Discoveries from France World Cinema

A film based on Jacques Chessex' novel of the same title; featuring André Wilms as Chessex and Bruno Ganz as Arthur Bloch, Swiss Jew killed by Swiss Nazis.

La vie quand même (LIFE AFTER ALL) is another film in a series collectively called 'Tales from the Orphanage'. The story is simple on the surface (children coping with the sudden loss of parents), but in the hands of writer Sophie Tasma and director Olivier Péray this storyline unfolds a tale of brotherly love that is well worth watching.

When penniless young writer Labidi meets Elisa he knows she’s the one for him. But Paris is expensive. A captivating film that combines the classic themes of French New Wave cinema with questions about roots, familiarity and distance.

A police drama set in an unidentified and oppressed South American country among a group of conspirators. The main characters are two sisters Soledad and Tita.

Marie lives with Antoine, but while he is away she meets Paul, a filmmaker visiting from Canada. Paul is instantly smitten and wants her to marry him. She puts him off by saying that she and Antoine have decided to have a baby. When Antoine returns, he becomes vividly jealous of his girlfriend's chaste encounter, which provokes her into having an affair with Paul.

Friendly and broke, Mimmo dreams of being rich and famous, but for now he's a taxi driver. One evening, he meets John Deveau, a wealthy and perverse man, and his gang, who draw him into a world of luxurious parties among the wealthy. Charmed and believing he has made it, Mimmo thinks that this world wants him. In reality, he falls into the perverse trap set by John and his gang for their own amusement.

A female writer of erotic novels is inspired by her neighbor, who is in the endless games with men and then with her. They both leave together for a holiday, and with friends they experience endless love excitement.

Michel, a children's book author, has always been successful in life until the day his wife leaves him for a Chinese person. Planning on killing his rival, he starts looking for them.

Traces a slow advance through Paris in the early hours of the morning. The deserted boulevards of Paris are punctuated by interspersed groups of dark-skinned workers, stray prostitutes and vagabonds.

Two little criminals without major, dream of adventure and easy life. They agree to go to work in the Poitou as representatives of musical encyclopedias luxury. But their friend Valerie arrive from Paris and just changes their life.

If Jean Rochefort remains so dear to our hearts, it is because this extraordinary actor alone embodies a cinema and a France imbued with freedom and carelessness. Through his films, archives and the testimony of those close to him, we discover a complex man, a sad clown saved by his taste for words and for fun.

A traveller is stuck in an unknown town because his connecting train will only arrive in six hours. He decides to kill time by taking a stroll. He is not prepared to get confused with somebody else. In fact the citizens are eagerly awaiting the visit of a famous man and the clueless traveller is his doppelgänger. Soon he experiences what that means.

A shady Parisian tries to take advantage of a family of French-descended Algerians forced to move to France.

Four Anglo-Canadians and a New Yorker find themselves in a two-week long total French immersion program in the fictional, remote town of St-Isidore-du-Coeur-de-Jésus, tucked away somewhere in Northern Quebec. The place is perfect for total immersion since, according to the most recent census, 99% of the population is comprised of pure laine Quebeckers for the most part unilingual French, fervently nationalist, and all, save one person, named Tremblay.

Rémi sees his marriage troubled by a scandal caused by his former mistress. He takes refuge with his godmother while his wife organizes her revenge.

A quirky, romantic New York comedy about the pursuit of love, life and the right to be yourself.

The legendary Palmashow series is back! Have a wonderful and hilarious summer thanks to the unmissable sketches from the duo Grégoire Ludig and David Marsais.

During a dinner, the revelations made through the baby-phone of a child's room will create a real cataclysm within a family and a group of friends ...

A high-speed view of Paris via train-track; Zooming down the Seine by boat. Chomette's first film, Games of Reflections and Speed, traverses tunnels and elevated railways to produce a disarming rhythm.

When his long-time disappeared father is entering his life again, Jean-Luc, a successful doctor, has no option but to face his own life story. Will he ever be able to forget and forgive?

The naive and self-conscious Leah mistakenly signs a pact with the devil Abargadon. But she's on Heaven's hit list, so the Archangel Gabriel intervenes to bring about the demon's demise. But Leah begins to find Abargadon attractive and not so bad. She decides to save his soul.

