French Films

Films are listed alphabetically by the first word of the film's title as it appears on the box. (If the title is French, remember: le, la, les, un, une, des, do not count). When possible, the entry for a given film also includes the English title. If you are unsure of the film's title, use the browser's "Find" function to search for what you do know about the film: the director's, or an actor's, name, a keyword from the English title, etc. If you cannot find what you are looking for, ask an LTC employee for assistance. You can search for more information about a particular film using a very helpful and resource, the Internet Movie Database. (Clicking will open it in a new window). At the bottom is a list of French films that are kept in Briggs Library. Films are subtitled in English unless otherwise noted.To recommend a French film that is not yet in the LTC collection, send an email to Tammy Berberi, LTC Director: berberit@morris.umn.edu. Note: Films made in other Francophone countries are listed on a separate web page.

Title: 3 Men and a Cradle French 3 hommes et un couffin (1985 )
Directed by: François Ozon
Year: 1985
Starring: Roland Giraud, Michel Boujenah, and André Dussollier
Acclaim / Awards: Winner of Three French Academy Awards including Best Picture
Run time: 111 minutes
Summary: A mystery about a wealthy industrialist who has been found murdered in his home while his family gathers fo rthe holiday season. Eight women are his potential murderers: his calculating wife, his two mischievous daughters, his meddling mother-in-law, his neurotic sister-in-law, his faithful family cook and the sultry new maid.
Format: DVD

Title: 8 Women French 8 Femmes
Directed by: François Ozon
Year: 2002
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant
Acclaim / Awards: “A Pure Joy!” --People Magazine
Run time: 111 minutes
Summary: A mystery about a wealthy industrialist who has been found murdered in his home while his family gathers fo rthe holiday season. Eight women are his potential murderers: his calculating wife, his two mischievous daughters, his meddling mother-in-law, his neurotic sister-in-law, his faithful family cook and the sultry new maid.
Format: DVD

Title: 36 Fillette
Directed by: Catherine Breillat
Year: 1988
Starring: Delphine Zentout, Etienne Chicot, Oliver Parniere and Jean-Pierre Leud
Acclaim / Awards: “A masterpiece brimming with sexuality and tension.” –L.A. Weekly
Run time: 88 minutes
Summary: A French Lolita. A story of a young woman who seduces a middle aged man and her journey to sexual awakening.
Format: VHS

Title: 400 Blows French 400 coups
Directed by: François Truffaut
Starring: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Patrick Auffay, Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy and Guy Decomble
Year: 1959
Run Time: 99 Minutes
Acclaim/Awards: Featured in AFI/L.A. Film Fest and winner of the best foreign film, New York film critics.
Summary: Truffaut explores the pain and joy of childhood as 13-year-old Antoine suffers from unloving parents and harsh schoolteachers. Is he a lost cause or will his spirit prevail?
Format: VHS

Title: The Accompanist French L'Accompagnatrice
Director: Claude Miller
Starring: Richard Borhinger, Elena Safonova and Romane Bohringer
Year: 1992
Run Time: 111 minutes
Acclaim/Awards: A Cinematic Triumph”-WBAI Radio
Summary: Takes place during 1942-43 in German-occupied Paris and wartime London. A relationship develops between a young pianist and a beautiful singer. The pianist must deal with the pain of living in the singer’s shadow and missing her own chances of happiness.
Format: VHS

Title: Un Air de famille
Director: Cedric Klapisch
Starring: Jean-Pierre Bacri, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Catherine Frot, Agnes Jaoui, Claire Maurier and Wladinir Yorkanoff
Year: 1996
Run Time: 105 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Four stars from New York Daily News
Summary: This is a comic drama about a dysfunctional family that gets together for dinner once a week.
Format: VHS

Title: All the Mornings of the World French Tous les matins du monde
Director: Alain Corneau
Starring: Gerard Depardieu, Jean-Pierre Marielle and Anne Brochet
Year: 1992
Run Time: 110 minutes
Acclaim/Awards: Gerard Depardieu Academy Award and Best Picture and the winner of 7 César Awards
Summary: Set in 17th century France this film is about passion, music and madness. A musician and his daughters are forever changed by the arrival of a young student.
Format: VHS

Title: Amélie French Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulin
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus Lorella Cravotta and Serge Merlin
Year: 2001
Run Time: 122 minutes
Acclaim/Awards: Nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay
Summary: An extremely shy waitress makes a surprising discovery and sees her life drastically changed for the better. From then on she dedicates herself to helping others find happiness. But will she have the courage to do the same for herself?
Format: DVD

Title: Angèle
Director: Marcel Pagnol
Starring: Orane Demazis, Fernandel, Jean Servais and Henri Poupon
Year: 1934
Run Time: 132 minutes
Summary: Set in the French countryside, this is the story of a beautiful but simple farmer’s daughter who is seduced by a pimp from Marsailles and she follows him to the city. After living in Marsilles her life is forever changed for the worst and for the best.
Format: VHS

Title: L'Assassin habite au 21
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Starring: Pierre Fresnay, Suzy Delair, Jean Tissier
Year: 1942
Run Time: 80 minutes
Acclaim/Awards: Clouzot's brilliant directorial début
Summary: An inspector moves into a Paris boarding house to catch a serial killer.
Format: VHS

Title: L'Assassinat du Père Noël English Who Killed Santa Claus?
Director: Christian-Jacque
Starring: Harry Bauer, Renée Faur, Raymond Rouleau
Year: 1941
Run Time: 105 minutes
Acclaim/Awards: A rare, remarkable, and controversial film from occupied France.
Summary: An old globe-maker is mysteriously killed while going through the town disguised as Santa Claus. The mystery unravels around the love story of an aloof nobleman: Prince Charming, or a scoundrel. An allegory of life in Vichy France, the film passed right under the noses of Nazi censors.
Format: VHS

Title: Astérix et Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre
Directed by: Alain Chabat
Year: 2002
Starring: Gérard Depardieu, Christian Clavier, Monica Bellucci, Jamel Debbouze
Acclaim / Awards: “Une comédie jubilatoire!” --Studio Magazine
Run time: 107 minutes
Summary: Julius Caesar dares Cleopatra to build a palace in 3 months. Knowing the challenge, Numérobis, the architect, invites his friends Panoramix, Astérix and Obélix to help him. However, Amonbofis, Cleopatra’s personal architect, angry for not having been given the job, does everything he can to keep Numérobis from succeeding.
Format: DVD

Title: Au Bonheur Des Dames English Shop Girls of Paris
Director: André Cayatte
Starring: Michel Simon, Albert Préjean, Blanchette Brunoy
Year: 1943
Run Time: 87 minutes
Summary: Based on Emile Zola's novel of the same name, the film depicts the emergence of the modern department store at the end of the nineteenth century in Paris, and the problems this created for small shopkeepers.
Format: VHS

Title: Au revoir les enfants
Director: Louis Malle
Starring: Doesn’t say
Year: 1987
Run Time: 103 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of the 7 Césars Award including best picture, and winner of the Golden Lion Venice Film Festival
Summary: Set in a Catholic boarding school during the Germany occupation of France, this is the story of a boy’s first friendship and his discovery of the real world.
Format: VHS

Title: L'Auberge Espagnole English The Spanish Apartment
Director: Cédric Klapisch
Starring: Romain Duris, Judith Godreche, Audrey Tautou, and Celcile de France
Year: 2002
Run Time: 122 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of the 7 Césars Award including best picture, and winner of the Golden Lion Venice Film Festival
Summary: As part of a job that he is promised, Xavier, an economics student in his twenties, signs on to a European exchange program in order to gain working knowledge of the Spanish language. Promising that they'll remain close, he says farewell to his loving girlfriend, then heads to Barcelona. Following his arrival, Xavier is soon thrust into a cultural melting pot when he moves into an apartment full of international students. An Italian, an English girl, a boy from Denmark, a young woman from Belgium, a German and a girl from Tarragona all join him in a series of adventures that serve as an initiation to life.
Format: DVD

Title: Avant Garde #2
Director: Man Ray and Rene Clair
Starring: Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp and Erik Satie.
Year: 1924, 1928
Run Time: 42 minutes
Summary: Three separate stories are included. The first is Symphonie Diagonale, the best abstract film conceived is an experiment to discover the principles of the organization of time in film medium. L`Etoile Demer is surrealism shot through a frosted glass and what transpires is only in the eye of the beholder. Entr'acte tells a story with humor and satire using pure cinematic imagery to tell the story.

Title: Avant Garde: Short Subjects from France
Run Time: 85 minutes
No other information is available. Aren't you curious?

