Discoveries from France World Cinema

Several couples break up and get back together.

While Nooran, learns the ancient art of healing with music from her mother, Aadam a camel trader listens to her sing and falls in love with her and they marry. But soon, Nooran discovers treachery and must avenge herself and rediscover her lost song.

A young sailor finds himself trapped in the labyrinthine mansion of his occultist uncle, along with a number of eccentric and mysterious relatives who all seem to be harboring a dark secret.

Charismatic and resourceful, seducer and daredevil, Jean-Paul Belmondo has always played his roles as he lived, at a thousand miles an hour. He had only one passion: to entertain the public with his smile, his naturalness, his energy, his stunts. But contrary to appearances, his destiny was full of pitfalls. This film lifts the veil on a founding childhood that allowed him to overcome many obstacles throughout his life thanks to the tutelary figures of his father and mother. Told from the inside with the help of his autobiography, interviews and unpublished archives, this epic story traces the career of this turbulent young actor who launched the New Wave in Breathless before becoming the popular Bebel, an indestructible and provocative vigilante. From film to film, this documentary paints an intimate portrait of a man who built himself up to reach the top: his triumphs but also his trials, his doubts, his secrets, his angers, his clowning, his disappointments or his personal dramas.

Eugenia is the queen of an imaginary European country. When her husband dies, quite unexpectedly, the country is left without a king. According to the law, the new king needs to be married so that leaves out the eldest son. Her youngest son, Prince Arnaud is married to the lovely Armelle and they have two young children. They become the future rulers of the kingdom.

France's rural wasteland. Mika and Dan have big dreams but little luck. Cornered after another blunder by Dan, they end up working for Tony, their best friend, who's now the king of construction. Mika and Dan need to find a way out of here, a way out of trouble – simply a way out.

The story of two brothers who, even though they have absolutely nothing in common, open a bar together that quickly becomes a regular hangout for nighthawks. Despite the success, they must soon face up to the difficulties inherent in running a family business. Their brotherhood turns into rivalry, through no fault of their own.

A Montreal police inspector cracks a murder case with clues from the victim's diary.

Die-hard fans of the 1980s, Vincent and Antoine run a company that supplies doubles of faded stars throughout the whole of France. What starts out as a promising business venture ends up as a calamity when Vincent and Antoine have over forty engagements booked but no one to attend them. They then have a brainwave. Why not get in touch with the real stars of the 1980s and persuade them to make a comeback? Why make do with an imitation when you can have the real McCoy?

At 40, Molina is the most famous radio host in France: she hosts a nightly call-in show where she answers questions from callers with sexual and emotional problems. When she decides to look for her mother whom she never knew, she discovers her living in the suburbs.

In this French crime film, set during the time of the Gulf War, an elderly German tourist is murdered in Paris by junk dealer Joseph Katz (Pinkas Braun), a friend of Paris detective Sam Bellamy (singer Patrick Bruel). Romantically involved with the victim's daughter Emma Guter (Isabella Ferrari), Bellamy covers up the crime he witnessed. Joseph then mysteriously vanishes, and Bellamy heads for Berlin where the victim's possessions are auctioned. After Bellamy finds the source of the well-hidden traffic in art stolen by Nazis from French Jews, he discovers a Nazi war criminal is blackmailing past associates. Incorporating background from journalist Hector Feliciano's Lost Museum, the film is adapted from Guy Konopnicki's novel, Pas de Kaddish pour Sylberstein (No Kaddish for Sylberstein).

Born out of wedlock early in the last century, Violette Leduc meets Simone de Beauvoir in postwar Saint-Germain-des-Près. An intense lifelong relationship develops between the two women authors, based on Violette's quest for freedom through writing and on Simone's conviction that she holds in her hands the destiny of an extraordinary writer.

Based on a true story : the discovery of Lava's treasure, in 1985 near Ajaccio.

A story about inventor who invented a cool bike and goes on racing competition but has a lot of problems on his way.

