Francophiles Encore

L'armée Des Ombres (DVD) = Army Of Shadows. 1969. (DVD 791.4372 Army)

A civil engineer who is one of the French Resistance's chiefs is given away by a traitor and interned in a camp. He manages to escape and join his network at Marseilles, where he seeks out the traitor. Director: Jean-Pierre Melville. Cast: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Simone Signoret, Paul Crauchet, Claude Mann, Christian Barbier, Serge Reggiani.

Avenue Montaigne (DVD) = Fauteuils D'orchestre. 2005. (DVD 791.4372 Avenue)

Jessica is a beautiful young woman from the provinces who has come to Paris and lands a job waiting tables at a chic bistro on fabled Avenue Montaigne. Because she doesn't know how celebrated her clients are, her guileless engagement in their lives has a transforming effect on them and ultimately on herself. Director: Daniele Thompson. Cast: Cecile De France, Valerie Lemercier, Albert Dupontel, Claude Brasseur, Christopher Thompson, Laura Morante, Sydney Pollack.

Faute A Fidel (DVD) = Blame It On Fidel!. 2007. (DVD 791.4372 Blame)

When Fernando and Marie decide to dedicate themselves full time to various political causes, their nine-year-old daughter, Anna, must learn to face the world on her own. Director: Julie Gavras. Cast: Nina Kervel, Julie Depardieu, Stefano Accorsi, Benjamin Feuillet.

 

Le Bonheur (DVD). 1964. (DVD 791.4372 Bonheur)

Though married to the good-natured, beautiful Thérèse, young husband and father François finds himself falling unquestioningly into an affair with an attractive postal worker. Director: Agnes Varda. Cast: Jean-Claude Drouot, Claire Drouot, Marie-France Boyer, Sandrine Drouot, Olivier Drouot.

The Bridesmaid (DVD) = La Demoisell D'honneur. 2004. (DVD 791.4372 Bridesm)

It's love at first sight when bridesmaid Senta falls into the life of handsome young Phillipe at the wedding of his younger sister. When one day she asks Phillipe to perform a terrible deed as proof of his love for her, Phillipe must come to terms with who his lover might really be. Based on the novel by Ruth Rendell. Director: Claude Chabrol. Cast: Benoît Magimel, Laura Smet, Aurore Clément, Bernard Le Coq, Solène Bouton, Anna Mihalcea.

Le Cercle Rouge (DVD) = Red Circle. 1970. (DVD 791.4372 Cercle)

A master thief is fresh out of prison. But instead of toeing the line, he finds his steps leading back to the shadowy world of crime. He, a notorious escapee, and an alcoholic ex-cop plan a jewel heist, while being pursued by a police superintendent. Director: Jean-Pierre Melville. Cast: Alain Delon, Andre Bourvil, Gian Maria Volonte, Yves Montand, Paul Crauchet, Francois Perier. 

Changing Times (DVD) = Temps Qui Changent. 2006. (DVD 791.4372 Changin)

Antoine still has feelings for his first love, Cecile, after 30 years and arranges to be reunited with her in Morocco in the hopes of rekindling their love. Director: Andre Techine. Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Gerard Depardieu, Gilbert Melki, Lubna Azabal, Malik Zidi.

Cléo De 5 à 7 (DVD). 1961. (DVD 791.4372 Cleo)

Portrait of Parisian singer forced to reevaluate her life as she awaits test results of a biopsy. Director: Agnes Varda. Cast: Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dominique Davray, Dorothée Blank, Michel Legrand, José-Luis de Vilallonga.

Les Dames Du Bois De Boulogne (DVD) = Ladies Of The Bois De Boulogne. 1945. (DVD 791.4372 Dames)

Realizing that her lover Jean is losing interest in her, a society lady Helene gets revenge by tricking him into marrying a former prostitute Agnes. After the wedding Helene tells a stunned Jean about his wife's secret past. Director: Robert Bresson. Cast: Maria Casarès, Paul Bernard, Elina Labourdette, Lucienne Bogaert, Jean Marchat.

Days Of Glory (DVD) = Indigènes. 2007. (DVD 791.4372 Days)

The tale of a 1943 World War II French Algerian Unit facing discrimination by its European counterparts due to prejudice and ignorance. Director: Rachid Bouchareb. Cast: Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila, Bernard Blancan, Mathieu Simonet, Benoît Giros, Mélanie Laurent, Antoine Chappey, Assaad Bouab, Aurélie Eltvedt.