Title: Babette’s Feast
Director: Gabriel Axel
Starring: Stephanie Audran, Birgitte Federspiel, Bodil Kjer, Bibi Anderson, Jarl Kulle, Jean-Phillip Lafont and Ebbe Rode
Year: 1987
Run Time: 102 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Academy Award Winner, best foreign language film
Summary: The story of a superb chef living as a cook and housekeeper amongst a pious congregation. A wry, critically acclaimed look at life, pleasure and artistic passion.
Format: VHS

Title: Battle of Algiers French La Bataille d'Algers
Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
Starring: actual FLN rebels
Year: 1967
Run Time: 125 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Academy Award Nominee of best foreign film and the winner of 11 international awards.
Summary: Shot on location and starring actual FLN rebels, a brutally realistic film that was initially banned by the French government. The story of a terrorist group that is struggling to rid their country of French colonialism.
Format: VHS

Title: Beauty and the Beast French La Belle et la bête
Director: Jean Cocteau
Starring: Jean Marais and Josette Day
Year: 1946
Run Time: 93 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Recieved 5 stars from the film Guide and titled a masterpiece.
Summary: Jean Cocteau transforms this fantasy into reality with his personal statement on the power of love.
Format: VHS

Title: Beauty and the Beast French La Belle et la bête
Director: Roger Vadim
Starring: Klaus Kinski, Susan Sarandon and Anjelica Huston
Year: 1983
Run Time: 50 minutes
Acclaim/Award: winner of the Parents’ Choice Award
Summary: A man steals a rose from a hidden castle garden and is punished by having to send one of his daughters back to the beast’s castle for three days or else they will all die.
Format: VHS

Title: Beau travail
Director: Claire Denis
Year: 1999
Run Time: 90 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winners of Official Film Selection from Venice, Toronto and New York Film Festivals and Official Selection from the Sundance Film Festival
Summary: This is the story of a troupe of men in a small French Foreign Legion outpost in East Africa. The legionanaires engage in a routine of drills, chores and mock battles. The sergeant who runs the troupe turns jealous, threatening the delicate balance of his life.
Format: DVD

Title: La Bête humaine
Director: Jean Renoir
Starring: Jean Garbin, Simone Simon, Julien Carrette and Jean Renoir
Year: 1938
Run Time: 75 minutes
Summary: Séverine and her husband Roubaud kill their former employer in a train. Engineer Jacques watches them, but doesn't tell the police, because he's in love with Severine. But in an epileptic attack he kills her...
Format: VHS

Title: Blood of a Poet French Le Sang d'un poète
Director: Jean Cocteau
Starring: Lee Miller, Enrico Rivero and Jean Desbordes
Year: 1930
Run Time: 55 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “A major classic.”-Film and Critical Eye
Summary: The sight of the poet’s own blood and a sketched mouth that comes to life drive the hero mad and send him on a series of bizarre adventures. Cocteau explores how artists become obsessed with their own creations.
Format: VHS

Title: Blue French Bleu
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Benoit Regent, Helene Vincent and Florence Pernel
Year: 1993
Run Time: 98 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Rated 4 stars by the Los Angeles Daily News and winner of best film and best actress in the Venice Film Festival
Summary: A young woman is left devasted by the unexpected death of her husband and child. As the dark secret of her husbands’path begins to unravel, she is drawn into a web of lies and passion.
Format: VHS
NB. This film is the first in a trilogy: see also Blanc [English White] and Rouge [English Red]

Title: Rouge English Red
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Starring: Irene Jacob and Jean-Louis Trintignant
Year: 1993
Run Time: 99 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “One of the year’s 10 best!”-The New York Times, L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune and The Washingtion Post
Summary: A story of forbidden love and the mystery of coincidence. A young model meets a stranger and she discovers a link between his past and her destiny.
Format: VHS
NB. This film is the first in a trilogy: see also Bleu [English Blue] and Blanc [English White]

Title: Blanc English White
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Starring: Zbigniew Preisner and Julie Delpy
Year: 1993
Run Time: 92 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Extremely Enjoyable!”-New York Daily News
Summary: A story of love and obsession White is the mysterious tale of a man whose life disintegrates when his wife deserts him. He rebuilds his life to plan revenge against her.
Format: VHS
NB. This film is the second in a trilogy: see also Bleu [English Blue] and Rouge [English Red]

Title: Le Bonheur English Happiness
Director:Marcel L'Herbier
Starring: Charles Boyer, Jacque Catelain and Paulette Dubost
Year: 1934
Run Time: 98 minutes
Format: VHS

Title: Boudou Saved from Drowning French Boudu sauvé des eaux
Director: Jean Renoir
Starring: Michel Simon, Charles Granval, Marcelle Hainia
Year: 1932
Run Time: 84 minutes
Summary: Boudu, a tramp, jumps into the Seine. He is rescued by Mr Lestingois, a gentle and good bookseller, who gives shelter to him...
Format: VHS

Title: Breathless French A Bout de Souffle
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Liliane David, Daniel Boulanger and Jean-Pierre Melville
Year: 1960
Run Time: 90 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Masterpiece.”-The New Yorker
Summary: A car thief accidentally shoots a policeman and hides out in Paris with an American girl. She betrays him to the law to get him out of her apartment, but he refuses to flee.
Format: VHS

Title: Brotherhood of the Wolf French Le Pacte des loups
Director: Christophe Gans
Starring: Samuel Le Bihan, Vincent Cassel, Emilie Dequene, Monica Bellucci, Jeremie Renier and Mark Dacascos
Year: 2001
Run Time: 2 hours and 24 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “An action-packed extravaganza with kick-butt martial arts and spooky thrills.”-USA Today
Summary: A mysterious beast ravages the countryside and two heroes are called in to fight the evil. The only way they can save the land is to face their greatest fears, unearth a dark power and reveal a deadly secret.
Format: DVD

Title: Bye-Bye French Au Revoir
Director: Karim Dridi
Starring: Unknown
Year: 1996
Run Time: 107 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of the Cannes Film Festival
Summary: This film is the realistic side of urban teenage life. Two young French-Arab brothers deal with a clash of cultures and generations in Marsailles. After a family tragedy one turns to the street life of drugs and crime while the other tries to pull him out of it.
Format: VHS

Title: Camille Claudel
Director: Bruno Nuytten
Starring: Isabelle Adjani and Gerard Depardieu
Year: 1989
Run Time: 159 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Nominated for Best Actress and Best Foreign Language Film
Summary: The true story of female sculptor Camille Claudel and her relationship with art and her relationship with famous sculptor Rodin.
Format: VHS

Title: Le Carrefour des enfants perdus English Children of Chaos
Director: Léo Joannon
Starring: René Dory, Raymond Bossières and Jean Mercanton
Year: 1943
Run Time: 97 minutes
Format: VHS

Title: Chacun cherche son chat English When the Cat's Away
Director: Cèdric Klapisch
Starring: Garance Clavel, Zinedine Soualem and Reneé Le Calm
Year: 2002
Run Time: 87 minutes
Summary: 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.
Format: DVD

Title: Un Chien andalou / Land Without Bread English The Andalusian Dog / Tierra Sin Pan
Director: Luis Buñuel
Starring: Pierre Batcheff, Simone Mareuil, Jaime Mirvailles
Year: 1928
Run Time: 43 minutes
Summary: Un Chien Andalou was written over a three day exchange of fantasies and dreams with one of the most memorable scenes in film history. Land Without Bread is Buñuel’s only documentary. It portrays the everyday life of peasants in one of Spain’s most desolate areas.
Format: VHS

Title: La Chienne English The Bitch
Director: Jean Renoir
Starring: Michael Simon, Janie Maréze, Georges Flamant and Magdelanine Bérubet
Year: 1931
Run Time: 95 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Not only one of Renoir’s great films, it’s one of the greatest film comedies ever made.”-New York Times
Summary: Cashier Maurice Legrand is married to Adele, a terror. By chance, he meets Lucienne, "Lulu", and make her his mistress. He thinks he finally met love, but Lulu is nothing but a streetwalker, in love with Dede, her pimp.
Format: VHS

Title: The City of Lost Children French La Cité des Enfants Perdus
Director: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring: Ron Perlman, Daniel Emilfork, Judith Vittet, Dominique Pinon, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Genevieve Brunet, Odile Mallet, Mireille Moss, Serge Merlin, François Hadji-Lazaro, Rufus, Ticky Holgado
Year: 1995
Run Time: 112 minutes
Summary: Krank (D. Emilfork), who cannot dream, kidnaps young children to steal their dreams. One (R. Perlman), a former whale hunter who is as strong as a horse, sets forth to search for Denree, his little brother who was kidnaped by Krank's men. Helped by young Miette (J. Vittet), he soon arrives in La Cite des Enfants Perdus (The City of Lost Children).
Format: VHS

