive at the cottage they have to walk about 5 miles. With the co-operation of an ex-pupil of Marcel's father, who's a teacher, they only have to walk 1 mile, since they can take a shortcut along a canal, through the backyards of some eccentric people. During one of these holidays he meets Isabelle, a pretty but conceited girl... |
| My Uncle Antoine (Mon Oncle Antoine) | The holiday season in a small Quebec village provides the basis for this bittersweet slice-of-life comedy, written and directed by Claude Jutra. Orphaned 14-year-old Benoit (Jacques Gagnon) comes to live with a foster family in a Canadian mining village in the 1940's and becomes a part of the comical foibles and the heartbreaks of a French-Canadian small town. Gagnon gives a hauntingly realistic portrayal of an innocent discovering life's funny and tragic turns. |
| My Wife is an Actress | A 'normal' guy who is married to a hot actress gets worried that she is involved with her costar. This worry turns into jealousy and causes problems in their relationship. This is a story about trust and a comedy about the actions between men and women. |
| Name of the Rose, The | The Name of the Rose' is a gothic medieval mystery thriller set in a 14th-century Italian monastery. Franciscan monk William of Baskerville (Sean Connery) and a young novice (Christian Slater) arrive for a conference to find that several monks have been murdered in mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his wit and intelligence. |
| Napoleon | Until someone invents a time machine, history buffs and more casual viewers have to time travel by watching productions like Napoleon, a rich documentary about one of the most compelling figures in history. This four-hour historic drama by Emmy-winning filmmaker David Grubin masterfully transports audiences to 18th- and 19th-century Europe. Narrated by historian David McCullough, this impressive production chronicles Napoleon Bonaparte's life--from a relatively humble farmhouse in Corsica to his days as a soldier, statesman, and overzealous emperor. Weaving lush footage of landscapes, stunning paintings of Bonaparte and his two wives, close-up shots of museum pieces, and interviews with top historians, this classy documentary delights and informs |
| Napoleon & Josephine: A Love Story | Epic story about the romance between the most powerful man in the world and the woman who conquered his heart. |
| Necklace, The (La Parure, Chez Maupassant) | Based on the shorty story, The Necklace or La Parure by classic French author Guy de Maupassant. Mathilde and her husband, who works in a minister's office, are not rich. Mathilde, however, loves beautiful clothes and her husband loves her too much that he lets her do anything she wants. One day they receive an invitation for an important party and she wants to look her best. She borrows a beautiful diamond necklace from her rich friend. The necklace is lost and she is too proud to tell her friend what has happened. She and her husband buys a replacement. The friend doesn't notice the difference. Mathilde and her husband spend 10 years to pay the debts. When Mathilde meets her friend again, her hair is all white because of the sorrow. The friend tells Mathilde that the necklace is a fake. |
| Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud | When Nelly, a woman being just divorced, meets by chance M. Arnaud, a mature salesman just retired, begins a strange and special relationship between the two personalities. |
| Nicolas Le Floch | Paris, 1761. Brilliant young Parisian police commissioner Nicolas Le Floch works under Monsieur de Sartine, the Royal Lieutenant General of Police. Louis XV's kingdom is plagued by conspiracies and murders. With the help of his faithful subordinate Bourdeau, Nicolas solves mysterious disappearances and sorts out awkward scandals. From seedy taverns to the muffled hallways of Versailles, from brothels to the Chatelet prisons, he tracks and stakes out suspects, questions witnesses, gathers evidence, foils traps, and unveils plotters. |
| Night and Fog | Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps. |
| No and Me (No Et Moi) | Thirteen-year-old Lou Bertignac is a gifted but lonely child. At high school she is already in fifth grade, two years ahead of the other students, but she has no friends. At home, she does not feel too good between a father who is a stickler over principles and a deeply depressed asthenic mother. When the French teacher asks the class to write an essay and to make a presentation about a subject of their choice, Lou chooses homelessness. She hopes to be helped by a homeless girl she has noticed at the Gare d'Austerlitz, who begs and asks for cigarettes there. Nora, nicknamed No, reluctantly accepts to be interviewed by the serious-minded child. They meet several times at the café and although No is intemperate and unpredictable, a little frightening in fact, Lou soon cannot do without her any more.. |
| No Reservation (Le Goût de la vie) | A master chef, Kate, lives her life like she runs the kitchen at upscale 22 Bleecker Restaurant in Manhattan--with a no-nonsense intensity that both captivates and intimidates everyone around her. With breathtaking precision, she powers through each hectic shift, coordinating hundreds of meals, preparing delicate sauces, seasoning and simmering each dish to absolute perfection. |
| Now Let's Look at... The Real France | |
| Nun, The | In eighteenth-century France a girl (Suzanne Simonin) is forced against her will to take vows as a nun. Three mothers superior (Madame de Moni, Sister Sainte-Christine, and Madame de Chelles) treat her in radically different ways, ranging from maternal concern, to sadistic persecution, to lesbian desire. Suzanne's virtue brings disaster to everyone in this faithful adaptation of a bitter attack on religious abuses by the Enlightenment philosopher Denis Diderot. |
| Odette Toulemonde | Odette dreams of thanking Balthazar Balsan, her favorite writer, for the optimism which she believes emanates from him. The wealthy and seductive writer is going to land in her life in a totally unexpected way. The story of a meeting between two unusual castaways who have nothing in common... |
| Of Gods and Men | In 1996, in Algeria, eight French monks of The Monastery Notre-Dame de l'Atlas of Tibhirine have a simple life serving the poor community that was raised around the monastery. During the Algerian Civil War, they are threatened by terrorists but they decide to stay in the country and not return to France. |
| Old Amable (Le Pere Amable, Chez Maupassant) | Amable Houlbreque, the owner of a miserable farm in the Pays de Caux objects to Césaire, his son, marrying Céleste, a brave and beautiful farm girl. All this because Céleste had a son from a farm hand and the old miser refuses to bring up a child who is not his. All the same, Césaire end Céleste settle down at the farm and the young man works tirelessly to feed the household. Alas he dies the next winter and Amable and his daughter find themselves alone, face-to-face... |
| One Day You'll Understand | One Day You ll Understand is a meditation on memory, identity, and the reconciliation that follows a French businessman's growing obsession with the secrets of his family's past. Suffused with a quiet glow of sympathy and enlightenment (The New York Times), the film is a diligently understated exploration of the legacy of anti-Semitism (Time Out New York). As the 1987 trial of Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie unfolds on television, Victor Bastien (Hippolyte Girardot -- Lady Chatterley) reviews old family documents and finds a distressing Aryan declaration authored by his late father, a discovery that throws Victor s conception of his family s history into darkness. His mother, Rivka (legendary actress Jeanne Moreau -- Jules and Jim, Viva Maria!), keeps a stubborn silence about the past, while Tania (Dominique Blanc), his sister, defends their father's declaration. At the same time, Victor s wife (Emmanuelle Devos -- Kings and Queen) and children grow concerned about his increasing distraction. Burning with the need to unearth the truth, Victor takes his family to the tiny village where Rivka s parents were forced to hide during the war. Poignant and ultimately optimistic, One Day You'll Understand offers a compelling portrait of a family's confrontation with the wounds of the past and their hopes for a better future. |
| Overseas | In French Algeria, after WWII, three daughters of wealthy settlers begin their adult lives. Zon marries an often absent sailor. Malene's husband, Gildas, refuses to work in the farm, so she has to take care of everything. Gritte, the youngest, does not want to marry and is a nurse for the natives. We will follow their three different destinies. |