In a small, gloomy town, a killer is on the prowl, forcing the residents to shut themselves away in their homes. Despite this oppressive climate, Wendy continues to receive her lover in her home and to revel in an impossible love. But one night, the dangerous criminal sees the young widow at her window and decides to knock on her door.

During WW2 a boy tries to save himself and his baby sister from a German soldier.

The ex-gymnast and survival artist Emil falls in love with the prostitute Lissy. Through her he meets some criminals whom he can help thanks to his gymnastic skills. But on his rise in the criminal hierarchy, Lissy might fall by the wayside.

Two childhood friends, Joshua and Flint, are adrift in boredom in their area of Sainte-Rose, Guadeloupe. They're involved in petty theft and ordinary System D, until the arrival of Marcus. Caught in a spiral, the difficult choices has to be done...

A shy computer expert falls in love with a beautiful colleague while trying to become a film director. Five years later, they have two children, she has become a successful executive, his career has gone nowhere, and their relationship is coming to an end.

Jean, a father recently separated, is facing a lot of difficulties. But his life may will change because he thinks his 10 years old son Loulou, do wonders. With a bit of luck... he could be a new messiah ! Jean has just to convince everybody else.

An aristocratic Sicilian family living in the 1950s. Count Villafratti has sex one night with his nymphomaniac daughter because he thinks she is his wife.

Hakim and Latifa fled the Algerian civil war in the early 90s. They live since in the Jura, with their two daughters: Nedjma 14 years, and Leila, the eldest, left to study hair in Paris. Three days before Christmas, Nedjma receives a terse SMS from her older sister. She will not be able to come to join them for the holidays, pretexting once more an overload of work - Latifa attacks Hakim and pushes him to fetch Leïla. Nedjma will come with him, they will take the opportunity to discover Paris. Upon their arrival in the hair salon, they learn that Leila has actually never worked. It is the journey of a father who begins in Paris one night until dawn.

A journalist and a police commissioner join forces to smash a white slavery network operating in the Middle East. The cabaret run by Clovis where Dalida sings is quickly spotted, as is a marriage agency run by Madame Irma, offering semblance of guarantees. Clues without proof. The journalist's fiancée agrees to play the game set up by the superintendent. The network is dismantled.

One year after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy takes us to the heart of the combat through this war diary made during the second half of 2022. From Kharkiv and Bakhmut to Kherson, in the aftermath of the city’s liberation, this documentary bears witness to the ravages of war through the testimonies of soldiers, chronicles of the front and portraits of civilians, and shares with us the struggle of the Ukrainian people.

A man wanders through a wrecked, dystopian city, finding violence everywhere he turns.

15-year old schoolboy Denis and the nun Clotilde fall in love with each other. During the war the two of them take shelter at an abandoned farm and live happily together until the locals start to become suspicious.

Ninth is a promising young rapper whose reputation does not exceed even the few streets of his neighborhood. With his band and supported by Keuj, hairdresser apprentice producer, he tries to attend concerts and trying to break into the music, to the chagrin of his mother, who would see him in a more conventional career at the post office...

One day in 1986, François Mitterrand forgets his black felt (his initials) in a Lyons restaurant. Daniel Mercier, a young executive who has just been reprimanded by his superior, who judges that the computerization of its business plan is stupid, steals it to clear his head. It was then that his life is turned upside down.

In this mock documentary, television journalist Christie and her camera crew trace the history and nefarious exploits of the new terrors of the French criminal underworld. The "Old School" Gang are four young men who grew up in the same orphanage; led by Letiole, they affect outlandish mid-'70s fashions and a retro-gangster/neo-blaxploitation persona as they rob, loot, and shoot their way through the seamy underbelly of Paris.

Parisian authorities clash with the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) in director Alain Tasma’s recounting of one of the darkest moments of the Algerian War of Independence. As the war wound to a close and violence persisted in the streets of Paris, the FLN and its supporters adopted the tactic of murdering French policemen in hopes of forcing a withdrawal. When French law enforcement retaliated by brutalizing Algerians and imposing a strict curfew, the FLN organizes a peaceful demonstration that drew over 11,000 supporters, resulting in an order from the Paris police chief to take brutal countermeasures. Told through the eyes of both French policemen as well as Algerian protestors, Tasma’s film attempts to get to the root of the tragedy by presenting both sides of the story.