Title: Cleo From Five to Seven French Clèo de 5 à 7
Director: Agnè Varda
Starring: Corinne Marchand and Antoine Bourseiller
Year: 1961
Run Time: 90 minutes
Summary: An hour and a half (despite the title) of the life of a singer who learns she is merely being put on display. She visits a fortune teller who predicts stomach cancer, which is what she is afraid she might be dying of.
Format: VHS

Title: Children of Paradise French Les Enfants du paradis
Director: Marcel Carné
Starring: Jean-Louis Barrault, Arletty, Pierre Brasseur and Marcel Hérrand
Year: 1943-1945
Run Time: 189 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Voted four stars and called a “Timeless Masterpiece” by Movie and Video Guide
Summary: Set in the theater district of early 19th century Paris and filmed during the Nazi Occupation, this is a passionate and rich story of backstage life.
Format: VHS

Title: Chocolat English Chocolate
Director: Claire Denis
Starring: Giulia Boschi, Isaach De Bankole and François Cluzet
Year: 1990
Run Time: 105 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Astonishing…Chocolat is among the best.”-New York Times
Summary: A memoir of life in colonial Africa in the 1950’s seen through the eyes of the daughter of a French Official.
Format: VHS

Title: Un Coeur en hiver English A Heart of Winter
Director: Claude Sautet
Starring: Daniel Auteil, Emmanuelle Béart, André Dussollier
Year: 1993
Run Time: 100 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival
Summary: A man and woman are locked in a slow, sensual game of seduction that threatens to destroy them both.
Format: VHS

Title: On connait la chanson English Same Old Song
Director: Alain Resnais
Starring: Pierre Arditi, Sabine Azema, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Andre Dussollier, Agnes Jaoui and Lambert Wilson
Year: 1997
Run Time: 1 hour 57 minutes
Accliam/Award: Winner of seven Cesar Awards
Summary: Odile (Sabine Azéma) is looking for a new, bigger appartment. Her younger sister Camille (Agnès Jaoui) just completed her doctoral thesis has fallen in love with an estate agent who is responsible for Odile's apartment and who has an elder employee.
Format: DVD

Title: The Count of Monte Cristo French Le Comte de Monte Cristo
Director: Josée Dayan
Starring: Gérard Depardieu, Ornella Muti and Jean Rochefort
Year: 1999
Run Time: 400 minutes
Summary: The classic tale of love, intrigue and revenge, this version was filmed on location throughout Europe. It is the story of a young sailor who is falsely denounced as a political traitor and unjustly imprisoned for eighteen years. He flees to the island of Monte Cristo where he finds a treasure of jewels and gold. Using these riches, he assumes a new identity and comes up with a plan to take vengeance on those who betrayed him.
Format: DVD

Title: The Crazy Ray French Paris qui dort
Director: Rene Clair
Starring: Henri Rollan, Madeline Rodrigues and Albert Prejean
Year: 1923
Run Time: 62 minutes
Summary: The night watchman on the Eiffel Tower finds himself the only person awake in Paris. Everyone else is frozen in time by a mysterious ray…
Format: VHS

Title: Cyrano De Bergerac English
Director: Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Starring: Gerard Depardieu, Jacques Weber, Anne Brochet, Vincent Perez and Roland Bertin
Year: 1990
Run Time: 138 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Magnificent A hugely stunning entertaining spectacle.”-Rolling Stone
Summary: A film based on the famous play, a 17th century soldier is secretly in love with a beautiful woman but hides it from her because he believes he is too ugly...

Title: Dangerous Liasons French Les Liaisons dangereuses
Director: Stephen Frears
Starring: Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer
Year: 1988
Run Time: 120 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Nominated for seven Academy Awards and winner of three
Summary: This story comes from the frequently banned 1782 novel Les Liasons Dangereuses. A wealthy man challenges another to seduce a proper young woman.
Format: VHS

Title: Danton
Director: Andrzej Wajda
Starring: Gerard Depardieu, Patrice Chereau, Roger Planchon, Jacques Villert, Angela Winkler and Boguslaw Linda
Year: 1984
Summary: A film about political figures involved in the aftermath of the French Revolution.
Format: VHS

Title: Delicatessen
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro
Starring: Dominique Pinon and Marie-Laure Dougnac
Year: 1992
Run Time: 95 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of Best Film honors at the Chicago International Film Festival
Summary: A sweet natured clown takes a room in a rickety apartment building and becomes a catalyst in the lives of a cleaver-wielding butcher and other unusual tenants.
Format: Laserdisc

Title: Diabolique French Les Diaboliques
Director: Simone Signoret
Starring: Vera Clouzot
Year: 1954
Run Time: 114 minutes
Summary: A classic French thriller of a sadistic schoolmaster who is pushed to the edge by his mistress and wife. They murder him but afterwards they discover new evidence each day that he is still alive.
Format: VHS

Title: Diary of a Country Priest French Journal d'un curé de campagne
Director: Robert Bresson
Starring: Claude Laydle and Lèon Arvell
Year: 1951
Run Time: 110 minutes
Summary: A young sick priest arrives in his first parish, a village in the North of France, but nobody really talks to him.
Format: VHS

Title: Le Dîner de Cons English The Dinner Game
Director: Francis Veber
Starring: Thierry L'hermitte and Jacques Villeret
Year: 1998
Run Time: 80 minutes
Summary: Each week, Pierre and his friends organize what is called as "un dîner de cons". Everyone brings the dumbest guy he could find as a guest.
Format: DVD

Title: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie French Le Charme discret le la bourgeoisie
Director: Luis Buñuel
Starring: Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Stephanie Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Bulle Ogier, Paul Frankeur and Julien Bertheau
Year: 1972
Run Time: 100 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Academy Award Winner of Best Foreign Film
Summary: A group of people attend a dinner party but whenever someone tries to eat something interrupts them.
Format: VHS

Title: Divertimento
Director: Jacques Rivette
Starring: Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin, and Emmanuelle Béart
Year: 1991
Run Time: 126 minutes
Summary: Frenhofer, a celebrated painter, is so frustrated by his inability to finish the canvas that saw to be the culmination of his career - "La Belle Noiseus" (the beautiful annoyance) - that he has not painted in ten years. When he enlists the beatiful, fiercely independent Marianna as amodel, he sees in her energy, spontaneity, and creativity his last opportunity to complete his potentially greatest work.
Format: VHS

Title: The Double Life of Veronique French La Double vie de Véronique
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Starring: Irene Jacob and Philippe Volter
Year: 1991
Run Time: 96 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival
Summary: A woman senses that somewhere there exists another person with which her life is intertwined.
Format: Laser Disk

Title: The Dreamlife of Angels French La Vie rêvée des anges
Director: Erick Zonca
Starring: Elodie Bouchez, Natacha Régnier and Grégorie Colin
Year: 1999
Run Time: 113 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of Cannes Film Festival, César wards, European Film Awards and Les Prix Lumieres
Summary: Two very different women share the joy and heartbreak of friendship. One of the women falls in love, which causes their friendship to suffer with tragic consequences.
Format: DVD

Title: Entre Nous English At First Sight or Between Us
Director: Diane Kurys
Starring: Miou-Miou and Isabelle Huppert
Year: 1983
Run Time: 112 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Film
Summary: This film beautifully captures the rare friendship between two married women trying to find the courage to defy the social rules of their time.
Format: DVD

Title: Est Ouest English East West
Director: Régis Wargnier
Starring: Sandrine Bonnaire, Oleg Menchikov and Catherine Deneuve
Year: 1998
Run Time: 121 minutes
Summary: June 1946: Stalin invites Russian emigres to return to the motherland. It's a trap: when a ship-load from France arrives in Odessa, only a physician and his family are spared execution or prison.
Format: DVD

Title: Eternal Return French L'Éternel Retour
Directed by: Jean Delannoy

Starring: Jean Marais, Madeleine Sologne, Jean Murat, and Pierre Piéral
Year: 1943
Run time: 100 minutes
Summary: In this inspired moderniztion of the Tristan and Isolde legend, a carefree youth learns the anguish of unfullfilled desire when he falls in love with his uncle's young wife.
Format: VHS

Title: Etre et avoir
Directed by: Nicolas Philibert
Year: 2002
Run time: 105 minutes
Summary: 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.
Format: DVD

Title: Gervaise
Director: René Clément
Starring: Maria Schell and François Périer
Year: 1956
Run Time: 112 minutes
Summary: Gervaise Macquart, a young lame laundress, is left by his lover Auguste Lantier with two boys... She manages to make it, and a few years later she marries Coupeau, a zinc worker.
Format: VHS