| Paris | When a dancer (Duris) discovers he has heart trouble, he’s reluctant to tell his sister (Binoche), a social worker raising three children by herself. Meanwhile, a middle-aged historian (Fabrice Luchini, Claire’s Knee) finds sudden fortune as the host of a television series, but can’t keep himself from sending Baudelaire poems via text message to a lovely young student (Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds). In between these two primary storylines, a multitude of other characters overlap in significant and trivial ways. Minor disappointments and casual pleasures brush against life-changing troubles and, every once in a while, the tantalizing possibility of a lasting happiness. Klapisch has broad ideas about the importance of community, spontaneity, and human contact, but the movie’s success lies in the grit and vividness of simple social interactions--awkward, combative, misunderstood, and joyous. There are missteps (a flimsy dream sequence jars against the movie’s deft naturalism), but they’re small and forgivable. Paris is a lovely and moving film, full of offhand gestures and accidents that will linger in your memory, charged with unexpected resonance |
| Paris 1900 | Documentary limning the life of Paris and its citizens during 'La Belle Epoque,' the years between 1900 and 1914. Beginning with the Paris Exposition of 1900 and the completion of the Eiffel Tower, the film progresses through cultural, technological, and social changes, from peaceful and sometimes näive times to the rumbling foreshadowing of the war that would disrupt France and Europe for years to come. |
| Paris in the 19th Century ( The Making of a Mordern City) | This program maps out the transformation of Paris during the 19th century from a stifiling, congested city of narrow and winding streets to an aesthetically pleasing model of Industrial Age modernity. Experts discuss key construction projects such as the Rue de Rivoli, the Parisian railroad system, the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes, the Paris aqueducts and sewers, and the Eiffel Tower, within the context of French history. |
| Paris in the time of Balzac | A history of Paris during the tumultuous years chronicled by Balzac: the period of the Consulate, the Empire, the Restoration and the July Monarchy, when acceptance of religious, monarchical and parental authority ceased to hold sway and the relentless drive of the bourgeoisie for social acceptance became the overriding concern |
| Paris Je T'aime (Paris, I Love You) | is about the plurality of cinema in one mythic location: Paris, the City of Love. Twenty filmmakers have five minutes each; the audience must weave a single narrative out of twenty moments. The 20 moments are fused by transitional interstitial sequences and also via the introduction and epilogue. Each transition begins with the last shot of the previous film and ends with the first shot of the following film, extending the enchantment and the emotion of the previous segment, preparing the audience for a surprise, and providing a cohesive atmosphere. There's a reappearing mysterious character who is a witness to the Parisian life. A common theme of Paris and love fuses all. |
| Paris the Great Saga (Paris, la ville à remonter le temps) | For the launch of the new mini-series 'Paris, la ville à remonter le temps' (Paris, the city to turn back time), a poster was designed that shows Paris from a new perspective. Composed of a 90-minute docu-drama and four 52-minute documentaries, this series is a journey through space and time across 5,000 years of the city's history. The poster uses this concept of space-time travel by superimposing the greatest Parisian monuments throughout the ages. Mixing fiction, special effects, unseen footage, documentary research and expert commentary, this is an opportunity to see the capital as never before. .. |
| Passion for Life (L'Ecole Buissonniere) | 1949 French drama Director:Jean-Paul Le Chanois starring Bernard Blier A la Dead Poet's Society ,soon after the WWI, the Provence village of Salezes gets a new boys' teacher: Mr. Pascal, a war hero with a diploma from a teachers' college. He rejects old methods: boys' sitting still with arms folded memorizing facts. He uses hands on modern methods: The boys build a water-powered electric generator, interview their parents about shoe-making and cooking, draw, write poetry,etc to disapproval of village elders |
| People of Paris at the time of the Sun King | In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Statrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own. With Marji dangerously refusing to remain silent at this injustice, her parents send her abroad to Vienna to study for a better life. However, this change proves an equally difficult trial with the young woman finding herself in a different culture loaded with abrasive characters and profound disappointments that deeply trouble her. Even when she returns home, Marji finds that both she and homeland have changed too much and the young woman and her loving family must decide where she truly belongs. |
| Pepe le Moko | The notorious Pepe le Moko (Jean Gabin, in a truly iconic performance) is a wanted man: women long for him, rivals hope to destroy him, and the law is breathing down his neck at every turn. On the lam in the labyrinthine Casbah of Algiers, Pepe is safe from the clutches of the police--until a Parisian playgirl compels him to risk his life and leave its confines once and for all. Once of the most influential films of the 20th century and a landmark of French poetic realism. |
| Persepolis | Persepolis is the poignant story of a young girl coming-of-age in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is through the eyes of precocious and outspoken nine-year-old Marjane that we see a people's hopes dashed as fundamentalists take power — forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. Clever and fearless, she outsmarts the 'social guardians' and discovers punk, ABBA and Iron Maiden. Yet when her uncle is senselessly executed and as bombs fall around Tehran in the Iran/Iraq war the daily fear that permeates life in Iran is palpable. As she gets older, Marjane's boldness causes her parents to worry over her continued safety. And so, at age fourteen, they make the difficult decision to send her to school in Austria. Vulnerable and alone in a strange land, she endures the typical ordeals of a teenager. In addition, Marjane has to combat being equated with the religious fundamentalism and extremism she fled her country to escape. Over time, she gains acceptance, and even experien |
| Picpus (Walled Garden of Memory) | Basing her richly textured script on real child investigation cases, writer-director-actor Maiwenn has gathered an accomplished ensemble cast of French actors who convey the emotional strain of the unit's work with gritty realism. They not only deal with the stress of their jobs but the inevitable fall-out in their personal lives--breakdowns, divorce and adulterous relations within the force. In between, there are frequent flashes of humor as the team attempts to diffuse daily realities. As the cases, confessions and interrogations pile up, the squad members have only each other as support as they face an uphill battle against both criminals and bureaucracy. |
| Polisse | The daily grind for the cops of the Police Department's Juvenile Protection Unit - taking in child molesters, busting underage pickpockets and chewing over relationship issues at lunch; interrogating abusive parents, taking statements from children, confronting the excesses of teen sexuality, enjoying solidarity with colleagues and laughing uncontrollably at the most unthinkable moments. Knowing the worst exists and living with it. How do these cops balance their private lives and the reality they confront every working day? Fred, the group's hypersensitive wild card, is going to have a hard time facing the scrutiny of Melissa, a photographer on a Ministry of the Interior assignment to document the unit. |
| Ponette | An extremely captivating movie on how a little girl copes with her mother's death. She withdraws from all the people around her, waiting for her mother to come back. She tries waiting, and when her mother still doesn't appear, tries magic chants, praying to God, and then becoming a child of God, to have some power over Him. All to no avail. But then, when she is in despair, her mother does come back ... |
| Port Of Shadows (Quaidses Brumes) | Life's a rotten business, says Jean, a deserter who arrives at night in Le Havre, looking to leave the country. He lucks into civilian clothes, a little bit of money, a passport, and a dog, and he also meets Nelly, a 17-year-old who's grown up too fast. She's the object of lust of men: including a boyfriend Maurice, her putative protector Zabel, and Lucien, a local hood. Jean falls for her, faces down Lucien, and gives her courage to stand on her own feet. A ship is leaving for Venezuela; can at least one of them be on it, or is that just a dream? |
| Pretentious Young Ladies (Les Precieuses), The | Based on the one-act satire by Molière in prose. It takes aim at the précieuses, the ultra-witty ladies who indulged in lively conversations, word games and, in a word, préciosité (preciousness). The Pretentious Young Ladies is a biting comedy of manners that brought Molière and his company to the attention of Parisians, after they had toured the provinces for years. |
