Discoveries from France World Cinema

Young Juliette is obsessed with dying in tragedy, just as her namesake. Desperate to find her Romeo before her 15th birthday, Juliette goes to great lengths to make her classmates fall deeply in love with her.

In a world where digital technology has invaded our lives, some of us end up cracking. Addict or technophobe, with family or at school, at work or in love, SELFIE tells the comic and wild destinies of Homo Numericus on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Mrs. Géquil is an eccentric teacher despised by her colleagues and students. On a stormy night, she is struck by lightning and faints. When she wakes up, she feels different. Will she now be able to keep the powerful and dangerous Mrs. Hyde contained?

1793, French Revolution. For three years now, Charette, a young man retired from the Royal Navy, has been back home. In the country, the anger of the peasants rumbles: they call on the young retiree to take command of the rebellion. In a few months, the idle sailor becomes a charismatic leader and a shrewd strategist, bringing in his wake peasants, deserters, women, old people and children, of which he makes a formidable army. The fight for freedom has only just begun.

Franck is a soldier. He watches the streets of Paris. But one day, Franck decides to leave.

Lola meets Simon during a 24-hour dance marathon. While the competition is in full swing, they develop a complicity that distracts her from her goal. But one elimination follows another at a frantic pace and, out of breath, she decides to join forces with him for a dance that could well lead them to victory.

A family runs to the house shelter, but not all will make it in.

This adaptation of Stendhal's timeless masterpiece of French literature tells the tale of Fabrice Del Dongo (Grard Philipe) a young archibishop who gives his heart and soul to romance rather than to the Church creating upheaval in the lives of evergone around him the Countess of Sanseverine (Maria Casares) is but one of the may women who love him. In turn she incurs jealous retributions from those in high places who desire her. For his crimes Fabrice is thrown in Prison where from Crimes Fabrice is thrown in prison where form his lonely window he falls in love with his jailer s daughter and plans a daring escape she however calls his plan insane and takes a vow to the Virgin Mary to never see him again ever if his escape succeeds the Charterhouse of Parma explodes with conflicting desires man s desire form God vs. his desire for romance.

After his wife died a man refuses to go out and doesn't want to talk to his only son. Life has no meaning for him. One day his son finds a baby pelican and decides to leave the bird at home. Pelican helps the boy find his father again and revive him back to life ...

The story of a woman that remained distracted for a long time from her life, from the passions that made her feel alive. The importance of true love is compared with the material value of diamonds. Only one truly lasts forever. She's got to find the thing that values most for her, the thing that gives psychical stability and real happiness again to her life.

Twelve-year old Theo plays for a local soccer club and has enough talent to eventually go pro. But his father has been on a self-destructive spiral ever since he started drinking and got divorced, and Theo feels powerless and anxious as he watches his dad slowly destroying his own life. But he refuses to give up on him. When a recruiter for a prestigious British club takes notice of him, Theo sees an opportunity to rekindle his father’s hope, but despite all his efforts he is not selected. So he decides to lie and say he was, hoping to make his father happy and proud. Theo’s dad is so overjoyed that he puts all his heart into helping his son prepare for “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” gradually regaining his taste for life and motivation for the future. Until the lie reaches unforeseen proportions and completely spins out of control. Thankfully, Theo’s little lie has already operated big change and generated so much hope, that life is able to get back on track. Only better!

A bourgeois office drone whose raison d'être is the music of French rocker Johnny Hallyday awakens one day in an alternate universe where the famed musician never recorded a single song. When he’s not at the office dutifully plugging-away, Fabrice lives a deadly dull life.

Judith leads a double life between Switzerland and France. On the one hand Abdel, with whom she is raising a little girl, on the other Melvil with whom she has two older boys. Little by little, this fragile balance, made up of lies, secrets and back and forth, cracks dangerously. Trapped, Judith chooses to head forward, at the risk of losing everything.

When he finds a package in the metro, given this period of restrictions, Mr. Truche thinks it may be a good deal, he takes it home but discovers a woman's head inside. A friend of Mr. Truche having just disappeared, the superintendent accuses her of having murdered her and discovers the head buried in his cellar. But the girlfriend, whom Mr. Truche loves platonically, returns from the countryside and at the same time we spot the assassin of the unknown woman.

In Paris, Ariane and Lena are sisters. Ariane writes photo novellas for the magazine "Toi et Moi." She's emotional and her long-time boyfriend, Farid, has her in a state because he won't propose, won't ask her to live with him, and often is unavailable. Lena is a cellist, quiet and circumspect in life and in her playing. She lives without passion with her boyfriend François; they're talking about having a baby.

A ski resort town struggles to become the top tourism spot.

A young, unscrupulous director hires an actress and uses the story she tells him of her life to write his screenplay, but fires her and entrusts the leading role to someone else.