Title: Girl on a Bridge French La Fille sur le pont
Director: Patrice Leconte
Starring: Daniel Auteuil and Vanessa Paradis
Year: 2000
Run Time: 92 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “A pocket anthology of your favorite foreign movies..by Goddard, Truffaut and above all Fellini.” Cesar Award for Best Actor
Summary: After a series of failed romances, the 22-year-old waif aimed to end it all by jumping off a bridge. But there she meets a struggling performance artist who needs a new assistant for his act. She agrees and finds a new life in the world of circuses, cruises, casinos and cabarets.
Format: VHS

Title: The Gleaners and I French Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse
Director: Agnes Varda
Starring:
Year: 2002
Run Time: 60 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Voted the Best Documentary of the year by the National Society of Film Critics, New York Film Critics Circle, L.A. Film Critics Association and Boston Society of Film Critics
Summary: An intimate, picaresque inquiry into French life as lived by the country's poor and its provident, as well as by the film's own director, Agnes Varda. The aesthetic, political and moral point of departure for Varda are gleaners, those individuals who pick at already-reaped fields for the odd potato, the leftover turnip.
Format: DVD

Title: Le Grand Chemin English The Grand Highway
Director: Jean-Lupe Hubert
Starring: Antoine Hubert, Vanessa Guedj, Christine Pascal, Raoul Billerey, Pascale Roberts, Marie Matheron, Daniel Rialet, and Jean-Francois Derec
Year: 1987
Run Time: 104 minutes
Summary: Louis, a nine-year-old boy from Paris, spends his summer vacation in a small town in Brittany. His mother Claire has lodged him with her girlfriend Marcelle and her husband Pelo while she's having her second baby. There Louis makes friends with Martine, the ten-year- old girl next door, and learns from her about life.
Format: VHS

Title: The Great Train Robbery and other Primary Works
Director: Edwin S. Porter, Thomas A. Edison, Louis Lumière, Georges Méliés, Edward J. Muybridge and Ferdinand Zecca
Starring: Mary Snow and Gilbert M. 'Broncho
Year: 1877, 1896, 1903, 1907 1902 and 1894
Run Time: 75 minutes
Summary: The motion picture is vividly recreated in this collection of cinema’s works. These are crucial historical artifacts that reveal the styles and stories of what contemporary cinema comes from. There are both American and French short films in this collection
Format: VHS

Title: Hate French La Haine
Director: Matthieu Kassovitz
Starring: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé and Saïd Taghmaoui
Year: 1996
Run Time: 95 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of Best Director Cannes Award and Best Film Cesar Awards
Summary: This is the story of three friends living in the projects outside of Paris. The plot uncoils into a 24-hour period as these young men vent their frustrations about police brutality that has landed their friend in the hospital. A must see movie.
Format: VHS

Title: Heart of the Dragon I and III
Director: Peter Montagnon
Starring: Anthony Quale
Year: 1985
Run Time: Unknown
Summary: "Heart of the Dragon" is the most insightful and engrossing documentary I have seen explaining Chinese society, traditions and culture to western viewers. The producers had extraordinary access and cooperation from the Chinese Government and the characteristically hospitable Chinese people.
Format: VHS

Title: Hiroshima, mon amour English Hiroshima, My Love
Director: Alain Resnais
Starring: Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada
Year: 1959
Run Time: 91 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “A complex yet compelling tour-de-force.”-New York Times
Summary: A love affair that share the memories of a war that they experienced at opposite sides of the world.
Format: VHS

Title: The Horse of Pride French Le Cheval d'orgueil
Director: Claude Chabol
Starring: Jacques Dufilho, Bernadette Lesaché, Francois Cluzet and Ronan Hubert
Year: 1980
Run Time: 118 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Eloquent and deeply moving.”-Philadelphia Inquirer
Summary: Based on the novel “Le Cheval D`Orgueil, this is the tale of Brittany from 1908-1918 and about the hardships and joys of French peasant life.
Format: VHS

Title: Horseman on the Roof French Le Hussard sur le Toit
Director: Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Starring: Juliette Binosche and Olivier Martinez
Year: 1995
Run Time: 119 minutes
Acclaim/Award: "Two Thums Up!" - Siskel & Ebert, "Four Stars" - Chicago Tribune
Summary: In 1832, cholera ravages Provence (South of France). After several misadventures, Angelo, young Italian officer hunted by the Austrian secret police, meets Pauline de Theus, a young lady. After a second accidental meeting, both will start the search of Pauline's husband in a chaotic country.
Format: DVD

Title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame French Notre Dame de Paris
Format: VHS

Title: Indochine English Indochina
Director: Régis Wargnier
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Perez, Linh Dan Pham, Jean Yanne, Dominique Blanc and Henri Marteau
Year: 1992
Run Time: 156 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Academy Award Winner Best Foreign Language Film
Summary: The owner of a plantation in French Inochina secretly is involved in a number of affairs. Her adopted daughter falls in love with one of her secret lovers and a scandalous lovers’ triangle threatens to destroy their entire family.
Format: VHS

Title: Inch'Allah dimanche English Inch'Allah Sunday
Director: Yaminia Benguigui
Starring: Fejria Deliba and Rabia Mokeddem
Year: 2001
Run Time: 98 minutes
Summary: Zouina, a young Algerian wife and mother leaves her home and family in Algeria to join her husband in France. The film follows her as she adapts to her new life, trying to come to terms with her French neighbors and mother-in-law.
Format: DVD

Title: L’Inhumaine English The Inhuman Woman
Director: Marcel L'Herbier
Starring: Jacque Catelain and Lèonid Walter de Malte
Year: 1923
Run Time: 128 minutes
Summary: A film that recounts the adventures of an aged super vamp, who is courted by a group of admirers in an ultramodern mansion. This film is striking for its cubistic-modernistic sets.
Format: VHS

Title: Irma Vep
Director: Olivier Assayas
Starring: Maggie Cheung and Jean-Pierre Léaud
Year: 1996
Run Time: 96 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Given four stars and called a “masterpiece” from the Chicago Reader
Summary: This is a brilliant satire of the movie industry. A director decides to film a remake of Les Vampires in hopes of making a comeback. Irma plays the leader of a band of jewel thiefs. She arrives in Paris unable to speak a word of French and finds herself in the middle of a stressful situation when the production begins to fall apart.
Format: DVD

Title: Jacquot de Nantes
Director: Agnes Varda
Starring: Phillipe Maron, Edouard Joubeaud, Laurent Monnier, Bridgett De Villepoix The and Daniel Dublet
Year: 1994
Run Time: 118 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “One of the year’s best.”-Village Voice
Summary: Agnes Varda's 1991 tribute to her late husband, Jacques Demy--Varda's fellow pioneer in the French New Wave movement of the 1950s and 1960s--is a moving combination of reenacted scenes from Demy's fanciful childhood, clips from his movies, and filmed interviews with him shortly before he passed away.
Format: VHS

Title: Jean de Floret
Director: Claude Berri
Starring: Yves Montad, Gerard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil
Year: 1987
Run Time: 122 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Given four stars from the Chicago Tribune
Summary: Set in the hills of France, the story of greed and passion. A hunchback man inherits a farm and foolishly hopes to become a gentleman farmer. He learns that his neighbor is planning to his land.
Format: VHS

Title: Jesus of Montreal English Jésus de Montréal
Director: Denys Arcand
Starring: Lothaire Bluteau, Catherine Wilkening, Johanne-Marie Tremblay, Robert Lepage, Gilles Pelletier, and Rémy Girard
Year: 1989
Run Time: 121 minutes
Acclaim/Award: "Profoundly moving and savagely funny." - Leonard Maltin
Summary: A group of actors putting on an interpretive Passion Play in Montreal begin to experience a meshing of their characters and their private lives as the production takes form against the growing opposition of the Catholic church.
Format: VHS

Title: Le Jour se lève English Daybreak
Director: Marcel Carné
Starring: Jean Gabin and Arletty
Year: 1939
Run Time: 88 minutes
Acclaim/Award: French Critics Award Winner
Summary: Michael Carne projects a vision of a world where love is crushed by the blind forces of evil. This is the story of a man who barricades himself in his apartment after committing a crime of passion.
Format: VHS

Title: Jules and Jim French Jules et jim
Director: François Truffaut
Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, and Henri Serre
Year: 1962
Run Time: 105 minutes
Acclaim/Award: "Four Stars...A film of rare beauty and charm." - Leonard Maltin
Summary: In Paris, 1900, two friends, Jules (Austrian) and Jim (French) fall in love with the same woman, Catherine. But Catherine loves and marries Jules. After WWI, when they meet again in Germany, Catherine starts to love Jim... This is the story of three people in love, a love which does not affect their friendship, and about how their relationship envolves with the years.
Format: DVD