| Priceless | In Biarritz with her elderly provider to celebrate her birthday, Irene slips down to the hotel bar when he falls asleep on her. She mistakes barman Jean for a well-healed guest and he encourages the deceit by taking her up to the Royal Suite for the night. A year later the same thing happens but this time her lover finds out and disowns her. Now knowing Jean is indeed a barman of little means doesn't stop her from continuing to live in style until his money is gone. He soon finds himself in Irene's business with older and worldly-wise Madeleine, and though Irene also takes up with a new paramour the two of them keep in increasingly close touch. |
| Princess of Montpensier | When a woman shelters a group of girls from suffering female genital mutilation, she starts a conflict that tears her village apart |
| Promise (La Promesse), The | La Promesse draws on the considerable documentary acumen of its directors, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne ('Rosetta'), to prove a revelation in narrative filmmaking. Shot on the outskirts of an industrial city in Belgium, the film follows Igor, the 15-year-old son of a single parent named Roger (Olivier Gourmet) who rents squalid apartments to recently arrived immigrants, many of them illegal. As Igor struggles to hold down odd jobs while assisting his father in crooked dealings, the Dardenne brothers plunge the audience into the thick of difficult issues--immigration, cultural and racial bias, bureaucratic injustices--without overtly politicizing or diminishing any of their characters. When Igor promises to help a young African woman, he finds he must choose between loyalty to his father and his own conscience. The beauty is in how the Dardenne brothers seem to share in the viewer's curiosity about the film's outcome, having captured a world so charged yet unadorned you feel the surprise of each new scene alongside the directors. An extraordinary film that bears repeated viewings. |
| Protection (Moolaade) | Although far from definitive (no Edith Piaf in sight!), this enchanting compilation delivers a perfect aural snapshot of what spending a late summer afternoon in a French cafe actually feels like. The supreme elegance and understated approach that lie at the core of these 13 tracks will delight fans of sophisticated pop. As is the case with previous Putumayo releases, the sequencing is seamless, combining the endearingly old-fashioned flavor of George Brassens with the iconoclastic romanticism of George Gainsbourg and the sultry whispers of a youthful Brigitte Bardot. Better yet, the disc spends some valuable time introducing listeners to a new generation of French musicians who have embraced the traditional chanson format while incorporating fresh elements into the mix. Try the light-as-a-feather caress of female vocalist Enzo Enzo, the sweet playfulness of the electronica-informed Mathieu Boogaerts, and the irrepressible optimism of Paris Combo--a jazzy quintet that represents the French cafe ambiance at its cosmopolitan best. |
| Putumayo Presents: French Cafe | Various interpretations in a french cafe. |
| Quarter of Mozart (Quartier Mozart) | Bekolo's debut feature is a wild ride through the vanities and sex games of one corner of Yaounde. A cocky young woman nicknamed Queen of the Hood gets the neighborhood sorceress to turn her into a man so she can satisfy her curiosity about the other side. Cockier than ever, she moves among the quarter's players, wise women and pompous old men, getting an in-skin lesson in gender. |
| Quatre saisons pour un festin | Follow Grand Chef Guy Savoy in a unique tour of France. It takes us to the roots of French soil ... |
| Queen Margot | Young Queen Margot finds herself trapped in an arranged marriage amidst a religious war between Catholics and Protestants. She hopes to escape with a new lover, but finds herself imprisoned by her powerful and ruthless family. |
| Rachida | A young schoolteacher refuses to buckle under intimidation, despite living under the constant threat of violence. Rachida exposes the corruption of an education system that has become the breeding ground of a culture of hatred. |
| Read My Lips | Carla is beginning to chafe at the limitations of her career and is looking to move up. But as a 35-year-old woman with a hearing deficiency, she is not sure how. Into her life comes Paul Angeli, a new trainee. At 25, he is completely unskilled, but Carla covers for him when the need arises because of his other qualities - he's a thief fresh out of jail, very good-looking and maybe of some use to her. |
| Red | RED is a seductive story of forbidden love -- and the unknowable mystery of coincidence. The final chapter in Krzystof Kieslowski's acclaimed 'Three Colors' triology, RED stars sexy Irene Jacob (THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE) as a young model whose chance meeting with an unusual stranger leads her down a path of intrigue and secrecy. As her knowledge of the man deepens, she discovers an astonishing link between his past ... and her destiny! |
| Red Balloon, The (Le Ballon Rouge) | This is the story of Pascal (Pascal Lamorisse), who, on his way to school one morning, discovers a large helium-filled red balloon. As Pascal plays with his new found toy, he realizes the balloon has a mind and will of its own, and it begins to follow Pascal wherever he goes, at times floating outside his bedroom window as Pascal's mother won't allow it in the house. The little red balloon follows Pascal through the streets of Paris, and the pair draw inquisitive looks from adults and the envy of other children as they wander the streets. At one point the balloon enters Pascal's schoolroom which upsets his teacher. In their wanderings around the neighborhood, Pascal and the balloon encounter a gang of bullies, and they destroy his new friend. The other balloons in Paris come to Pascal's aid and take him on a cluster balloon ride. |
| Red Kiss | 1952, Paris. Nadia, a Red Diaper baby, has a sister, Polish parents, and at 15 is an active Communist. When cops beat her during an anti-American demonstration, she's rescued by a 'Match' photographer. As the friendship becomes a love affair and her slogans are tested by new knowledge and emotion, some of the Red youth want to expel her. When she goes with Stéphane to a seaside photo shoot, her father goes to the police. Stéphane faces charges, so leaving to cover the war in Indochina looks appealing. In a parallel story, Nadia's mother meets again her prewar lover, released from Siberia, who challenges the French Reds with very real scars and word of Stalin's anti-Semitism. |
| Return of Martin Guerre, The | During the middle of the 16th century, Martin Guerre returns to his village in southwestern France, after being away in the war for almost a decade. The villagers who knew him as a young man suspect he is not Martin, but he seems to know all about his friends, his family and his wife, even the most unusual things. Is this man really Martin Guerre? |
| Returned- Complete First Season, The | In an idyllic French Alpine village, a seemingly random collection of people find themselves in a state of confusion as they attempt to return to their homes. What they do not yet know is that they have been dead for several years, and no one is expecting them back. Buried secrets emerge as they grapple with this miraculous and sinister new reality, struggling to reintegrate with their families and past lovers. But it seems they are not the only ones back from the dead. Their arrival coincides with a series of gruesome murders that bear a chilling resemblance to the work of a serial killer from the past... A gripping, stylish mix of real and surreal, the highly cinematic |
| Ridiculous (Ridicule) | RIDICULE is an exceptionally entertaining tale of passion and deceit! In a desperate quest to save his hometown, a young man quickly learns that a sharp wit is the key to open any door in the Versailles court of Louis XVI! But his mission is complicated when he finds himself locked in a dangerous triangle with two very seductive ladies: a sophisticated older woman who can help him ... and an innocent young beauty with nothing to offer but her love! Wickedly funny humor and outstanding performances highlight this must-see triumph! |
| Rocket, The | A man of the people, denied equal rights in a culturally-divided nation and ridiculed by critics as 'too frail to play hockey,' Maurice Richard defied all odds to become the first player to ever score 50 goals in 50 games. This is the extraordinary true story of the man whose tireless fight on and off the ice ignited and forever changed a generation. |
| Romantics Anonymous | A delectable comedy about a gifted chocolate-maker with a case of paralyzing shyness who meets her soul mate when she gets a new job, but he too suffers from a similar affliction. |