They are the best friends of the world. Five friends who shared everything: may 68, hippies years, the rock and their love for Bernadette. This Bernadette has left them to become a rock-star, and is back 15 years later for a weekend. Jean-Marie Poire describes with this movie the portrait of a generation with lots of humor served by excelent actors.

During the brutal era of the military government, an innocent tourist manager is accused of being a member of the illegal resistance movement.

Max, a teenager, is having a difficult time coming of age. At 16, he is constantly in conflict with his parents. His father, Yvon, a lock and alarm manufacturer, does not understand this rebellious son. Worried about his future, he drowns Max's ambitions in a clumsy speech. Himself a bit clumsy, he doesn't know how to show him his affection. A gap is growing. One day, Max goes out without his parents' permission to attend a party organized by a friend. There, he meets his first true love, Audrey. But the young man is also insolent and is soon expelled from his school. His father reacts violently, and the teenager decides to run away.

A mother attempts to keep her family safe as war rages and a sniper lies in wait outside her home.

8-year-old Jérémy is ready for a typical evening with his parents and little brother. But his mother’s behavior grows more and more unsettling.

Pierre (Cerone) and Amelie (Serena Monti) filming their sexual adventures. But then the the video cassette is taken by a model who later blackmails them for some sex games. But the couple seems to like these games.

An anthology of four historical love affairs: at Versailles, Louis XIV shares his mistress with one of his subjects; a courtesan tries to disfigure her lover with acid; a medieval wife faces the wrath of her husband's father, who has her condemned to death; and a stage actress provides advice on life and love to her young colleague.

Sacha is a real seducer, a man with no ties or emotional or professional. Charlotte is a modern and independent woman, but barely has time to care for their three children. While Sacha and Charlotte are, at first glance, two incompatible beings, when they meet soon discover that they are quite complementary and need each other.

Handsome pediatric doctor feels unfulfilled, until his affection for a 12-year-old opens him to a romantic view of the world. When she falls ill, he must get closer to her, and a conflict of interests and ethics arise. His medical reputation is at stake.

Maud is an architect and a mother. Due to a misunderstanding, she wins the competition to refurbish the parvis of Notre-Dame. Torn between these responsibilities and love issues, she will go through an emotional storm.

"Marius" takes place in Marseilles' Old Port, at the La Marine Bar, owned by César and his son Marius. Marius' biggest dream is to embark on one of the boats passing by his dad's bar and to set off to a faraway land. Fanny, a young and pretty seafood peddler, has secretly been in love with Marius since her childhood; Marius, never admitting it, has always loved Fanny. One day, a sailor drops by La Marine and offers him a job on an exploratory ship. Trying to hold him off and to make him jealous, Fanny confesses his love to him and provokes a fight between Marius and one of César's old friends, Panisse, a boat merchant, who despite his old age, has been courting Fanny for a while. Torn between the call of the sea and his love for her, Marius abandons his dream to be with Fanny who gives herself to him. As César and Honorine, Fanny's mother, are getting ready for the wedding, Marius changes his mind, drawn back to the call of the sea.

Georges Méliès adaptation of Robinson Crusoe, the first film adaptation of the story. Filmed in black & white, Méliès would then paint the film by hand to colour it. Originally a 15 minute film, twelve and a half minutes of painted film have been found and have been restored.

The students of a prestigious law school try their best to mess things up.

Set amid the military maneuvers and Quatorze Juillet carnivals of turn-of-the-century France, Jean Renoir’s delirious romantic comedy Elena and her Men stars a radiant Ingrid Bergman as a beautiful, but impoverished, Polish princess who drives men of all stations to fits of desperate love. When Elena elicits the fascination of a famous general, she finds herself at the center of romantic machinations and political scheming, with the hearts of several men—as well as the future of France—in her hands.

When her eldest daughter accuses her father of abusive behavior, a woman’s seemingly perfect marriage begins to crumble when her suspicions are confirmed.

A supermodel, notorious for combining work and pleasure, agrees to star in an epic film about the life of Cleopatra.

A strike at a French sausage factory contributes to the estrangement of a married filmmaker and his reporter wife.

In northern Peru, the unprecedented archaeological discovery of the largest known mass child sacrifice in the world opens the doors to the kingdom of Chimor. This international archaeological investigation carried out like a criminal investigation reveals the mysteries of the last civilization of the Andes before the arrival of the Incas.

A spectacular evening hosted by Nikos Aliagas to honor the legendary Dorothée, who shaped the childhood of millions in France. Today’s stars, who grew up with her, will pay tribute alongside the iconic figures of 'Club Dorothée' and classic sitcoms. Featuring rare archival footage, emotional memories, musical performances, and surprises, this documentary revisits the unmatched career of a true television phenomenon—record-breaking audiences, sold-out concerts, and a lasting cultural impact. A nostalgic journey celebrating an icon, culminating in the reveal of her brand-new song.