Title: Lancelot of the Lake French Lancelot du lac
Director: Robert Bresson
Starring: Luc Simon, Laura Duke Condominas, Humbert Balsan and Vladimir Antolek-Oresek
Year: 1974
Run Time: 80 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of the International Critics’ Prize at the Cannes Film Festival
Summary: Set in the last days of the doomed quest for the Holy Grail, this is a tale of the end of the age of chivalry and the death of a dream.
Format: VHS

Title: The Last Metro French Le Dernier Métro
Director: François Truffaut
Starring: Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu
Year: 1980
Run Time: 131 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Truffaut at his very best..A film of exceptional beauty.”-The New York Times
Summary: Set in Paris 1942 under the German Occupation, a successful Jewish theatrical director is forced into hiding. He entrusts the running of his theater to his wife who must contend with a pro-Nazi theatre critic.
Format: VHS

Title: Last Year at the Marienbad French L' Année dernière à Marienbad
Director: Alain Resnais
Starring: Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi and Sacha Pitoeff
Year: 1961
Run Time: 90 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Grand Prize Winner of the Venice Film Festival and Academy Award Nominee for the Best Original Screenplay
Summary: A woman accompanied by a man who may be her husband or may be her lover meets a stranger that claims they had an affair the year before. She doesn’t remember him but he persists in filling her mind with images that soon become real.
Format: VHS

Title: Letters From My Windmill French Lettres de mon moulin
Director: Marcel Pagnol
Starring: Henri Vilbert, Daxley Rellys, Robert Vattier and Delmont
Year: 1954
Run Time: 134 minutes
Summary: Three tales: the devil takes over the body of a dunce and torments a priest with temptations at Christmas eve mass, Brother Gauchier inherits some homemade brew and sells it for charity and an ancient miller who has been pretending to be compete with the new fangled steam mill for 18 years.
Format: VHS

Title: Life and Nothing But French La Vie et rien d'autre
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Starring: Philippe Noiret and Sabine Azema
Year: 1989
Run Time: 135 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Eloquent..moving..beautiful.”-The New York Times
Summary: Two women search for the men they love after World War I in France. The women encounter an army that wants to forget the mass of the ones missing in action and they discover a secret that determines their fate.
Format: VHS

Title: Lion’s Love French
Director: Agnes Varda
Starring: Viva, Jim Rado, Gerome Ragni and Shirley Clarke
Year: 1969
Run Time: 115 minutes
Summary: Ragni, Rado and Viva play themselves, waiting for their Hollywood break and drifting into a ménage à trois. This story captures the quirky, laid back lifestyle of 1960’s Los Angelos.
Format: VHS

Title: The Little Match Girl French La Petite marchande d'allumettes
Director: Jean Renoir and Jean Tèdesco
Starring: Catherine Hessling and Manuel Raaby
Year: 1928
Run Time: 40 minutes
Summary: A small girl makes her living selling matches on the streets of New York. It's winter, and the hustling crowds at best ignore her, and some are outright rude.
Format: VHS

Title: Lucie Aubrac
Director: Claude Berri
Starring: Carole Bouquet and Daniel Auteuil
Year: 1999
Run Time: 116 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “A best foreign film oscar contender.”-Los Angelos Times
Summary: This is based on a true story that takes place in Lyons, France. A French Resistance Activist fights the Nazi occupiers and is arrested by the Gestapo and found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death. His only hope of escaping is his cunning, resourceful wife.
Format: VHS

Title: Lumière
Director: 40 short films and directors
Year: 1995
Run Time: 88 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “A fascinating loving tribute to the hauntingly primitive days of cinema.”-Everett Herald
Summary: 40 short films directed by 40 unique directors from all over the world. The directors all use the restored original camera and offer their own style to the film. A beautiful display of creativity and the history of cinematography.
Format: VHS

Title: Ma Vie en Rose English My Life in Pink
Director: Alain Berliner
Starring: Michèle Laroque, Jean-Phillippe Ecoffey, Hélène Vincent, and Georges du Fresne
Year: 1997
Run Time: 88 minutes
Summary: Ludovic is a small boy who cross-dresses and generally acts like a girl, talks of marrying his neighbor's son and can not understand why everyone is so surprised about it. His actions lead to problems for him and his family.
Format: DVD

Title: Marcel Proust: A Writer's Life
Starring: Kate Nelligan and Marcel Proust
Year: 1993
Run Time: 60 minutes
Summary: Considered by many to be the greatest novelist of the twentieth cnetury, Proust overcame years of failure and misfortune to create what is perhaps the most ambitious novel ever conceived.
Format: VHS

Title: Madame Bovary
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Starring: Jennifer Jones, James Mason, van Heflin, Louis Jourdan, Christopher Kent and Gene Lockhart
Year: 1949
Run Time: 1 hour 54 minutes
Summary: The story of a woman in revolt against conventional society. It is not long before society’s pressures and her own delusions finally overwhelm her.
Format: VHS

Title: Madame Bovary
Director: Claude Charbol
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Jean-François Balmer, Christophe Malavoy, Jean Yanne and Lucas Belvaux
Year: 1990
Run Time: 130 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Given 31/2 stars from Newsday Magazine
Summary: See above
Format: VHS

Title: Manon of the Spring French Manon des sources
Director: Claude Berri
Starring: Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Beart
Year: 1987
Run Time: 113 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Given four stars from Playboy Magazine
Summary: This is the conclusion to Jean de Florette. A woman’s father is destroyed, love is offered to but the only thing she wants is revenge.
Format: VHS

Title: Marie-Antoinette French Reine d'un seul amour
Director: Caroline Huppert
Starring: Emmanuelle Beart, Dominique Beshnehard, Laurent Le Doyen and Isabelle Gelinas
Year: 1989
Run Time: 90 minutes
Format: VHS

Title: Marius and Jeannette French Marius et Jeannette
Director: Robert Guèdiguian
Starring: Ariane Ascaride and Gèrard Meylan
Year: 1996
Run Time: 102 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Given four stars and rated as “One of my favorite movies of 1998!”-Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Summary: In a small port outside of Marseilles, an animated circle of friends and neighbors join to share in the funny, colorful and off-beat love story of Marius and Jeannette.
Format: VHS

Title: Marvelous Méliès
Director: George Méliès
Run Time: 50 minutes
Summary: George Méliès was one of cinema’s true pioneers. His technical innovations paved the way for many filmmakers to come. This is a compilation of his works.
Format: VHS

Title: Métisse
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz
Starring: Jamal Noir, Lola Engeinte and Feix Blanc
Year: 1993
Run Time: 94 minutes
Summary: 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.
Format: DVD

Title: Moulin Rouge
Director: John Huston
Starring: José Ferrer and Zsa Zsa Gabor
Year: 1952
Run Time: 119 minutes
Summary: Fictional account of French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Format: VHS

Title: Mon Oncle Antoine English My Uncle Antoine
Director: Claude Jutra
Starring: Jacques Gagnon and Jean Duceppe
Year: 1971
Run Time: 104 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Canadian Academy Awards: Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay
Summary: Set in cold rural Quebec at Christmas time, we follow the coming of age of a young boy and the life of his family which owns the town's general store and undertaking business.
Format: VHS

Title: My Father’s Glory French La Gloire de mon père
Director: Marcel Pagnol
Starring: Philippe Caubére and Nathalie Roussel
Year: 1992
Run Time: 1 hour and 48 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “A warm and engaging story of fathers and sons.”-Gannett Newspapers
Summary: An 11-year-old boy spends the summer in the rugged French countryside with his family. The experience become a turning point in his life and cements his relationship with his father.
Format: VHS

Title: My Mother’s Castle French Le Château de ma mère
Director: Marcel Pagnol
Starring: Philippe Coubére and Nathalie Roussel
Year: 1992
Run Time: 1 hour and 37 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Two thumbs up, enthusiastically.”-Siskel and Ebert
Summary: A boy continues his love affair with the wild country of Southern France. Through family visits to their summer home, he learns to love and understand his mother.
Format: VHS