| Roundup, The (La Rafle) | On July 16th, 1942, French authorities carried out an extensive raid of Jews in greater Paris, resulting in the arrest of more than 13,000 people including 4,000 children. After spending several miserable days in the Vélodrome d'Hiver stadium at the apex of summer with little food or water, families were deported to internment camps elsewhere in France and then, finally, to Auschwitz - never to be seen again. Audiences of all ages are discovering writer-director Rose Bosch s powerful portrayal of France s infamous Vel d' Hiv Roundup, featuring international stars Jean Reno (The Da Vinci Code, The Professional) and the luminous Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds, Now You See Me) in a subtly moving, career-defining performance. With its emotionally astute and sensitive exploration of a long taboo subject - Jacques Chirac issued a public apology to the citizens of France only in 1995- the raid, its political backdrop and the exquisite and poignant beauty of Paris during wartime are brought to stirring life in this modern French classic. |
| Rules of the Game, The | A bittersweet drama of life, love, class, and the social code of manners and behavior ('the rules of the game') is a savage critique undertaken with sensitivity and compassion. Renoir's catch-phrase through the film, 'Everyone has their reasons,' develops a multilayered meaning by the conclusion. A young aviator commits a serious social faux pas by alluding to an affair on national radio. To avert a scandal, the cultured Robert de la Chesnaye, husband to the aviator's mistress, Christine, and a philanderer in his own right, invites all to a weekend hunting party in his country mansion. The complicated maze of marriages and mistresses (social register and servant class alike) is plotted like a bedroom farce, but the tone soon takes a darker cast. Renoir, who also takes the pivotal role as Andre's jovial pal and de la Chesnaye confidant Octave, deftly blends high comedy with cutting satire as he parallels the upstairs-downstairs affairs. The film builds to a comic pitch with the hilarious performance of Julien Carette as a rabbit poacher turned groundskeeper, but soon turns tragic in a devastating conclusion. The film was roundly condemned and banned in France upon its 1939 release, but years later (out of the shadow of WWII) the film was rediscovered for the masterpiece that it is. |
| Russian Dolls | Xavier is now thirty. No longer a student, he is not yet a well-balanced, fulfilled adult either. His career is unsatisfying: Far from being the renowned novelist he aimed to be he must be content with little jobs such as reporter or ghost writer. His greatest 'achievement' in 'literature' is his collaboration to the script of a corny TV soap! His sentimental life is not much better, rhythmed by one night stands and unfinished romances. It looks as if when he seduces a woman beautiful outside and inside such as Kassia or Wendy he can't keep them. Will he ever bring his life into focus? |
| Rust and Bone | From the director of the multi-award-winning A Prophet comes a gripping tale of two souls finding strength in each other after tragedy reunites them. Marion Cotillard (Academy Award® winner, 2007, Best Actress, La Vie En Rose) gives a tour-de force performance as Stephanie, an orca trainer whose life is transformed when tragedy strikes during a show. Faced with unbearable circumstances she turns to Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts, Bullhead), a street boxer fighting his own battle of life-changing events. As their stories intersect, they navigate a gritty relationship in a world where love and courage appear in many forms. |
| Sagan | France, 1950s. From the Quartier Latin to Saint-Tropez via New York, a young Parisienne becomes the icon of a whole generation. In 1954, 19-year-old Francoise Sagan shot to fame with her first novel, Bonjour Tristesse. Flamboyant, scandalous and underrated, Sagan lived her life at the furthest edge of excess. She won and lost fortunes at the roulette table, bought and crashed superb sports cars, drank, danced and partied, leaving a trail of lovers in her wake. |
| Samia | An Algerian teen living in southern France, Samia (Lynda Benahouda) must contend with both the restrictions of her traditional Muslim family and the prejudices of close-minded locals. Making her life even more miserable is her big brother, Yacine (Mohamed Chaouch), who is out to make sure that Samia behaves properly, but this approach only causes the frustrated young woman to lash out even more. Feeling increasingly hounded by her brother and her parents, Samia takes drastic action. |
| Sarah's Key (Elle S'Appelait Sarah) | An intrepid journalist brings the past to life in this gripping drama. An American based in Paris, Julia Jarmond (Tell No One's Kristin Scott Thomas) has been working on a piece about a French atrocity while planning to move into an apartment that belongs to her husband Bertrand's family. During the course of her research, she finds that 10-year-old Sarah Starzynski (Mélusine Mayance, a sparky presence) lived in the same Marais flat until 1942 when French authorities wrenched Jewish citizens from their homes during the notorious Vél d'Hiver Roundup (Julia's daughter is only a year older). Unbeknownst to anyone but her parents, Sarah locked up her 4-year-old brother in a hidden closet in hopes of returning to set him free him later, but the trio ends up in a transit camp en route to Auschwitz. Sarah will eventually escape, but the years to come will not be easy. In adapting Tatiana de Rosnay's novel, director Gilles Paquet-Brenner, the son of a deportee, moves back and forth between Sarah and Julia, who finds out she's pregnant in the midst of trips to Florence and New York, but Bertrand doesn't share her joy. A French farmer (A Prophet's Niels Arestrup) and a food writer (Aidan Quinn) also figure into Sarah's story, which merges with Julia's as she finds a way to carry on her legacy. Much as in Julie and Julia, the past proves more compelling than the present, though Scott Thomas holds the narrative together with the force of her talent. |
| Scarlet & The Black | A riveting World War II drama based on a true story of moral courage.In Nazi-occupied Rome, Vatican official Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty (Peck) wages a secret campaign against the Third Reich. Using his influence and position, he takes part in the efforts to rescue Allied refugees from imprisonment by the Gestapo. O'Flaherty's efforts soon cause him to become a target of an investigation by the SS, led by Colonel Kappler (Plummer). The Monsignor's diplomatic status affords him some protection, but the relentless German Colonel will stop at nothing to halt O'Flaherty's endeavors--permanently.Also starring Sir John Gielgud, Barbara Bouchet, and Raf Vallone, The Scarlet and the Black is an unforgettable and inspiring tale. |
| School for Wives,The (L'Ecole des Femmes) | Based on the play by Molière. Fearful of falling victim to marital infidelity, bachelor Arnolphe schemes to marry his guileless young ward, Agnès, whom he has had raised in a convent specifically to be his model wife. However, his naïve plan is spoiled when Agnès runs away with Horace—a fact that Arnolphe learns when Horace unwittingly asks him to conceal her at his home. Before Arnolphe can react, it is revealed that Agnès’ wealthy father has formally arranged her marriage to Horace, dashing his hopes forever. This play—Molière’s greatest commercial success—drew heavy attacks for supposed moral and literary flaws. |
| Science of Sleep, The | The Science of Sleep, a playful romantic fantasy set inside the topsy-turvy brain of Stephane Miroux (Gael Garcia Bernal) an eccentric young man whose dreams constantly invade his waking life. Stephane pines for next-door neighbor, Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), but she becomes confused by his childishness and shaky connection to reality. Unable to find the secret to Stephanie's heart while awake, Stephane searches for the answer in his dreams. |
| Scrap Heap (Tableau Ferraille) | Moussa Sene Absa's most recent film dissects the social chaos engulfing much of Africa through the story of an idealistic young politician's rise and fall. |
| Seducing Dr. Lewis | Seducing Dr. Lewis makes a pleasant addition to the quirky subgenre of what might be called 'village comedies'--movies in which the oddball residents of a small village must work together to perpetrate some mild scam or bit of mischief (examples abound, from Waking Ned Devine to Saving Grace to Local Hero). The isolated Canadian community of St.-Marie-La-Mauderne desperately needs a new industry, but the factory they're trying to win requires a resident doctor. When a young doctor from Montreal (David Boutin) gets blackmailed into spending a month in the village, the prickly inhabitants go overboard to woo him--they learn to cook Beef Stroganoff, form a cricket team, and tap his phone. It's all a bit preposterous, but that's part of the charm; this kind of movie thrives on being just a tiny bit over the top. The daffy doings keep one foot on the ground thanks to a combination of skilled character actors (like Raymond Bouchard, who plays the town's struggling mayor) and mysterious girls (like Lucie Laurier, the beautiful postmistress). Fans of The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain will find much to enjoy here. |