France, 1911. Louise Perreau, struggling financially to raise her son Gaston, gets a new job in Paris that brings her hope for a better life.

Jeanne Kern is a pretty, somewhat repressed schoolteacher who suffers a smear campaign at work. Someone has been sending her director letters accusing her of lewd and immoral conduct. Matters take a turn for the worse when a photograph of an orgy is sent to all the faculty with one face cut out; presumably, the face is hers.

Leon who works as a bathhouse attendant discovers a passion for the tango that will change his life. He falls in love with Fumée, a young and pretty prostitute who becomes his partner in tango contests.

This French slapstick comedy stars the musician/comedian foursome Les Charlots, as valets to the Four Musketeers. One of the film's highlights is a mutual kicking session between Cardinal Richelieu, the King, and a monk. This comedy foursome was enormously popular in 1970s France, and they made a huge number of films during that period.

The story of Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653), one of the first well-known female painters, including her youth, when she was guided and protected by her father, the painter Orazio Gentileschi.

Paris 2020, a high tech surgeon and her daughter are involved in a horrific car accident, the surgeon saves her daughter's life at the cost of manipulating her dreams and memories.

Charlotte Gainsbourg looks at her mother Jane Birkin in a way she never did, overcoming a sense of reserve. Using a camera lens, they expose themselves to each other, begin to step back, leaving space for a mother-daughter relationship.

The whole world knows him. Burlesque comedy genius, popular actor, author, director, producer, composer, choreographer, Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) used his talent to serve an ideal of justice and freedom. But his best scenario was his own destiny, a story written into the political and artistic history of the 20th century.

Reichau, a former army captain, is back in France after serving three years in prison for belonging to the OAS (Secret Armed Organization), a dissident paramilitary group during the Algerian War. Marked by his past, he does not believe in the values of his country any more. At a loss to know what to do with his life, he agrees one day to take part in a heist set up by Pierre, a pilot, the very man who gave him away in Oran. The operation, in which Yo, a gorgeous woman, participates, consists in stealing a bag containing 55 million francs during a Paris-Bordeaux flight...

In the 70s, actress Delphine Seyrig and director Carole Roussopoulos, both militant feminists, were the pioneers of video activism in France. They documented the demonstrations of French feminists and used the new technologies to counter the poor representation of women in the public media.

In Genève, bookseller and publisher Axel Thorpe catches willful, rich 16-year-old Sibylle Ashby shoplifting. She brags about her writing, so he challenges her to produce a book. She writes an erotic novel that Thorpe publishes anonymously, and it becomes a best seller. She also tries to capture the love of this 40-year-old publisher but he drops her for her older sister.

25-year-old Khalid Belkacem has failed at everything: college education, summer camp instructor's permit, driver's license, and even his BCG. He never expected to become the first "positive discrimination" member of the police force. But as his mother says: "That's France for you! A country where everyone has a chance."

A group of nuns become possessed by demons and are then tortured in a dungeon of horrors during the Inquisition.

After his crew breaks up, a gifted but insecure hip-hop dancer teaches at a top ballet school in Paris, where he falls for an aspiring ballerina.

Hippolyte, the titular oddball, is a far from typical country lawyer. He has been happily married to the woman of his dreams for 15 years, but has an incurable penchant for practical (or rather impractical) jokes.

Anna, a somewhat introverted woman, becomes obsessed with the orthopedic surgeon who helped with her recuperation following a car accident. Incorrectly believing the love to be reciprocated, she embarks on several attempts to try and stay in touch with him but, after several rejections, finds herself descending into despair and, ultimately, hatred.

Alexandra, trente ans, s'apprête à passer les vacances d'été en famille. Au moment de prendre la route, elle apprend que sa mère a aussi invité son ex, accompagné d'une "fiancée" jeune et ravissante. Dans un café, elle croise un acteur au chômage et l'engage sur le champ pour tenir le rôle de son fiancé. Comme ça, elle pourra affronter son ex, en toute sérénité.

Vallois, a vice inspector for the Paris police, takes special interest in the plight of drug-addicted Lucky (Najda Tiller), whom he considers to be more victim than criminal. Taking it upon himself to wean Lucky away from narcotics, Vallois also wins her love -- and, incidentally, smashes the dope ring responsible for her addiction.

Hanoi comes across almost picture-perfect in director Tran Anh Hung's beautiful, elegiac tale about the lives and loves of three Vietnamese sisters. A mood characteristic of Hung's films is set early on with the vivid sounds of birds, insects and water and the way the lighting enhances the subtle use of color. They all combine to gem-like effect here.

An unhappily married woman struggles to break free from social pressures and her boring suburban setting.