Title: Napoléon
Director: Yves Simoneau
Starring: Christian Clavier, Isabella Rossellini, Gérard Depardieu, and John Malkovich
Year: 2002
Run Time: 8 hours
Summary: The year is 1816, and NAPOLEON, held prisoner by the British on the island of St. Helena, is telling the young English girl BETSY his life story. His meteoric rise to military prominence begins with his victory over the Royalists in 1795, which is followed by campaigns in Italy and Egypt. He marries the young and capricious JOSEPHINE DE BEAUHARNAIS, the love of his life, who unfortunately cannot bear him any children. After a coup d'état he seizes power in France and crowns himself Emperor of the French in 1804. After his decisive victory at Austerlitz, Napoleon reorganizes Europe and makes his relatives into princes and kings. Continuing resistance by the Spanish results in some initial losses, however. Meanwhile, Napoleon is increasingly fascinated by other women, including the Polish patriot MARIA WALEWSKA, who bears him a son. Napoleon intends to found an imperial dynasty, however, to strengthen his position. After divorcing Josephine, he marries the Austrian princess MARIE-LUISE, who gives birth to an imperial heir. Napoleon's attempt to bring the Czar of Russia to his knees results in a massive catastrophe for his army, and prompts the European powers to form an alliance against him. In 1814 he is defeated in the Campaign of France, and is exiled to the island of Elba. Napoleon gathers all his strength one more time, however, returns to France and wins the hearts of its people again. With a new army he goes into battle against the Allies in 1815 at Waterloo.
Format: DVD

Title: Napoléon
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring:
Year: 1981
Run Time: 3 hours and 55 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Napoléon is a film against which all the others have to be measured, now and forever.”-Los Angelos Times
Summary: This 1927 classic has been resurrected and presented with a symphony orchestra accompaniment. This is the biography of the legendary French leader.
Format: VHS

Title: Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud French Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud
Director: Claude Sautet
Starring: Michel Serrault and Emmanuelle Béart
Year: 1995
Run Time: 103 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of 2 César Awards
Summary: This is a story of romance and denial. A young woman with marriage and financial problems falls in love with an unlikely man.
Format: VHS

Title: Night and Fog French Nuit et brouillard
Director: Alain Renais
Starring: Documentary
Year: 1955
Run Time: 30 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Night and Fog performs the almost impossible task of encompassing the worst horrors of the Nazi regime within a work of art.”-Roy Armes, French Cinema
Summary: This is a documentary with black and white footage from Hitler’s camps and color shots from ten years later. This is a film conceived of as a warning siren against the Nazi extermination camps and against war.
Format: VHS

Title: Notre-Dame of Paris French Notre-Dame de Paris
Director: Gilles Amado
Starring: Hélène Ségara and Daniel Lavoie
Year: 1999
Run Time: 150 minutes
Acclaim/Award:The musical of the century! Plamondon and Cocciante have concocted a masterpiece that perfectly captures all the important parts of Hugo's novel, and magnificently transports the whole thing to the stage.
Summary: The musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's story of the Hunchback of Notre-Dame
Format: DVD

Title: La Nuit de Varennes
Directed by: Ettore Scola
Year: 1982
Starring: Jean-Louis Barrault, Marcello Mastroianni, Harvey Keitel, Hanna Schygulla
Run time: 135 minutes
Summary: In June of 1791, a group of passengers in a stagecoach find themselves caught up in the events of the French Revolution, when they find themselves in the city of Varennes when revolutionists arrest the fleeing King Louis.
Format: VHS

Title: Olivier, Olivier
Director: Agniesza Holland
Starring: François Cluzet, Bridgette Roman, Jean-François Stevenin, Gregoire Colin, Marina Golovine and Fredric Quiring
Year: 1991
Run Time: 110 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “One of the best films of 1993.”-The New York Observer
Summary: A nine-year-old boy mysteriously disappears. After six years of mourning the mother is summoned by a police officer, who believes a young street hustler is her son. Almost without question the woman embraces him as her son and the family is reunited, but his older sister doubts his identity.
Format: VHS

Title: Overseas French Outremer
Director: Brigette Roüan
Starring: Nicole Garcia, Marianne Balser, Brigitte Roüan, Philippe galland and Pierre Doris
Year: 1990
Run Time: 96 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of Best Film from Critic’s Week Award and the Cannes Film Festival
Summary: Three beautiful sisters find themselves in a whirlwind of dramatic social change. The lush and privileged life of French colonial Algeria creates for them an oasis in the center of a harsh desert while revolution erupts around them.
Format: VHS

Title: Paris Belongs To Us French Paris nous appartient
Director: Jacques Rivette
Starring: Jean-Claude Brialy and Betty Schneider
Year: 1959
Run Time: 138 minutes
Format: VHS

Title: Paris Was a Woman
Director: Greta Schiller
Starring: Shari Benstock and John Bernard as themselves
Year: 1996
Run Time: 75 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Time travel to golden ages doesn’t exist, but documentaries like this are the next best thing.”-The New York Times
Summary: This is a documentary of a community of women writers, artists, photographers and editors who flocked Paris in the early decades of this century.
Format: VHS

Title: The Passion of Joan of Arc French La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc
Director: Carl-Theodore Dryer
Starring: Maria Falconetti and Eugene Silvain
Year: 1928
Run Time: 120 minutes
Summary: The story of a martyr for those with deep faith. This is a silent film.
Format: VHS

Title: Pépé Le Moko
Director: Julien Duvivier
Starring: Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin, Gabriel Gabrio and Lucas Grideux
Year: 1946
Run Time: 90 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of International Film Series
Summary: Pepe Le Moko hides from the police in safety in the casbah. His love for a beautiful woman brings him out to find final death as he sails away.
Format: VHS

Title: Perceval French Perceval le Gallois
Director: Eric Rohmer
Starring: Fabrice Luchini and André Dussolier
Year: 1979
Run Time: 140 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Rohmer's best... wonderful. Absolutely unique - a must.”-Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Summary: Based on a 12th century book by Chretien de Troyes, Eric Rohmer's visually stylized film combines music, cinema, theater and more, creating a unique look at the Middle Ages. Perceval, a young man living with his widowed mother, becomes enamored with the knights he sees and sets out to become one. Naive and selfish at the same time, Perceval's journey is an emotional exploration into the codes of the time.
Format: VHS

Title: Le Pèrè Noël est une Ordure
Director: Jean-Marie Poiré
Starring: Anemone, Josiane Balasko, Marie-Anee Chazel, Christian Clavier, Gerard Jugnot, Thierry Lhermitte, and Bruno Moynot
Year: 1982
Run Time: 87 minutes
Acclaim/Award:
Summary: Félix, disguised as Father Christmas, hands out leaflets advertising a sexy Christmas party. His place is taken by an African Santa Claus and he returns to his caravan only to find his girlfriend Josette about to leave him. When he comes after her, she takes refuge at "SOS Distress", run by two neurotics, Thérèse and Pierre.
Format: DVD

Title: Phantom of the Opera French Le Fantôme de l'opéra
Director: David Staller
Starring: Elizabeth Walsh, Beth McVey, Christopher Rath, Darin DePaul, Richard Kinter and Harsh Nayyar
Year: 1990
Run Time: 93 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Rosen and Schierhorn’s music is more challenging and complex than the Weber version.
Summary: This play is filmed before a live audience and brings to life the classic 1911 novel.
Format: VHS

Title: Phèdre
Director: Pierre Jourdan
Starring: Marie Bell
Year: 1968
Run Time: 93 minutes
Summary: The Greek legend as adapted by French playwright Racine.
Format: VHS

Title: Picpus
Director: Richard Pottier
Starring: Albert Prèjean and Juliette Faber
Year: 1943
Run Time: 87 minutes
Summary: Picpus is the first movie of a long serie spanning over 60 years and more. It was made during the war and as most movies made under foreign occupation it has been forgotten.
Format: VHS

Title: Pierrot Le Fou English Pierrot Goes Wild
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina
Year: 1968
Run Time: 90 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “An extraordinary film.”- The New Yorker
Summary: Part love story, part gangster thriller, this is the French version of Bonnie and Clyde.
Format: VHS

Title: Pioneers of the French Cinema Volume One
Run Time: 60 minutes
Format: VHS

Title: Le Quai des brumes English Port of Shadows
Director: Marcel Carné
Starring: Jean Gabin and Michele Morgan
Year: 1938
Run Time: 89 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “The first film in which the distinctive melancholy poetic realism of Carnè and Prevert expressed itself.”-Ronald Bergan and Robn Karney, Faber Companion to Foreign Film
Summary: Having commited a murder, an Army deserter flees to Le Harve where he meets a young girl. They fall in love and dream of escaping the port together.
Format: VHS

Title: Queen Margot French La Reine Margot
Director: Patrice Chereau
Starring: Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Hughes Anglade, Vincent Perez and Virna Lisi
Year: 1994
Run Time: 144 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of five Cesar Awards and the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize
Summary: A tale of a woman thrown into a political marriage of convenience by her power hungry family. She soon finds herself drawn into their murderous affairs and realizes her only hope of escape is through the soldier who loves her or the enemy husband.
Format: VHS

Title: The Raven French Le Corbeau
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Starring: Pierre Fresnay and Ginette Leclerc
Year: 1943
Run Time: 90 minutes
Summary: A French village doctor becomes target of poison-pen letters sent to village leaders, accusing him of affairs and practicing abortion.
Format: VHS

