French Films/Themes by Title

Title	Call ID #	Description
400 Blows	VFR 315	Francois Truffaut: French (English subtitles) 99 mins. 1959. One of the landmarks of cinema, which introduced the character of Antoine Doinel, played by Jean-Pierre Leaud, to the world, as the 12 year old boy left to his own devices in an indifferent adult world. An uncompromising film, winner of innumerable awards.
Alberto Expre$$	VIT 338	Arthur Joffe: Italian & French (English subtitles) 92 mins. 1992. Every family has its own funny little traditions, but Alberto's takes quirkiness to the most hilarious extreme. In Alberto's family the children must pay their parents back every cent spent on their rearing; and the debt must be completely repaid before the children start a family of their own. Unfortunately, Alberto is 40 and flat broke. If he can't come up with a big chunk of change to repay his father in a hurry, he's going to have to figure out a way to return his about-to-be-born baby. Taking the train to his father's home to seek mercy, Alberto is struck with an idea. Why not beg, borrow, and, steal his way to financial fitness? A wickedly funny comedy about families, finances and the kindness of strangers.
Allonsanfan P&V	VIT 310	Taviani: Italian (English subtitles) 115 mins. 1984. One of the great films by the brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (Night of Shooting Stars), Alonsanfan stars Marcello Mastroianni in a comic masterpiece, making use of bravura lightning and color schemes. Set after Napoleon has fallen in 1816, the film features Mastroianni as a disillusioned Jacobin aristocrat released from prison and torn between his revolutionary ideals and comfortable lifestyle. With Laura Betti, Lea Massari.
Alphaville	VFR 316	Jean-Luc Godard: French (English subtitles) 100 mins. 1965. Eddie Constantine is Lemmy Caution, inter-galactic private eye, in his bravure mix of comic strip, science fiction and film noir in what is ultimately a new style of cinema, in which form and content are identical. Lemmy sets out to dispose of diabolical scientist Leonard Von Braun (a.k.a. Leonard Nosferatu) for Alphaville, the futuristic city run by an electronic brain, where love has been banished. A film in which poetry mixes freely with pulp to create a new dimension, a new cinematic reality.
Amelie	DVFR 813 A	Jean-Marc Deschamps: French (English subtitles) 122 mins. 2001. This magical comedy met overwhelming acclaim nationwide. A painfully shy waitress working at a tiny Paris café, Amélie makes a surprising discovery and sees her life drastically changed for the better. From then on, Amélie dedicates herself to helping others find happiness & in the most delightfully unexpected ways. But will she have the courage to do for herself what she has done for others?
Artemisia	DVFR 829	Agnes Merlet: French (English subtitles) 96 mins. 1998 A widely acclaimed critical favorite honored with a Golden Globe nomination as Best Foreign Film, Artemisia is the highly provocative true story of a young woman whose bold pursuit of artistic freedom and physival desire threatened the elite powers of her time. Artemisia Gentileschi, the beautiful and talented daughter of one of Italy's greatest painters, is forbidden to fully pursue her own passion for painting. When she convinces a renonwned and unconventional artist to tutor her, however, he not only liberates her in the world of art...but initiates her into the treacherous world of sex and love! Following the controversy of a theatrical release that saw the original NC-17 rating overturned on appeal, Miramax Films is proud to present this important and powerful motion picture complete and unedited!
Artemisia	VFR 380	Agnes Merlet: French (English subtitles) 96 mins. 1998. A widely acclaimed critical favorite honored with a Golden Globe nomination as Best Foreign Film, Artemisia is the highly provocative true story of a young woman whose bold pursuit of artistic freedom and physical desire threatened the elite powers of her time. Artemisia Gentileschi, the beautiful and talented daughter of one of Italy's greatest painters, is forbidden to fully pursue her own passion for painting. When she convinces a renowned and unconventional artist to tutor her, however, he not only liberates her in the world of art... but initiates her into the treacherous world of sex and love! Following the controversy of a theatrical release the saw the original NC-17 rating overturned on appeal, Miramax Films is proud to present this important and powerful motion picture complete and unedited!
