French

This is an affecting story about a father’s attempts to mend the breaches in the relationship between himself and his 10-year-old daughter. Emmanuel (Sami Frey) is the father of Elise (Mara Goyet) by his first marriage, and the stepfather of an older daughter by his second marriage. He tries to make the best of both family relationships by taking off to visit his young daughter on the weekends, but that only makes his new family a little jealous – especially his stepdaughter. She herself is confused about her own relationship with him. After a particularly emotional send-off one weekend, Emmanuel and Elise take a trip from the south of France into Spain, working on a film project. Through a series of round-about conversations, Emmanuel manages to open up a few channels of communication with Elise – channels that expand even wider when he uses the technique of talking into her video camera to express thoughts and feelings that otherwise would have remained hidden.Read More »

A short documentary about Persepolis by Iranian filmmaker and poet Fereydoun Rahnema.Read More »

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…Read More »

A young Japanophile Belgian woman in Tokyo falls into a whirlwind romance with a Francophile Japanese student.

Amélie (Pauline Etienne) was born in Kansai but she is Belgian, unfortunate twist of fate as she stubbornly wants to become « a venerable Japanese writer ». So at the age of 20 Amelie leaves Belgium for Japan to realize her dream. There, to earn her living, she teaches french to Rinri (Taichi Inoue), a young Japanese french culture enthusiast, as sweet and charming as he is sometimes impenetrable… Read More »

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The same voyeuristic story, told by two different men: first by Michaël Lonsdale, in a « fiction » version, then by Jean-Noël Picq, in a « document » version. The way the film was shot is worth mentioning: Eustache first got his friend Jean Noël-Picq to sit down with a group of people (including The Mother and the Whore’s Françoise Lebrun) and recount a strange episode in his life: how in the men’s room of a local restaurant, he found a hole in the wall and peered through, finding that he had a perfect view of the ladies’ room. He became a regular patron, and his daily dose of scopophilia turned into an addiction until one day, with some relief, he found that the hole had been plastered over. Then Eustache “remade” his own film in a scripted, 35 mm version, with the critic Jean Douchet as the “director” and Michel Lonsdale in the Picq role. One of the cinema’s great curiosities, A Dirty Story exerts a mysterious – and often uncomfortably voyeuristic – fascination.Read More »

A single mother and a married man enter into an affair with the understanding that their relationship is purely sexual. Though they agree the relationship has no future, they find themselves increasingly drawn into each other’s company.Read More »

A young Parisian advertising executive becomes so captivated by the unsettling charm of his mysterious new employer that he eventually abandons his family and friends, viewing it a privilege to let the ubiquitous employer take over his home, his life, his desire. Only his wife remains suspicious, recognizing both the pathos and the evil in the man’s soul-stealing power.Read More »

Michel Houellebecq travels to Guadeloupe to take part in a look-alike contest, whose jury is chaired by Blanche Gardin. But unforeseen events will plunge our duo into the heart of a bizarre intrigue.Read More »

A feud between families in 1870’s rural France.

A few years after their successful collaboration on La Traversée de Paris (1956), director Claude Autant-Lara and the popular comic actor Bourvil worked together on this light-hearted farce, based on a best-selling novel by Marcel Aymé. One of Autant-Lara’s more cheerful films, La Jument verte benefits from an exceptionally talented cast, which includes such big names as Francis Blanche, Yves Robert, Georges Wilson and Marie Déa, as well as the great Bourvil (who, needless to say, gives great value). Read More »