Title: The Red and the Black French Le Rouge et le noir
Director: Claude Autant-Lara
Starring: Gèrard Philipe and Danielle Darrieux
Year: 1954
Run Time: 135 minutes
Summary: It's no holds barred for Julian in pursuit of upward mobility. Although expected to channel career aspirations into the Church of the post- Napoleonic era, his intensely romantic liaisons propel him forward at a pace he cannot control.
Format: VHS

Title: The Return of Martin Guerre French Le Retour de Martin Guerre
Director: Daniel Vigne
Starring: Gérard Depardieu and Nathalie Baye
Year: 1996
Run Time: 123 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of three French Academy Awards
Summary: This is the true story of a 16th century peasant who disappears shortly after his marriage. When he returns from the war, nine years later, his identity is questioned by everyone.
Format: VHS

Title: Ridicule
Director: Patrice Leconte
Starring: Fanny Ardant, Charles Berling, Bernard Giraudeau, Judith Godreche, Jean Rochefort
Year: 1996
Run Time: 103 minutes
Acclaim/Award: "Four Stars" - USA Today, "Two Thumbs Up" - Siskel & Ebert, "One of the year's 10 best." - USA Today, Detroit Free Press, New York Post
Summary: In the periwigged and opulent France of Louis XVI, an unwitting nobleman soon discovers that survival at court demands both a razor wit and an acid tongue.
Format: VHS

Title: Rosetta
Director: Lue and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Starring: Emilie Dequenne, Fabrizo Rongione, Olivier Gourmet and Anne Yernaux
Year: 1999
Run Time: 95 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of the Cannes Film Award for Best Actress and Best Picture
Summary: The story of a shy teenage girl who lives with her alcoholic mother in Belgium. Desperate to live a normal life, she gets a job at a waffle stand. After she is laid off from her job, she makes a fateful choice between honesty and betrayal.
Format: VHS

Title: Rules of the Game French La Règle du jeu
Director: Jean Renoir
Starring: Jean Renoir and Marcel Dalio
Year: 1959
Run Time: 110 minutes
Summary: At a weekend house party, the romantic intrigues of the servants are intermingled with those of the masters. Renoir expresses his disenchantment with modern French society. This movie was forced off the screen by angry Parisians and later banned by the Nazi’s.
Format: VHS

Title: The Sheep Has Five Legs French Le Mouton à cinq pattes
Director: Henry Verneuil
Starring: Fernandil and Michael Ardan
Year: 1954
Run Time: 100 minutes
Summary: A favourite French comedy that admirably showcases the artistry of Fernandel. Recommended if you want to revisit (or visit) a magic time in French cinema or see a great comedic artist at work.
Format: VHS

Title: Shoot the Piano Player French Tirez sur le pianiste
Director: François Truffaut
Starring: Charles Aznavaour and Marie Dubois
Year: 1960
Run Time: 84 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Featured in AFI/LA FilmFest
Summary: Suicide and murder exist side by side with slapstick humor. The story centers on a piano player in a seedy Parisian bar, where he is surrounded by gangsters.
Format: VHS

Title: Six in Paris French Paris vu par...
Director: Jean Douchet, Jean Rouch, Jean-Daniel Pollet, Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Charbol
Starring: Barbara Wilkind, Barbet Schroeder, Micheline Dax and Jean-Michel Rouziere
Year: 1965
Run Time: 93 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Amusing…Beautiful.”-L.A. Times
Summary: Six directors each contribute a short film about a different Paris neighborhood. These six tales paint a tableau of a noisy, vibrant and colorful Paris.
Format: VHS

Title: Small Change French L'Argent de poche
Director: François Truffaut
Starring: Nicole Feliz, Chantal Mercier, Hean-François Stevenin, Virgine Thevent and Tania Torrens
Year: 1976
Run Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “One of Truffaut’s tenderest, most observant works.”-Steven Scheuer, Movies and TV and Videocassette
Summary: This movie brilliantly captures the joys, yearnings, pain and wonder of childhood. He interweaves loving parents and one boys escape from the nightmare of child abuse.
Format: VHS

Title: The Sorrow and the Pity French Le Chagrin et la pitié
Director: Marcel Ophüls
Starring: Georges Bidault and Matheaus Bleibinger
Year: 1971
Run Time: 265 minutes
Summary: From 1940 to 1944, France's Vichy government collaborated with Nazi Germany. Marcel Ophüls mixes archival footage with 1969 interviews of a German officer and of collaborators and resistance fighters from Clement-Ferrant.
Format: VHS

Title: The Spanish Apartment French L’Auberge Espagnole
Directed by: Cédric Klapisch
Year: 2002
Starring: Romain Durich, Judith Godrèche, Audrey Tautou
Run time: 122 minutes
Summary: As part of a job that he is promised, Xavier, an economics student in his twenties, signs on to a European exchange program in order to gain working knowledge of the Spanish language. Promising that they'll remain close, he says farewell to his loving girlfriend, then heads to Barcelona. Following his arrival, Xavier is soon thrust into a cultural melting pot when he moves into an apartment full of international students. An Italian, an English girl, a boy from Denmark, a young woman from Belgium, a German and a girl from Tarragona all join him in a series of adventures that serve as an initiation to life.
Format: DVD

Title: Sugar Cane Alley French Rue Cases Nègres
Director: Euzhan Palcy
Starring: Garry Cadenat, Darling Legitimus, Douta Seck, and Joby Bernabe
Year: 1983
Run Time: 107 minutes
Summary: 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...
Format: VHS

Title: A Sunday in the Country French Un Dimanche à la Campagne
Directed by: Bertrand Tavernier
Year: 1984
Starring: Louis Ducreux, Michel Aumont, Sabine Azéma
Summary: In France, before WWI, as every Sunday, an old painter living in the country is visited by his son Gonzague, who comes with his wife and his three children. Then his daugther Irène arrives...
Run time: 90 min.
Format: DVD

Title: Swan in Love French Un Amour de Swann
Director: Volder Schlondorff
Starring: Jeremy Irons and Ornella Muti
Year: 1984
Run Time: 110 minutes
Summary: A wealthy gentleman who thrives in the highest circles of society risks everything for his erotic obsession with a promiscuous courtesan.
Format: VHS

Title: Le Tartuffe
Director: Gerard Depardieu
Starring: Gerard Depardieu, François Perier and Elisabeth Depardieu
Year: 1984
Run Time: 135 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Un Certain Regard.”-Cannes Film Festival
Summary: A merchant falls under the spell of a charismatic religious zealot. A powerful manipulator charms his why into the merchant’s household and wreaks havoc. Pushed to the limits the entire family conspires to expose the impostor.
Format: VHS

Title: Tatie Danielle
Director: Etienne Chatiliez
Starring: Tsilla Chelton, Catherine Jacob and Isabelle Nanty
Year: 1991
Run Time: 114 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Wicked satire..’Tatie Danielle’ is a sublime monster.”-The New York Times
Summary: A woman methodically torments everyone around her in this comedy. She moves in with her great nephew and his wife who hopes she will be the grandmother her sons never had.
Format: VHS

Title: Le Thé Au Harem D’Archimèdes English Tea in the Harem
Director: Mehdi Charef
Starring: Rémi Martin and Kader Boukhanef
Year: 1985
Run Time: 107 minutes
Summary: Madjid, a son of Algerian immigrants, and his friend Pat are condemned to spend their youth in the dreary concrete blocks of a Parisian suburb.
Format: DVD

Title: Therese French Thérèse
Director: Alain Cavalier
Starring: Catherine Mouchet and Hélène Alexandridis
Year: 1986
Run Time: 90 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner, Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival and Winner of six Cesars
Summary: A fifteen-year-old girl from provincial France has a desire to join her two older sisters as a Carmelite nun. Her father and the local priest try to discourage her, fearing that she is too young. A few years later she contracted tuberculosis and battles the doubts that assail her faith.
Format: VHS

Title: Two or Three Things I Know About Her… French 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Starring: Marina Vlady, Anna Duperty, Roger Montsoret, Raoul Levy and Jean-Luc Godard
Year: 1966
Run Time: 84 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “One of the ten greatest films ever made!”-Village Voice
Summary: The story of a housewife with a peculiar hobby for prostitution. This movie mixes concrete social comment with a dazzling outrageous visual style.
Format: VHS

Title: Umbrellas of Cherbourg French Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
Director: Jacques Demy
Starring: Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuove
Year: 1964
Run Time: 90 minutes
Summary: Geneviève, 17, lives with her widow mother, who owns an umbrella shop in Cherbourg. She and Guy, an auto mechanic, are in love and want to marry.But her mother does not agree : she thinks Geneviève is too young and Guy is not wealthy enough.
Format: VHS