| Self Made Hero, A | Irony abounds in this French comedy that tells the tale of an unsophisticated, rather dim-bulbed country lad who follows the advice of a former French freedom fighter and tries to change himself into a hero of the recently ended French Resistance. Poor Albert is no stranger to deceit. For his first 12-years, his mother led him to believe that his father was a war hero. He is devastated to learn that his father really died of alcoholism. During the war, Albert does all he can to avoid fighting for the Resistance, even though the Nazis control his village. He marries and moves in with his wife's family, innocent of the fact that the whole time he is there, they are concealing downed British fliers. The night their town is freed, Albert leaves for Paris where he meets Dionnet, 'The Captain,' a bona-fide Resistance hero. It is he, who teaches Albert how to successfully change his identity. After much practice and memorization, Albert finally has a new identity and goes to work as a secretary for Mr. Jo, a former double agent. Albert stays in a boarding house, where a resident prostitute teaches him about lovemaking. Meanwhile, Albert becomes recognized as a courageous patriot, a role he manages to sustain only a little while before it all falls apart and the painful truth is finally revealed. |
| Senegal | Between the desert and the tropics, Senegal presents the complete palette of landscapes of black Africa: arid savannas, lush palm groves, sandy beaches, long lazy rivers and vast plains dotted with baobabs. But for Pierre Brouwers, geography is only the backdrop of a country. The director wishes to introduce us to the population and the different ethnic groups - with their customs and traditions - before introducing us to history, economy, fauna and flora.With its kaleidoscope, this exciting documentary offers us an in-depth discovery of one of the most endearing countries in Africa. |
| Seraphine | SERAPHINE centers on Séraphine de Senlis (Yolande Moreau), a simple housekeeper whose brilliantly colorful canvases adorn some of the most famous galleries in the world. Wilhelm Uhde, a German art critic and collector (Ulrich Ukur) discovers her paintings while she is working for him as a maid in Senlis near Paris in the early part of the 20th century. Martin Provost s fictionalized and tragic portrait of this forgotten painter is a testament to creativity and the resilience of one woman s spirit. In 1913, the German collector Wilhelm Uhde, the first Picasso buyer and discoverer of acclaimed naïve primitive painter Le Douanier Rousseau, rents an apartment in Senlis in order to write and take a break from his Parisian life. He hires a cleaning lady, Séraphine, 48 years old. Some time later, while visiting the home of a prominent local family, he notices a small painting on wood. His surprise is great when he finds out that it is by None other than Séraphine. A poignant and unexpected relationship then develops between the avant-garde art dealer and the visionary cleaning lady. |
| Simone de Beauvior | The portrait of an exceptional woman: Simone de Beauvoir ... |
| Small Change | Critic Pauline Kael neatly summed up the timeless appeal of François Truffaut's 1976 film by calling it 'that rarity--a poetic comedy that's really funny.' In other words, Truffaut's brilliant, upbeat study of resilient children in a French village is both artistically satisfying and joyously entertaining, proving yet again (after his acclaimed debut film The 400 Blows) that few directors remembered and understood the experience of childhood as clearly as Truffaut. The film's episodic structure reveals its young characters gradually, leaving them and returning to them as their individual stories unfold. Most of the sketches are hilarious (as when a little girl uses a megaphone to announce that she's been 'abandoned,' resulting in generous gifts of food from her surrounding neighbors), but there's also a story about a boy with abusive parents who learns to survive by his own ingenuity. Throughout, this remarkable film gets all the details precisely right, featuring a youthful cast of kids who don't seem to be acting at all. It's as if Truffaut had somehow gained privileged entrance into their world, and they carried on as if the camera simply wasn't there. |
| Snow Walker | When the plane carrying Charlie Halliday, a maverick bush pilot & a sick inuit woman, Kanaalaq, crashed hundreds of milles form civilization, they are at the mercy of nature's worst. Kanaalaq teaches him survival skills & he comes to respect her wisdom & love her valiant spirit as they set out in the wilderness. |
| Songs of Telepics (Les chansons de Tele-PICS), The | |
| Sorrow and the Pity, The | A chronicle of a French city under the occupation. Director Marcel Ophuls combined interviews and archival film footage to explore the reality of the French occupation in one small industrial city, Clermont-Ferrand. He spoke with resistance fighters, collaborators, spies, farmers, government officials, writers, artists and veterans. The result is a shattering portrait of how ordinary people actually conducted themselves under extraordinary circumstances. By turns gripping, horrifying, and inspiring, Academy Award nominee 'The Sorrow and the Pity' is a triumph of humanist filmmaking and a testament to the power of cinema. Before 'Shoah,' 'Schindler's List,' 'The Long Way Home' and 'The Last Days,' there was 'The Sorrow and the Pity.' |
| Spanish Apartment (L'Auberge Espagnole), The | Seven sexy co-eds. One Spanish apartment. No rules. A single year of learning turns into an outrageous adventure of a lifetime when Xavier, a straight-laced French college senior, moves to Barcelona as part of a student exchange program. Sharing cramped quarters with students from all over Europe quickly leads to multi-cultural chaos and Xavier gets an eye-opening lesson on life, much to the dismay of beautiful girlfriend Martine. |
| Spiral : Engrenages, seasons 1-4 | All four series of the acclaimed French police drama starring Grégory Fitoussi and Caroline Proust.In the first series, the discovery of a young woman's badly-beaten body on a rubbish tip in Paris sets in motion a police investigation that unravels a trail of corruption leading from the dark worlds of prostitution and drugs to the halls of government, business and the judiciary itself.In the second series, public prosecutor Pierre Clement (Fitoussi) once again joins forces with Police Captain Laure Berthaud (Proust) and crusading judge Francois Roban (Philippe Duclos) to infiltrate Paris's underworld of organised crime, international drugs trafficking and arms dealing.During the third series, the emergence of a brutal serial killer offers Berthaud the chance to restore her reputation, but will her very determination to track down the killer lead her over the edge?In the fourth series, lawyer Joséphine Karlsson (Audrey Fleurot) risks all by attempting to defend the rights of a group of unwelcome immigrants. Meanwhile, Berthaud finds herself in the thick of the action when she is seconded to an anti-gang unit shadowing the activities of dissident students engaged in bomb-making.What’s drawn people to the show has been how intelligently it treats its viewers. You’re not spoon fed everything here, as instead, the writers offer you enough, but aren’t afraid to let you do some of the work. The conventional Hollywood approach to such subject matter is absolutely nowhere to be seen. |
| Story Of A Farm Girl (Histoire D'Une Fille de Ferme, Chez Maupassant) | Working hard to maintain her child hidden among friends, a farm girl sees herself forcibly marrying her boss.After a few years and beaten by her husband, she is accused of not giving her child |
| Story of Adele H., The | Halifax, 1863. A young woman, Miss Lewly, comes to Halifax to search for Lt Pinson, with whom she is madly in love. Actually, she is Adèle Hugo, the second daughter of the great French literary figure and statesman. The Lt Pinson does not answer to her love and makes her understand it is hopeless. But as her obsession grows she keeps chasing and harassing him. This film about passionate yet obsessive love and self-destruction is based upon the real diary of Adèle Hugo. |
| Sugar Cane Alley | Martinique, in the early 1930s. Young José and his grandmother live in a small village. Nearly everyone works cutting cane and barely earning a living. The overseer can fine a worker for the smallest infraction. The way to advance is to do well in school. José studies hard and succeeds in an exam allowing him to attend school in the capital. With only a partial scholarship, the tuition is very costly. José and his grandmother move to Fort-de-France to make José's studies easier... |