Divine Intervention (DVD) = [Yadon Ilaheyya] : A Chronicle Of Love And Pain. 2002. (DVD 791.4372 Divine)

Critically-acclaimed satire chronicles the absurdities of life and love on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli border. Director: Elia Suleiman. Cast: Elia Suleiman, Manal Khader, Nayef Fahoum Daher, George Ibrahim, Jamal Daher.

The Double Life Of Veronique (DVD). 1991. (DVD 791.4372 Double)

Weronika is a Polish choir soprano, and her double, Véronique, is a French music teacher. Though they are unknown to each other, the two women share an enigmatic, purely emotional bond. Director: Krzystztof Kieslowski. Cast: Irene Jacob, Philippe Volter, Sandrine Dumas, Halina Gryglaszewska, Wladyslaw Kowalski, Jerzy Gudejko, Claude Duneton

L'enfant (DVD) = The Child. 2005. (DVD 791.4372 Enfant)

When a small-time crook and his young girlfriend have a child, he decides to sell the baby for money. When his girlfriend finds out, she goes into shock. While she recovers in the hospital, he tries to get their son back and redeem himself. Directors: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Cast: Jérémie Renier, Déborah François, Jérémie Ségard, Fabrizio Rongione, Olivier Gourmet.

Familia (DVD). 2006. (DVD 791.4372 Familia)

Mimi, a divorced aerobics instructor who is up to her ears in debt, leaves Montreal with her restless 14-year-old daughter and moves in with her childhood friend. Director: Louise Archambault. Cast: Sylvie Moreau, Macha Grenon, Mylène St-Sauveur, Juliette Gosselin, Vincent Graton.

La Fleur Du Mal (DVD) = The Flower Of Evil. 2004. (DVD 791.4372 Flower)

The story of a seemingly perfect family whose distinguished facade starts to crack when the wife ventures into local politics. On the eve of the election, a corpse appears and the long dormant seeds of past family crime begin to bloom. Director: Claude Chabrol. Cast: Nathalie Baye, Benoit Magimel, Bernard Le Coq, Suzanne Flon, Melanie Doutey.

L'iceberg (DVD). 2007. (DVD 791.4372 Liceber)

The manager of a fast food restaurant is locked inside the work freezer. When she is rescued the next day, she returns home to find her family didn't even know she was missing. Now obsessed with all things cold, she drops everything to see an iceberg. Director: Dominique Abel. Cast: Lucy Tulugarjuk, Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel, Philippe Martz.

The Intruder (DVD) = L'intrus. 2004. (DVD 791.4372 Intrude)

Louis lives an isolated existence on the French-Swiss border. When an ailing heart leads him to visit Geneva to pay for a replacement on the black market, he travels to his former home where he searches for his lost son. Director: Claire Denis. Cast: Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin, Katia Golubeva, Béatrice Dalle.

Joyeux Noel (DVD) = Merry Christmas. 2005. (DVD 791.4372 Joyeux)

Based on the true story of three armies in the bloody trenches of World War I and the miraculous Christmas Eve truce they unexpectedly forged. Director: Christian Carion. Cast: Diane Krüger, Benno Fürman, Guillaume Canet, Daniel Brühl, Gary Lewis, Dany Boon, Alex Ferns, Steven Robertson, Lucas Belvaux, Bernard Le Coq, Ian Richardson.

Lady Chatterley (DVD). 2006. (DVD 791.4372 Lady)

A young woman, unable to be intimate with her husband after his war injuries, seeks solace and physical passion in the arms of a gamekeeper. Director: Pascale Ferran. Cast: Marina Hands, Jean-Louis Coulloc'h, Hippolyte Girardot, Hélène Alexandridis, Hélène Fillières.

La Voie Lactée (DVD) = The Milky Way. 1969. (DVD 791.4372 Milky)

Two French beggars on their way to Spain's holy city of Santiago de Compostela meet stigmatic children, crucified nuns, and others on their pilgrimage. Director: Luis Bunuel. Cast: aul Frankeur, Laurent Terzieff, Edith Scob, Bernard Verley

Monsieur Hire (DVD). 1989. (DVD 791.4372 Monsieu)

Monsieur Hire endures a solitary life as a tailor, and vitriolic scorn of his neighbors. Hire's only solace is an occasional night out bowling and the voyeuristic admiration of his attractive neighbor. When police discover the nude body of a young woman in a nearby vacant lot, Hire becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation. Director: Patrice Leconte. Cast: Michel Blanc, Sandrine Bonnaire, Andre Wilms, Luc Thuillier