Lucas returns to his native village lost in the mountains to bury his parents. Traumatised as a kid by the death of his best friend when he was eight, he wants to put the past behind him. However, the father of the deceased friend discovers Marc might be responsible for his son’s death and relentlessly goes after him for revenge.

A young French sailor falls in love with a Russian tourist during a passion-filled three-day furlough, but is whisked away for a months worth of submarine duty before he can learn her last name and Moscow address. When he is finally freed again, he embarks upon a search for his lost love. Unfortunately, while his aim is true, his timing is off. His first stop is the broadcast headquarters of a major television network. He arrives shortly before the place blasted apart by a bomb. Later, he goes to the apartment of a noted talk-show host in hopes of receiving air-time during which he will plead for information concerning his lost love. But things don't come out as planned for somehow, the sailor ends up considered the prime suspect in the bombing while the real-life terrorist and his cohort, who happen to be in the same apartment building in hopes of knocking off a crooked judge.

Two enigmatic women, both with a hidden but shared motive, separately arrive in Paris. As they navigate the city and their search progresses, various characters become entangled within their conflict, one which increasingly comes to take a fantastical turn. These characters too, driven by their own desires, strive for their own goals in the fight. From a Paris, drenched in an otherworldly ambiance, a tale of desire and power emerges through mystery.

An imaginative surrealist journey of young Jay Jay and his mother Edie. Their inner city dreams are illuminated by the New Moon accompanied by magic of Aretha Franklin playing on a summer's eve on a transistor radio in a backyard in West Philadelphia.

Charles de Gaulle, the first president (1958-1969) of the Vth Republic, France’s current system of government, left his mark on the country . He was statesman of action and has been compared to a monarch. This film depicts the general’s personality through the great events of his presidential term, at a time when the world was undergoing considerable changes.

Ducobu goes on holiday in the south of France.

A grizzled, hard-of-hearing cowboy, Slim, and his two friends, Dusty and Pete, capture a mysterious, well-dressed Frenchman.

Thirty-year-old Ben is about to marry Juliette. His quiet, ordered life will fall to pieces when he meets up again with the person he secretly wants to see the most: Vanessa, the high school bombshell who never so much as looked in his direction. She's back in Paris, and the only person she now knows is him…

A man who was injured in an accident has a visitor in his hospital. The visitor suggests a strange deal.

Malo has separated from his wife and a divorce is in the works. His children leave with his wife on holiday, and he is lonely and depressed. His friend Rémi drags him to a party in the country, and driving back they see by chance a notice of a house being sold at auction by creditors. The low reserve price surprises them and they go round to have a look. Finding the door open, Malo picks up a letter from a little girl to her father saying she misses him - moved by the resonance with his own daughter, Malo accidentally takes the note with him when they leave in a hurry. He then resolves to return the note to the now grown-up little girl Cloé, but of course it's awkward to explain how he got it. He learns that she really doesn't want to sell the house, which is all that remains of her childhood. The relationship between them develops, and emotions run high at the auction. Ultimately the film explores whether Malo can give both or either Cloé and his daughter what they want/need,

The bell ringer at a way station in the French Alps, murders a passing horse trader with a thrown rock and relieves him of his bankroll, in order to bribe the daughter of his only friend, a head injury victim considered the village simpleton, into marrying him, despite her love for a lowly woodsman who is, in turn, being cajoled into marriage by the daughter of the wealthy innkeeper.

Simon, a famous violinist, sinks into alcoholism. He finds support from his lover, who is also the manager of the orchestra in which he plays. But is she really helping him or is she exploiting his dependence on her? A man who has been through the same experience as Simon, offers to help him...

The engagement of a young couple is spoiled by the antics of their relatives.

April 5, 1943: a battalion of the Foreign Legion arrives in El Ksour, Tunisia, to escort a fortune in gold bars to the home front. A German ambush awaits, and all but four die. Thanks to the street smarts of Sergeant Augagneur, the Legionnaires successfully counter attack. The bank manager and his seductive wife arrive, and so does a German lieutenant, whom the French arrest. Augagneur wants to steal the gold; warrant officer Mahuzard wants to do his duty. A series of alliances form and break apart, the group dwindles in number, and the gold heads south toward Betahoua. But in whose possession?