| Sun King (L'Allée du Roi) | Drama centering around the life at the court of Louis XIV and the role of the Marquise de Maintenon. |
| Sunday in the Country, ( Un dimanche à la campagne ) | In France, before WWI. As every Sunday, an old painter living in the country is visited by his son Gonzague, coming with his wife and his three children. Then his daugther Irene arrives. She is always in a hurry, she lives alone and does not come so often... An intimist chronicle in which what is not shown, what is guessed, is more important than how it looks, dealing with what each character expects of life. |
| Taking of Power by Louis XIV, The | 1661: Cardinal Mazarin dies. In the power vacuum, the young Louis asserts his intention to govern as well as rule. Mazarin's fiscal advisor, Colbert, warns against Fouquet, the Surintendant who's been systematically looting the treasury and wants to be prime minister. Fouquet believes Louis will soon tire of exercizing power; he overplays his hand, offering a bribe to Louis's mistress to be his ally. She reports this to the king who arrests Fouquet. Louis and Colbert design a brilliant strategy to keep merchants making money, nobles in debt, the urban poor working and fed, and peasants untaxed. Years later, in a coda, we see Louis exercising the power of the sun. |
| Tartuffee | Moliere's timeless comedy, starring the incomparable Donald Moffat portraying the scoundrel Tartuffe, who manipulates his way into the confidence and affection of Orgon, an affluent bourgeois concerned with his own salvation. |
| Taste of Others (Gout Des Autres, Le) , The | Fun, sexy and richly rewarding, The Taste Of Others earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Foreign Language Film (2000)! The lives and loves of several completely opposite men and women artfully intersect in what becomes a delightfully funny web of romantic entanglements! While negotiating differences in wealth and status, style and taste, this vivid collection of characters mix and match in outrageously volatile combinations! Internationally acclaimed for its sexy comic sophistication- except the unecpected from this uncommonly entertaining motion picture! |
| The French Experience | Developed for beginners, The French Experience 1 course book is designed to accompany the French Experience 1 CDs but can also be used on its own to develop your reading and writing skills. You'll gain valuable insights into French culture too. Based on a simple, step-by-step approach, each of the 20 units of the course is divided into self-contained learning blocks, enabling you to make rapid progress with the language. An additional four revision and assessment units reinforce learning using activities and language 'check ups'. The French Experience 1 can help you reach the equivalent level of a first qualification, such as GCSE. |
| Things of Life (Les Choses De La Vie), The | Pierre, a successful engineer in building highways has a traffic accident. Being seriously wounded, he is lying waiting for death and remembering his past in flashbacks. |
| Three Men & A Baby | Not nearly as good as the original French comedy, Three Men and a Cradle, upon which this is based, Three Men and a Baby nevertheless is decent brain candy directed with some crackle by Leonard Nimoy. Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson star as three swinging bachelor roommates who find a baby girl on their doorstep--the daughter of Danson's character (who doesn't know about her) by a woman (Nancy Travis) with whom he had a brief fling. The jokes about dirty diapers and feeding schedules are predictable, but the film gains real warmth from Selleck, who does a convincing job playing a fellow whose life is changed for the better by added responsibility. A distracting subplot involving some bad guys threatens to derail everything, and the ending is a bit unconvincing as filmed, but the virtues of this movie finally win out over its weaknesses. |
| Three Men and a Cradle | When a baby girl appears on the doorstep of a Parisian apartment belonging to a trio of hedonistic bachelors, baby care is thrust upon them with hilarious and, ultimately, heartwarming results. Pierre, Michel, and Jacques are pleasure-seeking professionals with the singular goal to seduce women in their spare time. When Jacques leaves on a three-week vacation, a mix-up ensues and roommates Pierre and Michel discover that the 'package' Jacques has enlisted them to watch in his absence is a cooing infant in a pink bassinette. With no prior experience and unable to contact Jacques to whom the baby was 'addressed,' they dive into the frenzied fracas of diapers and feeding schedules. Adding insult to insanity, they must fend off drug dealers—and police--interested in another 'package.' The simple storyline leaves plenty of room for shenanigans—formulaic perhaps, but still irresistible. Rather than a morality play on the recklessness of child abandonment, farcical comedy prevails. Over time, the men are smitten with little Marie who gives them plenty of adorable moments until they can't live without her. |
| Three Tales from Senegal: Le Frac / Picc Mi / Far l'Anesse | The three Senegalese shorts in this brief video anthology adapt the ancient African art of storytelling to a modern medium and a modern setting. In Le Franc, Djibril Diop Mambety (director of Hyenas and Touki Bouki) contributes a whimsical but sardonic parable, about the plight of everyday Africans buffeted by the changing winds of the international monetary system. The hero, Marigo, played by the rubber-legged Dieye Ma Dieye, is an African Charlie Chaplin, an Everyman whose dreams of being a musician help him survive in a world of bureaucratic red-tape, urban decay and economic chaos. Mansour Sora Wade's Picc Mi (Little Bird) is a touching fable revealing the exploitation of children in Africa's teeming cities. Two destitute boys escape the predatory demands of adults to spend one day of freedom together. Celebrated Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour provides a running commentary on their fate with a folksong about a bird which flies free of a crocodile. Fary l'Anesse (Fary, the Donkey) is a timeless tale of a man led into folly by his pursuit of the “perfect” woman. When he thinks he has finally found her, she turns out to be a donkey. The moral: “The man who falls in love with beauty forgets that there are other qualities in women.” |
| To be and to Have (Etre et avoir) | A documentary portrait of a one-room school in rural France, where the students (ranging in age from 4 to 11) are educated by a single dedicated teacher. |
| Toine (Chez Maupassant) | 'Tales and short stories by Guy de Maupassant- A film directed by Jacques SantamariaAn innkeeper, nailed to bed because of an attack, sees himself being ridiculed by his wife. Blasted by her uselessness, she forces him to hatch eggs in front of all his friends ... |
| Toto the Hero | Toto the Hero is a fascinating Belgian film (in French with English subtitles) about an elderly man who is convinced that his life has been stolen from him. Specifically, he believes he was switched at birth with the little kid down the street--and has spent his entire life coveting the life he didn't have. Told in clever flashbacks and flashforwards, it looks at turning points in his life when, had he been with his real parents, things would have gone differently. If that sounds confusing, it's not; director Jaco Van Dormael keeps it crisp and easy to follow. Alternately darkly funny and tragic, it builds to a fascinating climax in which all is set right. |
| Toussaint Louverture | In Toussaint Louverture, Philippe Girard reveals the dramatic story of how Louverture transformed himself from lowly freedman to revolutionary hero. In 1791, the unassuming Louverture masterminded the only successful slave revolt in history. By 1801, he was general and governor of Saint-Domingue, and an international statesman who forged treaties with Britain, France, Spain, and the United States-empires that feared the effect his example would have on their slave regimes. Louveture's ascendency was short-lived, however. In 1802, he was exiled to France, dying soon after as one of the most famous men in the world, variously feared and celebrated as the 'Black Napoleon.' |
| Traviata (La) | This superb 2006 production of the Los Angeles Opera's La Traviata stars Renée Fleming, who joins the ranks of the elite handful of sopranos whose vocal and acting talents make their portrayals memorable. Her Violetta Valéry is a vulnerable figure torn between self-indulgence and love, sacrificing personal happiness to become a victim of the social mores of mid-19th-century bourgeois France. Fleming's acting captures the complexity of the character and her vocalism is flawless. She negotiates the wild coloratura of Act One with aplomb, and is stunning in the lyric passages that pervade the opera, and touching in her scenes with her lover, Alfredo, and his father. Her singing is free of the mannerisms that have sometimes crept into her work and at the same time she brings countless personal touches to the role, phrasing and verbal emphases that shed fresh light on the character. |