Title: Under the Roofs of Paris French Sous les toits de Paris
Director: René Clair
Starring: Albert Prejan, Pola Illery, Edmund Greville and Gaston Modot
Year: 1930
Run Time: 87 minutes
Summary: A street singer looses his girl to his best friend. This was originally shot as a silent film and the sound dubbed in afterwards.
Format: VHS

Title: Under the Sand French Sous le sable
Director: François Ozon
Starring: Alexandra Stewart, Pierre Vernier and Andrée Tainsy
Year: 2000
Run Time: 95 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Given four stars by the Boston globe.
Summary: One day at the beach a woman’s husband disappears. She notifies the authorities but after an extensive search his body is not found.
Format: DVD

Title: Vatel
Directed by: Roland Joffé
Year: 2000
Starring: Gérard Depardieu, Tim Roth, Uma Thurman
Acclaim / Awards: Academy Award Nomination for Best Art Direction in 2000!
Run time: 103 minutes
Summary: Based on the true story of an ordinary man, a decadent king and the woman caught beween them. In the west of France, Prince de Condé has a scheme o save his bankrupt province: he’ll regain the favor of King Louis XIV with a weekend of spectacle and merriment.
Format: DVD

Title: La Vie de bohème English Bohemian Life
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Starring: Matti Pellonpaa, Evelyn Didi, Andre Wilms, Kari Vaananen, Christine Murillo and Laika
Year: 1993
Run Time: 100 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “A hilarious, offbeat, postmodern comedy.”-Boston Herald
Summary: This is a witty look at life from the perspective of some starving artists who contemplate the perils of impoverished genius.
Format: VHS

Title: Vagabond French Sans toit ni loi
Director: Agnes Varda
Starring: Sandrine Bonnaire
Year: 1985
Run Time: 105 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of the Golden Lion Award and First Prize Venice Film Festival
Summary: The story of an aimless drifter whose only desire in life is to be truly free. As she wanders through the countryside, she encounters violence, hunger, fear and cold. She deeply touches the lives of the people she meets on the road, confronting them with her own ideas of freedom.
Format: VHS

Title: Les Visiteurs English The Visitors
Director: Jean-Marie Poire
Starring: Christian Clavier and Jean Reno
Year: 1993
Run Time: 107 minutes
Acclaim/Award: "Hilarious!"-Los Angeles Times

Summary: This outrageous time-travel comedy follows the misadventures of a wacky medieval knight and his faithful servant when they suddenly find themselves zapped into the present day!
Format: VHS

Title: Le Voile bleu English The Blue Veil
Director: Jean Stelli
Starring: Gaby Morlay and Elvire Popesco
Year: 1942
Run Time: 112 minutes
Acclaim/Award: unknown
Summary: A woman who lost her husband and son during the war sacrifices her life to others' children.
Format: VHS

Title: Weapons of the Spirit
Director: Pierre Sauvage
Starring: Pierre Sauvage, Henri Héritier and Emma Héritier
Year: 1989
Run Time: 90 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “An absolutely extraordinary story. In a hundred years, it is likely to be timely still.”-Washington Post
Summary: During World War II in and around one village in Nazi occupied France, 5,000 Jews were sheltered by 5,000 Christians. Here is that story with an introduction and interview of the filmmaker by Bill Moyers.
Format: VHS

Title: When the Cat's Away French Chacun Cherche son Chat
Director: Cédric Klapisch
Starring: Garance Clavel, Zinedine Soualem, Olivier Py, and Renée le Calm
Year: 1996
Run Time: 91 minutes
Acclaim/Award: International Critics Award - Berlin International Film Festival
Summary: 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.
Format: VHS

Title: The Widow of Saint-Pierre French La Veuve de Saint-Pierre
Director: Patrice Leconte
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Daniel Auteuil, Emir Kusturica
Year: 2000
Run Time: 108 minutes
Acclaim/Award: "A Beautiful Film! Utterly Original... I loved it!" - Roger Ebert
Summary: 1849, on the cod islands of Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, two drunk men commit a senseless murder. One is sentenced to death and must wait in the custody of the captain of the island's guard until a guillotine can arrive from Martinique. During the months of waiting, the convict Neel Auguste becomes the protégé of the captain's wife, Madame La. As she guides Neel to redemption through good works, sobriety, and study, the men of the small French elite who govern the islands criticize the captain for the latitude he gives his wife. He offends them further through his extraordinary love for her, his abrupt manner, and his growing defense of Neel. What will he do when the guillotine arrives?
Format: DVD

Title: Wild Reeds French Les Roseaux sauvages
Director: André Téchiné
Starring: Elodie Bouchez, Gaël Morel, Stéphanie Rideau, Frédéric Gorny and Michèle Moretti
Year: 1994
Run Time: 104 minutes
Acclaim/Award: Winner of Best Foreign Film
Summary: Set in southwest France in 1962, this is the story of four young teenagers awakening to love in a nation torn apart by war.
Format: VHS

Title: Zazie Dans le Métro English Zazie in the Subway
Director: Louis Malle
Starring: Catherine Demongeot and Philippe Noiret
Year: 1962
Run Time: 92 minutes
Acclaim/Award: “Utterly wild!”-The New York Times
Summary: A foul-mouthed eleven-year-old girl comes to Paris for a brief stay with her drag queen uncle. She turns the city upside down and discovers all sorts of unexpected wonders.
Format: VHS

French Films Located in Library

Title: Artemisia
Directed by: Agnès Merlet
Year: 1997
Starring: Valentina Cervi, Michel Serrault, Miki Manojlovic
Summary: Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) was one of the first well-known female painters. The movie tells the story of her youth, when she was guided and protected by her father, the painter Orazio Gentileschi (Michel Serrault). Her professional curiosity about the male anatomy, forbidden for her eyes, led her to the knowledge of sexual pleasure. But she was also well known because in 1612 she had to appear in a courtroom because her teacher, Agostino Tassi, was suspected of raping her. She tried to protect him, but was put in the thumb screws...
Run time: 98 min.
Format: VHS
Library Call Number: PN1998.A76 1998

Title: Le Crime de Monsieur Lange English The Crime of Monsieur Lange
Directed by: Jean Renoir
Year: 1936
Starring: René Lefèvre, Florelle, Jules Berry
Summary: A man and a woman arrive in a cafe-hotel near the belgian frontier. The customers recognize the man from the police's description. His name is Amedee Lange, he murdered Batala in Paris. His lady friend Valentine tells the whole story : Lange was an employee in Batala's little printing works. Batala was a real bastard, swindling every one, seducing female workers of Valentine's laundry.
Run time: 77 min.
Format: VHS
Library Call Number: PN1997.C78 2001

Title: La Femme d’à Côté English The Woman Next Door
Directed by: François Truffaut
Year: 1981
Starring: Gérard Depardieu, Fanny Ardant, Henri Garcin
Summary: Madame Jouve, the narrator, tells the tragedy of Bernard and Mathilde. Bernard was living happily with his wife Arlette and his son Thomas. One day, a couple, Philippe and Mathilde Bauchard, moves into the next house. This is the accidental reunion of Bernard and Mathilde, who had a passionate love affair years ago. The relationship revives...
Run time: 106 min.
Format: VHS
Library Call Number: PN1997.F45

Title: Mississippi Mermaid English La Sirène du Mississippi
Directed by: François Truffaut
Year: 1969
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Catherine Deneuve, Nelly Borgeaud
Summary: Louis Mahe is a tobacco planter at Reunion Island. He is waiting for Julie Roussel to marry her. He only knows her by mail. The woman that comes does not like the picture he got, but he marries her anyway. Soon, she flees with Louis' money. She was not the real Julie Roussel but Marion. Louis tries to find her...
Run time: 123 min.
Format: VHS
Library Call Number: PN1997.M475

Title: The Respectful Prostitute
Directed by: Charles Brabant, Marcello Pagliero
Year: 1952
Starring: Roland Bailly, Walter Bryant, Louis de Funès
Run time: 75 min.
Format: VHS
Library Call Number: PQ2637.A82 P82 1988

Title: The Wild Child French L’Enfant Sauvage
Directed by: François Truffaut
Year: 1969
Starring: Jean-Pierre Cargol, François Truffaut, Françoise Seigner
Summary: 1798. In a forrest, some countrymen catch a wild child who can not walk, speak, read neither write. The Doctor Itard is interested by the child, and starts to educate him. Everybody thinks he will fail, but with a lot of love and patience, he manages to obtain results... This is a true story.
Run time: 83 min.
Format: VHS
Library Call Number: PN1997.W545 1991