Mouchette (DVD). 1967. (DVD 791.4372 Mouchet)

Fourteen-year old Mouchette tries to escape her abusive, alcoholic father and invalid mother, but only finds more misery in the outside world. Director: Robert Bresson. Cast: Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Marie Cardinal, Paul Hebert, Jean Vimenet, Marie Susini, Suzanne Huguenin, Marine Trichet, Raymonde Chabrun

La Moustache (DVD). 2005. (DVD 791.4372 Moustac)

When a man shaves off his mustache, a trademark he's had for years, no one around him notices, insisting he's never even had one. Is he going insane, or is this some kind of strange conspiracy? Director: Emmanuel Carrere. Cast: Vincent Lindon, Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric, Hippolyte Girardot, Cylia Malki

Muriel, Ou, Le Temps D'un Retour (DVD). 1963. (DVD 791.4372 Muriel)

Drama of alienation about a lonely widow and her stepson. She’s haunted by the memory of her first love, he by his involvement with the death of a woman during the Algerian War. Director: Alain Resnais. Cast: Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Kérien, Nita Klein, Jean-Baptiste Theirrée, Claude Sainval, Laurence Badie, Jean Champion, Jean Dasté.

Mon Meilleur Ami (DVD) = My Best Friend. 2006. (DVD 791.4372 My)

Unlikeable antiques dealer François always gets what he wants, but there's one thing he's never had: a friend. Challenged to a bet by his business partner, François must find someone who will pose as his best pal in just 10 days. Director: Patrice Leconte. Cast: Daniel Auteuil, Dany Boon, Julie Gayet, Julie Durand, Jacques Mathou, Marie Pillet, Henri Garcin, Jacques Spiesser, Elisabeth Bourgine.

Part poetry, part journalism, part philosophy, Notre Musique is master filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard's witty and lyrical reflection on war through the ages. Director: Jean-Luc Godard. Cast: Sarah Adler, Nade Dieu, Rony Kramer, Georges Aguilar, Leticia Gutierrez.

Not On The Lips (DVD) = Pas Sur La Bouche. 2005. (DVD 791.4372 Not)

Gilberte is happily married to Georges, a wealthy businessman who is unaware of his wife's previous marriage. Then one day, Georges comes home and announces he's about to strike a deal with a fabulously wealthy American who's on his way to Paris, and just happens to be Gilberte's ex-husband. A delightful musical comedy based on a 1925 Parisian operetta. Director: Alain Resnais. Cast: Sabine Az'ema, Isabelle Nanty, Audrey Tautou.

Le Petit Lieutenant (DVD). 2005. (DVD 791.4372 Petit)

Antoine, an ambitious young cop from the provinces joins a plainclothes crime unit in Paris eagerly awaiting his first assignment and developing an unlikely relationship with his superior, a veteran policewoman with a troubled past. But when the body of a drifter is found murdered along the Seine, a seemingly routine investigation suddenly turns violent and forever changes all their lives. Director: Xavier Beauvois. Cast: Nathalie Baye, Jalil Lespert, Roschdy Zem, Antoine Chappey, Jacques Perrin, Bruce Myers, Patrick Chauvel, Jean Lespert, Annick Le Goff, Bérangère Allaux.

Pickpocket (DVD). 1959. (DVD 791.4372 Pickpoc)

Michel, an insignificant man who drifts into crime, is arrested and imprisoned. Upon release, he abandons an attempt at reform when a master pickpocket teaches him his art. Director: Robert Bresson. Cast: Martin La Salle, Marika Green, Pierre Leymarie, Jean Pelegri.

Pierrot Le Fou (DVD). 1965. (DVD 791.4372 Pierrot)

Offbeat, influential road story about a man and woman on the lam in southern France. Director: Jean Luc Godard. Cast: Jean Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina.

Private Property (DVD) = Nue Propriété. 2007. (DVD 791.4372 Private)

Pascale lives with her adult twin sons in a renovated Belgian farmhouse. Unable to rise from the shadow of her ex-husband and selfish children, Pascale leaves the house in the hands of her sons, never suspecting that in her absence long-buried resentment and rivalry will boil over, igniting a war between the brothers. Director: Joachim Lafosse. Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Jérémie Renier, Yannick Renier.