| Triplets of Belleville, The (Les Triplettes de Belleville) | When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters--an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire--to rescue him. |
| Two Friends (Deux Amis, Chez Maupassant) | The war has left its scars on the small French village where Leopold runs the bar - and some old debts still need to be settled. The hunt for a Nazi collaborator is about to disrupt Leopold?s life and personal vendettas may find their way between the guilty and the truth. |
| Un Chien Andalou / Land Without Bread - Two Masterpieces by Luis Bunuel | Un Chien Andalou remains a startling artifact suggesting ways in which film can express the subconscious. The result of Luis Bunuel's collaboration with Salvador Dali, the 17-minute, 1929 film was designed expressly to shock and provoke. Opening with the canonical eyeball-slashing sequence and divided into baffling 'chapters', this is a work of art obsessed with religion, lust, decay, violence, and death. Un Chien Andalou isn't simply one of the great works of the surrealist movement, but a segment of cinematic DNA that irrevocably altered the aesthetics of film. In its tangled corridors you find the seeds to the disappearing-mouth bit in The Matrix, the carcasses strewn through Peter Greenaway's A Zed and Two Noughts and pretty much the entire oeuvre of David Lynch./ Land without Bread-A surrealistic documentary portrait of the region of Las Hurdes, a remote region of Spain where civilisation has barely developed, showing how the local peasants try to survive without even the most basic utilities and skills / Un Chien Andalou-Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present seventeen minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery. |
| Uranus | After World War II, a small French village struggles to put the war behind as the controlling Communist Party tries to flush out Petain loyalists. The local bar owner, a simple man who likes to write poetry, who only wants to be left alone to do his job, becomes a target for Communist harassment as they try and locate a particular loyalist, and he pushes back |
| Vagabond | Vagabond is the shocking tale of homeless drifter found frozen to death in a ditch. Known as 'the grandmother of the French New Wave,' Varda tells the story in documentary style, with testimonies from people who met Mona after she dropped out of middle-class society to drift across the French countryside. In seamless flashbacks, we see Mona beg for food and shelter, steal, and engage in brief sexual encounters. Varda records Mona's fall into degradation with pure, bold images and an emotional distance that heightens the sense of isolation and tragedy. Sandrine Bonnaire's critically acclaimed portrayal of the sullen, amoral heroine is devastating. Winner of the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion, Vagabondpresents a chilling revelation of how little we can truly know anyone. |
| Vatel | Starring Uma Thurman (THE AVENGERS, PULP FICTION), Gerard Depardieu (THE CLOSET), and Tim Roth (ROB ROY), VATEL is based on the true story of an ordinary man, a decadent king, and the woman caught between them! In the west of France, Prince de Conde has a scheme to save his bankrupt province: he'll regain the favor of King Louis XIV with a weekend of spectacle and merriment. The plan's success rests with Vatel (Depardieu), the one man who can deliver sumptuous food, elaborate amusements, and all-out decadence fit for this king. But in the midst of it all, Vatel catches the eye of the beautiful Anne (Thurman) ... and places himself in direct competition with the King! Visually stunning and grandly entertaining, it's a motion picture you must see to believe! |
| Vaux-le-Vicomte) | |
| Venus Beauty Institute | The carefully unattached existence of working girl Nathalie Baye is suddenly upended when lovesick hunk Samuel Le Bihan introduces himself: 'My name is Antoine and I love you.' Set in a cute glass storefront with a neon pink and blue façade that could have sprung from a Jacques Demy musical, this bittersweet romantic drama was written for the arresting Baye, who plays a middle-aged 'girl' in a uniquely Parisian beauty shop that specializes in facials, body treatments, massages, and emotional confession. Her coworkers, young, sweetly guileless brunette cutie Audrey Tautou and gloomy twentysomething Mathilde Seigner, are like glimpses into her past lives, one full of hope and giddy optimism, the other turned resentful from disappointment. She clings to the girly camaraderie and workaday autopilot of her job while her 'patronne' (the incomparable Bulle Ogier) nudges her toward responsibility. |
| Versailles the visit | A visit to the most privaye chateau in the wrold |
| Very Long Engagement, A | In the closing days of World War I, Mathilde Donnay's greatest fight is about to begin as she goes in search of the man she loves, a man she has been told has died in A Very Long Engagement. If Manech were dead, Mathilde would know. Mathilde (Audrey Tautou--Amélie) receives word that her fiancé, Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), is one of five soldiers court-martialed for intentionally wounding themselves and pushed out to an almost-certain death in the no-man's land armies. Unwilling to accept that Manech is lost to her forever, Mathilde begins an extraordinary journey to discover the fate of her lover. At each turn, Mathilde encounters another, different, variation of how Manech must have spent his final days ... yet Mathilde never gives up and never lets go. |
| Video Verite and Other Stories | In our media-saturated world, the line between reality and fiction has blurred. With sharp, clear prose and an insider's view of the media, Petrick's stories take us into a hall of mirrors where men and women struggle to understand themselves and their relationships with one another. In a climate defined by images, does love stand a chance when no one is certain what is real? In the title story, an accomplished skydiver goes airborne with a video camera to capture the love of his life, but a small oversight upends his best intentions. In 'Sins of the Father,' a man arriving in Huntsville, Texas, to commute his son's death sentence clashes with a documentary producer intent on chasing the story to its bitter end. In 'Telling Time,' a corporate video producer, conflicted by his own immoral conduct, learns that sometimes the absolute truth is the most effective lie. |
| Visitors, The | This outrageous time-travel comedy follows the misadventures of a wacky medieval knight (Jean Reno – Mission: Impossible, The Professional) and his faithful servant when they suddenly find themselves zapped into the present day! Mayhem rules as these 12th Century visitors try adapting to the wildly confusing modern world! To avoid being stuck here for good, however, they soon begin an all-out comic assault on their former castle – now a luxury hotel – in their quest to return. But you can be sure The Visitors won’t leave without first delivering nonstop laughs and outstanding comedy entertainment |
| Viva Algeria (Viva Laldjerie) | Three women: a mother, her daughter and a prostitute have been living in a hotel in the heart of Algiers amid creeping fundamentalism. Goucem, the daughter, has chosen a modern, emancipated life, spending steamy weekends in nightclubs. Fifi, her faithful friend, prostitutes herself under the thumb of a local protector. Papicha, the mother, eats pizzas in front of the television, torn between fear and nostalgia for the cabaret days of her youth. Known in Europe as the North African Pedro Almodovar, filmmaker Nadir Mokneche weaves a richly drawn portrait of women exiled in their own country. |
| Waking up French...! (Reveil) | A powerful documentary film that explores the struggle for cultural survival among the French-Canadian, Franco-American communities of New England. The film traces the French heritage beginning with immigration from the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Acadia through persecution by Ku Klux Klan and language loss, to cultural renaissance and heritage preservation. Through their determined loyalty to the French Catholic faith, language and cultural values, the French of New England continue to discover new ways of renewal and cultural diversity through heritage language reacquisition. |
| Wanderer (Le Grand Meaulnes) , The | A coming-of-age story set in France in the years leading up to World War I. Two teenage boys experience love, loss, anguish and betrayal in a rural setting of great beauty. |
| Wanderer, The | A coming-of-age story set in France in the years leading up to World War I. Two teenage boys experience love, loss, anguish and betrayal in a rural setting of great beauty. |
| War of the Buttons | The children of two Irish towns located on either side of an inlet in County Cork, form small armies and battle against each other in a neverending quest for supremacy. |