Justine, leaves her family, drops out of school at 18. Drifting in Paris, encountering odd characters she finally slips into prostitution.

Adventures of a group of youngsters set in a provincial French city in the 1950's.

The belated and revolting passion of a famous surgeon for a young orphan whom he once took in. He goes so far as to dishonor her to prevent her marriage to a young man she loves, whom she will however end up marrying. The young girl herself is not without reproach; she has missed a mother's love: in this ordeal, she has no sense of feminine dignity.

Jérôme, a senior executive, has just left his company. Determined to never work for nobody else ever again, he attempts to set up his own company, come what may, even ignoring the reluctance of his wife Laura. Ugo, their 11-year-old son, is a tennis player and a promising champion. To reach his goal, he must make it into the Roland Garros national training centre. Just like his dad, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make it. Together, Ugo and Jérôme will realize that not all rules can be bent in the quest for success.

Set in Zaire, the film follows an expedition exploring the crater of the Niragongo volcano of the Virunga chain, whose eruptions are known for their violence and their massive lava flows.

Jeanne has succeeded in lifting the siege of Orléans and Charles has been crowned King of France. However, she is injured in an attempt to take Paris, weakening her position at court. Captured by the enemy and put on trial, she finds both her life and the sanctity of her body at stake.

This film follows the making of Nekfeu's 3rd album, between Paris, Japan, Greece and the United States.

A tale of two elephant brothers, Tutu and Zef, in search of their mother, and the menagerie of wild creatures they encounter along the way. Just days after the birth of baby elephant Tutu, human hunters arrive late at night and decimate the herd. Faced with the loss of their family, Tutu and Zef set off across the African plain in search of a future.

A pedophile network, to which belong notables of a French provincial town is about to be discovered by a young woman who herself lost her son, a child survivor of one of these horror festivals, and an anarchist gunsmith.

Brumaire, the director of public relations at the Élysée, is trying to boost the rating of his government.

Sandrine dreams of becoming a singer in Paris but for the time being she is only a salesgirl at Tati's and lives in a second rate hotel under the careful eye of Ahmed, the night watchman. One day, she meets Gérald, her brother's former boyfriend, who persuades her to move into his apartment. He soon takes control over Sandrine's life, organizing erotic rendezvous for her, taking her to her clients and waiting for her until she is through with her task.

Each evening, four men – a doctor, a journalist, a professor and a merchant – meet up in a deserted bar to play cards. As they play, the bar’s owner, her downtrodden barman (nicknamed “le paltoquet”) and a strange woman in white watch from a distance. One night, the card game is disturbed when a police inspector suddenly appears and declares that a dead body has been found nearby. Certain that one of the four men is the murderer, the inspector starts his investigation. All the evidence suggests that the doctor did the deed, but we soon learn that nothing is quite what it seems…

Two soldiers, Daniel and Jerome, flee a war we don’t see and we know nothing about. Jerome is badly injured, he will die, he says it, he knows it, he is afraid. Then Jerome confesses to Daniel his last will: he does not want to die a virgin, he wants to die loved…

A government agent tries to prevent foreign spies from obtaining a scientist's formula for a solid-rocket-fuel.

A young woman, working as a cashier for a large retailer, writes anonymously about the working conditions that she and all the cashiers face everyday. Her blog becomes famous all over the country, some people want to know who she is.

Paul Tanner has just inherited a mansion on a vast property. Going there, he noticed that the building was in poor condition and that work had already started. He decides to continue the renovation and brings in several contractors who give him quotes for amounts that exceed his financial capabilities.

Pierre, a French professor of quantum physics, inherits an inn from his aunt Jeanne in the Lac St-Jean region. He arrives with his daughter and settles in the small village of Sainte-Simone-du-Nord, home to just 400 residents. The locals, however, greet these “strangers” with suspicion—especially the village mayor, who once had a falling-out with Jeanne, the Frenchwoman. He manages to rally the townspeople to make life difficult for these newcomers from across the Atlantic. Yet Pierre’s good humor is unshakable, and he refuses to be discouraged—even without electricity, heat, water, or a car.

A romantic, a scoundrel, a private man .... The touching and absurd story of the philosopher Albert Camus as seen through the eyes of the many women in his life.