Quai Des Orfèvres (DVD). 1947. (DVD 791.4372 Quai)

Set within the dancehalls and crime corridors of 1940s Paris, a singer with "stars in her eyes" ignores the protest of her covetous husband and pursues a meeting with a lecherous movie financier. When her husband attempts to crash the rendezvous, murder ensues. Enter the detective, whose seasoned instincts lead him down a circuitous path of alibis. Director: Henri-Georges Cluzot. Cast: Louis Jouvet, Simone Renant, Bernard Blier, Suzy Delair, Charles Dullin, Pierre Larquey.

Since Otar Left (DVD) = Depuis Qu'Otar Est Parti. 2003. (791.4372 Since)

A family portrait of three generations of Georgian women in the city of Tbilisi. Eka obsesses over her physician son Otar, while the other two attempt to deal as best they can with Eka's burning desire to see him. Director: Julie Bertuccelli. Cast: Esther Gorintin, Nino Khomassouridz, Dinara Droukarova, Temour Kalandadze, Roussoudan Bolkvadze, Sacha Sarichvili, Douta Skhirtladze. 

Tout Va Bien (DVD). 1972. (DVD 791.4372 Tout)

The story of a wildcat strike at a sausage factory in post-1968 France, as witnessed by an American reporter and her has-been film director husband. Culminates in a free-range assault on consumer capitalism and ineffective leftists. Director: Jean Luc Godard. Cast: Yves Montand, Jane Fonda, Vittorio Caprioli, Élisabeth Chauvin, Castel Casti, Éric Chartier, Bugette, Yves Gabrieli, Pierre Oudry, Jean Pignol, Anne Wiazemsky.

2 Days In Paris (DVD). 2007. (DVD 791.4372 Two)

Free-spirited French photographer Marion and anxious, hypochondriac-prone New York interior designer Jack attempt to rekindle their relationship with romance by taking a vacation in Europe, but when they get to Paris, things don’t quite work out as planned. Director: Julie Delpy. Cast: Julie Delpy, Adam Goldberg, Daniel Brühl, Marie Pillet, Albert Delpy, Alexia Landeau, Adam Jodorowsky, Alexandre Nahon.

The Two Of Us (DVD) = Le Vieil Homme Et L'enfant. 1967. (DVD 791.4372 Two)

A Jewish boy living in Nazi-occupied Paris is sent by his parents to the countryside to live with an elderly Catholic couple until France's liberation. Forced to hide his identity, eight-year-old Claude bonds with the irascible, staunchly anti-Semitic Grampa, who improbably becomes his friend and confidant. Director: Claude Berri. Cast: Michel Simon, Roger Carel, Paul Préboist, Luce Fabiole, Alain Cohen, Charles Denner, Jacqueline Rouillard, Marco Perrin, Aline Bertrand, Sylvine Delannoy, Zorica Lozic, Elisabeth Rey, Didier Perret.

Sans Toit Ni Loi (DVD) = Vagabond. 1985. (DVD 791.4372 Vagabon 2007)

Mona, an aimless drifter in the French countryside, deeply touches the lives of the people she meets and confronts them with her own ideas of freedom. Director: Agnes Varda. Cast: Sandrine Bonnaire, Macha Méril, Stephane Freiss, Marthe Jarnias.

The Valet (DVD) = La Doublure. 2006. (DVD 791.4372 Valet)

Pierre Levasseur is an important CEO who is photographed with his lover, Elena, a world-famous model. In an attempt to salvage his marriage, he tries to convince his wife that Elena is not his lover, but that of the porter who was passing by and ended up in the photograph. Director: Francis Verber. Cast: Gad Elmaleh, Alice Taglioni, Daniel Auteuil, Kristin Scott Thomas, Richard Berry, Virginie Ledoyen, Dany Boon.

La Vie En Rose (DVD). 2007. (DVD 791.4372 Vie)

Follows the career of singer Edith Piaf who was raised in a brothel and taken from the only life she knew by her father so they could join the circus. She spent her teen years on the streets before being "rescued" by a crime figure who gives her career a start. The film shows her international success and final illness. Director: Olivier Dahan. Cast: Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean-Paul Rouve, Gérard Depardieu, Clotilde Courau, Jean-Pierre Martins, Catherine Allégret, Marc Barbé.

Violette (DVD). 1978. (DVD 791.4372 Violett)

The daughter of a respectable middle-class couple, Violette Nozière leads a disreputable double life. To acquire money for her latest lover, Violette resolves to commit an unthinkable crime. Based on a true incident. Director: Claude Chabrol. Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Stéphane Audran, Jean Carmet, Jean-François Garreaud, Guy Hoffman.