| Weapons of the Spirit | A French public servant from Provence is banished to the far North. Strongly prejudiced against this cold and inhospitable place, he leaves his family behind to relocate temporarily there, with the firm intent to quickly come back. |
| Welcome to the Sticks (Bienvenue Chez Les Chtis) | Pierre Sauvage was born in a small village in France in 1944, among what would become as many as 5000 Jews who were helped by the collective efforts of the town, hidden from occupying Nazis by the kindly residents. This is a documentary by Sauvage that explores the supernatural good will by the people in the village. Archival footage and interviews with surviving villagers illustrate their attitude toward their God, their obedience and the actions that saved the lives of thousands of people. |
| Well-Digger's Daughter, The | On the eve of World War I, strange accidents in a small Protestant village in Northern Germany involve the children and teenagers of a choir run by the schoolteacher and their families. The abused and suppressed children of the villagers seem to be at the heart of this mystery as these events gradually take on the character of a punishment ritual. |
| West Beirut | In April, 1975, civil war breaks out; Beirut is partitioned along a Moslem-Christian line. Tarek is in high school, making Super 8 movies with his friend, Omar. At first the war is a lark: school has closed, the violence is fascinating, getting from West to East is a game. His mother wants to leave; his father refuses. Tarek spends time with May, a Christian, orphaned and living in his building. By accident, Tarek goes to an infamous brothel in the war-torn Olive Quarter, meeting its legendary madam, Oum Walid. He then takes Omar and May there using her underwear as a white flag for safe passage. Family tensions rise. As he comes of age, the war moves inexorably from adventure to tragedy. |
| What's Life (C'est quoi la vie?) | Nicolas works on his father's farm. The work is hard, life is tough and business is not going well, so Nicolas dreams of a different life. One day he agrees to give a woman (Maria) a ride. After he has dropped her off, he is more and more intrigued by his feelings for her. Nicolas' life takes different turns, and he meets Maria again. |
| When the Cat's Away | Chloe, a young woman, is going on holidays. She entrusts her beloved cat to Madame Renée's care. But one day Madame Renée (an old lady of the neighborhood) can not find the cat. Chloe starts searching the neighborhood... This is the pretext for the exploration of a quarter of Paris and his inhabitants. |
| Where is my friend's home? (Ou est la maison de mon ami?) | An 8 year old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school. |
| White | White is the second of witty Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowki's 'three colors' trilogy Blue, White, and Red--the three colors of the French flag, symbolizing liberty, equality, and fraternity. White is an ironic comedy brimming over with the hard laughs of despair, ecstasy, ambition, and longing played in a minor key. Down-and-out Polish immigrant Karol Karol is desperate to get out of France. He's obsessed with his French soon-to-be ex-wife (Before Sunrise's Julie Delpy), his French bank account is frozen, and he's fed up with the inequality of it all. Penniless, he convinces a fellow Pole to smuggle him home in a suitcase--which then gets stolen from the airport. The unhappy thieves beat him and dump him in a snowy rock pit. Things can only get better, right? The story evolves into a wickedly funny antiromance, an inverse Romeo and Juliet. Because it's in two foreign languages, the dialogue can be occasionally hard to follow, but some of the most genuinely funny and touching moments need no verbal explanation |
| White Ribbon, The | Twenty-five years after rising to international acclaim in Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring, Daniel Auteuil returns to the world of Marcel Pagnol for his first work as director with this celebrated remake of the 1940's classic. Auteuil stars as the eponymous well-digger Pascal, a widower living with his six daughters in the Provence countryside at the start of World War I. His eldest, Patricia (the luminous Astrid Berges-Frisbey), has returned home from Paris to help raise her sisters, and Pascal dreams of marrying her off to his loyal assistant Felipe (Kad Merad). But when she's impregnated by a wealthy young pilot (Nicolas Duvauchelle) who promptly abandons her for the frontlines, Pascal is left to contend with the consequences. An exquisitely crafted, sun-drenched melodrama, set to a score by Academy Award-nominee Alexandre Desplat (The King's Speech), The Well Digger's Daughter captures all the warmth and humanist spirit of Pagnol's original work. In French with English subtitles. |
| Widow of Saint-Pierre, The | Powerful drama of a man sentenced to die in 19th century French Canada who rehabilitates himself, causing doubt in his would-be executioners. |
| Wild Reeds | This resonant, engrossing 1994 film by André Téchiné (Thieves) is an unusual coming-of-age story set at a French boarding school in 1962, when news of France's war in Algeria is still plentiful. Téchiné focuses on a handful of students, measuring their transition into adulthood against the reality of love, sex, and the war's controversial cost. Strikingly sensitive and sophisticated, beautifully dramatized, and perfectly acted by a young cast, the film feels like one of those universal touchstones for the final days of childhood grace. Téchiné's typically blunt-but-gentle manner is perfectly suited for this tale of youthful gains and losses |
| Wing or the Thigh (L'Aile ou la cuisse), The | Charles Duchemin, a well-known gourmet and publisher of a famous restaurant guide, is waging a war against fast food entrepreneur Tri- catel to save the French art of cooking. After having agreed to appear on a talk show to show his skills in naming food and wine by taste, he is confronted with two disasters: his son wants to become a clown rather than a restaurant tester and he, the famous Charles Duchemin, has lost his taste! |
| Winter Stories (Histoire d'Hiver) | An adult Martin Roy reminisces about his life in the 1966/67 school year. At fifteen years old and in his last year of junior high school, he breathed, ate and slept hockey. He collected hockey cards, played street hockey with his friends, tried skating and ice hockey for the first time in his life, but was most fascinated with his local national league team, the Montréal Canadiens, and its star player, Henri Richard. He dreamed of growing up and working for the Canadiens franchise. But a more immediate goal was to get tickets to one of their games, using M. Richard and his banker father, Hervé, as possible conduits to that goal. He also remembers his school life from that year, with the arrival of pot smoking free thinking hippie Ron Richardson as the new English teacher, and dreading home room with strict Mlle. Chouinard, who he eventually learned too had a human side. But he learned that there may be a couple of things more important than hockey: family, and the opposite sex. |
| With A Friend Like Harry | Acclaimed by critics everywhere, With A Friend Like Harry…is a highly suspenseful psychological thriller about a family vacation that takes an unexpectedly wicked turn! While traveling with their three daughters in the midst of a stifling heat wave, Michel and Claire run into Harry, a wealthy eccentric who claims to have known Michel in high school. Swayed by Harry's persuasiveness and a ride in his air-conditioned Mercedes, Michel and Claire find themselves inviting Harry along on their vacation. As this nail-biting story unfolds in a series of unpredictable twists, you'll find yourself riveted as Harry's motives soon become suspect and one strange episode after another begins to change Michel's life! |
| Woman Nikita, The (La Femme Nikita) | Convicted felon Nikita, instead of going to jail, is given a new identity and trained, stylishly, as a top secret spy/assassin. |
| Woman who Drinks, The (La Femme qui boit) | There are moments of great beauty in this film about alcohol addiction. Constructed as a series of vignettes told in flashbacks – some set in the 1930s, some set in the 1950s; some silent, others with dialogue – La Femme qui boit builds its portrait of drunken despair in increments. |
| You Will Be My Son | Paul de Marseul (Niels Arestrup) is the passionate, demanding proprietor of his prestigious family vineyard. But he has no faith in his son, Martin (Lorànt Deutsch). Paul dreams of a harder-working, successful son - a dream that one day seemingly materializes when he meets Philippe (Nicolas Bridet), the son of his dying estate manager (Patrick Chesnais). Can Paul turn against his own blood and turn Philippe into the rightful heir of his family estate? |
| You, Me, and the Others (Toi, Moi, Et Les Autres) | A wealthy businessman who's engaged to be married falls for a pretty Arab immigrant after injuring her brother while driving drunk. |