Anna, 50 years old, moves into her new house. Rooms are full of boxes which contain a lot of things and plenty of memories. Anna has lived many lives and her past comes out of these boxes. Her parents surely, but also her children and their fathers, the living and the dead. In this breakneck period of her life, time is running faster and faster and Anna takes a run-up to face the past and try to go towards the future. And, maybe, to manage to still believe in love?

In autumn of 1526, the Emperor, Charles V, sends his German landsknechts led by Georg von Frundsberg to march towards Rome. The inferior papal armies, commanded by Giovanni de'Medici, try to chase them in the midst of a harsh winter. Nevertheless, the Imperial armies manage to cross the rivers along their march and get cannons thanks to the maneuvers of its Lords. In a skirmish, Giovanni de'Medici is wounded in the leg by a falconet shot. The attempts to cure him fail and he dies. The Imperial armies assault Rome. The film is beautifully but unassumingly set, and shows the hard conditions in which war is waged and its lack of glory. It ends straightforwardly with the declaration made after the death of Giovanni de'Medici by the commanders of the armies in Europe of not using again fire weapons because of their cruelty.

Two very different cops are forced to work together...

A warm summer in Montreal. Two black men, Man and Bouba, share an apartment. Man is an ambitious author, writing on The Great Novel. Bouba is a lazy amateur philosopher who quotes the Koran. Man's habit of picking up young white women makes many young white men jealous...

Desperate, Didier throws himself out in the Seine. Pascal, a newsboy, jumps and saves him. It’s the beginning of the friendship between them.Once, as Pascal helps Didier, he finds himself involved in a murder. Only the superintendent believes in his innocence…

Lydia, a midwife very invested in her work, is in the middle of a breakup.

Fifty-year-old Maria Garcia is the owner of the Dos Estaciones, a once-majestic tequila factory struggling to stay afloat, and the final hold-over from generations of Mexican-owned tequila plants in the highlands of Jalisco; the rest have folded to foreign corporations. Once one of the wealthiest people in town, Maria knows her current financial situation is untenable. When a persistent plague and an unexpected flood cause irreversible damage, she is forced to do everything she can to save her community's main source of economy and pride.

Qiao, an 18-year-old boy, loses his voice while delivering a eulogy for his late father. He runs away from the funeral and hides from his family. Between past, present and future, the young man recalls his relationship with his brutal and secretive father, who left him a passion for boxing. Ten years later, now an engineer, Qiao develops an AI boxer to help people learn boxing. Training with the AI day by day, Qiao begins to see a ghost.​​

Fernandel plays Albert, the unhappy brunt of jokes by his fellow office-workers who goes from the frying pan into the fire. Albert gets caught up in a robbery that also goes from bad to worse when it leads to several murders. Although he is not a killer and essentially innocent, there does not seem to be very much that Albert can do to convince others of the truth.

In this whimsical fable, Resnais deftly interweaves three story lines: the creation of an early-20th-century utopia; romantic high jinks at a school conference; and a fantasy sparked by F/X pioneer Georges Méliès.

A compilation of segments covers the seven deadly sins of greed, wrath, envy, pride, lust, sloth, and gluttony.

Mourning his brother's recent death, Pierrick accepts his best friend Tessa's invitation to stay in her family home — at last, a week alone. But when her gets there, he finds the house already occupied by Tessa's sister Marie.

A young, talented and ambitious journalist, Louis heads off to try his luck in Paris. He's spotted by Walter, editor-in-chief for a major daily newspaper, who takes to him and furthers his career. What he doesn't realise is that Louis is ready to betray anyone to achieve his ends...

Angèle, a thirty-something from Ivory Coast, always cope thanks to the gift of gab and audacity. To escape from a bunch of dangerous criminals, she becomes a nanny in the uptown Paris, hired by Hélène, the single mom of eight years old Arthur. Discovering the work conditions of her colleagues, she decides to stand up for their rights, thanks to a young lawyer who will quickly fall for her.

Alice learns of her mother's accidental death while travelling in Canada. The body has been repatriated to France at the request of her husband, Alice's father. But he has supposedly been dead for 22 years. Is it really her father? Why would her mother have lied to her?

Arsène Lupin is extremely popular among the population, because he allows the needy to share in his acquired wealth. Before entering the service of the German Emperor Wilhelm II, he removes his vault in Alsace, steals two paintings of old masters, steals valuable gems and calls out to the police prefect to avoid his arrest. But this time he risks being seriously recognized. Lupin must once again use his fine intellect to deftly escape the situation.

Themroc, a bachelor house painter living at home with his mother, leads a sad and colorless life. One day, after a run-in with his boss, he rebels. He wrecks his apartment, rejects every facet of bourgeois life, and begins acting like an urban, modern-day Neanderthal.

Intense love and hate bring a man and woman through personal tragedy.

Madame de Montespan, the Maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XIV, has been in disgrace since the King set eyes on a younger beauty, Marie-Angélique Scorailles. Having had enough of the situation, the rejected mistress decides to visit La Voisin, a woman known as a fortune teller, a doctor, a midwife and who is also said to arrange black masses and sell poisons. Some time later Marie-Angélique, now Duchess of Fontanges, dies mysteriously aged only twenty...

In the summer holidays, a group of women stay behind in Paris whilst their husbands and children take a vacation on the sunny Island of Ré. The women – wives, frustrated spinsters and adolescents – profit from their new-found freedom to sort out their love lives and the men indulge their earthy passions with no less enthusiasm. Only the children seems capable of rising above this infantile summer madness...

A young princess is the subject of a tug-of-war among witches, as each struggles to find the suitable antidote to a death sentence inculcated by an evil sister.

The successful novelist Judith Ralitzer is interrogated in the police station about the disappearance of her ghost-writer. A serial-killer escapes from a prison in Paris. A missing school teacher leaves his wife and children. In the road, the annoying and stressed hairdresser Hughette is left in a gas station by her fiancé Paul while driving to the poor farm of her family in the country. A mysterious man offers a ride to her and she invites him to assume the identity of Paul during 24 hours to not disappoint her mother. Who might be the unknown man and what is real and what is fiction?

Sometimes, when you think you have it all, everything falls apart. That is exactly the story of Jeanne .Just when she is offered the chance to dub famous American actress Jennifer Marshall in a successful American TV Show and her salary is about to triple, Marshall decides to withdraw from the show. So Jeanne makes a crazy decision, fly to Hollywood herself and make Jennifer change her mind about leaving the series...

A married man in his fifties who has lost all interest in his wife suddenly meets Juliette, a young woman. She reignites love in his life but triggers violent arguments with his wife. Their indifference soon turns into chaos. (French with English subtitles)

After his gay cousin dies from hepatitis, young Laurent, who lives with his best friend Carole, falls in love with Cedric, a plant scientist. He's afraid to inform his conservative parents that he is gay.

Jules, a rebellious septuagenarian, foments a revolt in his home ruled by quasi-military rules. He and his twenty supporters will oppose the management, the firefighters and even the gendarmes.

Polish Martin Gray recalls the Holocaust, New York prosperity, and losing his wife and family.

A disillusioned police detective, used as a scapegoat by his corrupted superior, fights back by becoming a competent criminal.

Sarah, in her forties, is on the verge of exhaustion. Her children, ages 9 and 5, take up all her time and her husband is constantly on business trips. After disappearing on the beach for a few minutes, Simon becomes strange. He spends hours in his bathroom and seeks contact with water at the slightest opportunity. Sarah's life will change when her son confesses the truth...

Paris, 1938. In a lavishly decorated nightclub, couples dance the syncopated rhythms of Latin America: Rumba, Cucaracha, Tango, and also the Charleston, Foxtrot and Boston. Among beautiful women, local pimps and Mussolini's spies brush each other on the dance floor, and in the streets. A police inspector is charged with a difficult task, to clean-up the city streets - just when bodies start falling around, as the Mafia and the spies tend each other deadly traps.