L'Atalante	VFR 363	JEAN VIGO: French (English subtitles)87 mins. 1934. Black and White. The high water mark of French realism, set on a barge plying the Seine. A young barge captain and his bride live on a barge with the eccentric Pere Jules (Michel Simon). With Boris Kauffman's cinematography, which evokes Paris and the Seine with the luminosity of Atget or Cartier-Bresson, and everyday life full of magical moments like Pere Jules ''museum' of exotic marvels and the husband's underwater vision of his lost bride. 'may be the greatest film ever made' (Georgia Brown, the village voice).Initially cut by seven minutes, this version is the fully restored 89 minute cut.
L'Auberge Espagnole	DVFR 814	Cedric Klapisch. French (English & Spanish Subtitles) 132 mins. 2003. Xavier (Romain Duris) is a straight-laced French college senior who moves to Barcelona as part of a student exchange program, much to the dismay of his beautiful girlfriend Martine (Audrey Tautou). But sharing cramped quarters with students from all over Europe quickly leads to multi-cultural.
Au Revoir les Enfants	VFR 317	Louis Malle: French (English subtitles) 103 mins. 1988. Louis Malle returns to the days of German occupation during World War II to recount the story of the friendship between two school boys, one Jewish and the other Catholic. A winner of many awards, including Best Picture in France.
The Barbarian Invasions	DVFR 818	DENYS ARCAND. French (English Subtitles) 99 mins. 2003. Academy Award winner for best foreign language film, The Barbarian Invasions is a provocative look at the many ties that bind a group of friends and lovers! It's not easy for a narrow-minded professor (Rémy Girard) to reconcile with his equally stubborn son. But soon, father and son find themselves gathering with their wide and colorful circle of family and friends to confront their differences, confess their secrets and celebrate life! Winner of the Best Actress (Marie-Josée Croze) and best Screenplay awards at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, this outstanding motion picture has been hailed by critics everywhere as one of the year's best!
Barsoum's Special Tape	VFR 400	*Barsoum's special tape* Barsoum
Barsoum's Special Video	VFR 401	Barsoum's special tape Barsoum
Battle of Algiers (La Bataille D'Alger)	VFR 319	Gillo Pontecorvo: French (English subtitles) 125 mins. 1966. Internationally acclaimed, the staggering news-reel-like authenticity of the staged street riots and vital performances of the actors give Battle of Algiers a unique dramatic impact on this detailing of the Algerian revolt against the French. (La Bataille d'Alger)
Battle of Algiers	DVFR 815 A	Gillo Pontecorvo: French & Arabic (English Subtitles) 121 mins. 1966. One of the most influential political films in history, Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers (La bataille d'Alger) vividly recreates a key year in the tumultuous Algerian struggle for independence from the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafés, and French soldiers resort to torture to break the will of the insurgents. Shot in the streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film is a case study in modern warfare, with its terrorist attacks and the brutal techniques used to combat them. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Gillo Pontecorvo's tour de force-a film with astonishing relevance today. -New high-definition digital transfer, enhanced for widescreen televisions -Production gallery -Theatrical and re-release trailers -New and improved English subtitle translation;
Battle of Algiers (Documentary)	DVFR 815 B	Gillo Pontercorvo: English 105 mins. Disc Two: Pontecorvo and the film. Gillo Pontecorvo: The Dictatorship of Truth (1992): a 37minutes documentary, narrated by literary critic Edward Said. Exclusive 51-minute documentary on the making of The Battle of Algiers, featuring new interviews with the director, cinematographer, composer, editor, actors, and film historians. Five Directors (17 mins. 2004): Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone on the film's influence, style, and importance.
Battle of Algiers (Documentary)	DVFR 815 C	Gillo Pontecorvo: *English 180 mins.* Disc Three: The Film and History. Remembering History (69 mins. 2004): an exclusive documentary that reconstructs the Algerian experience of the battle for independence, featuring interviews with historians and revolutionaries, including military leader Saadi Yacef. "États d'armes" (2002): a 28-minute documentary excerpt featuring senior French military officers recalling the use of torture and execution to combat the rebellion. The Battle of Algiers: A Case Study (25 mins., 2004): Richard A. Clarke, former national counter-terrorism coordinator and author of Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror, discusses the film's relevance with Michael A Sheenan, former State Department coordinator for counter-terrorism, in a conversation moderated by Christopher E. Isham, chief of investigative projects for ABC News. -Gillo Pontecorvo's Return to Algiers (58 mins., 1992): the filmmaker revisits the Algerians people after three decades of independence.
Beaumarchais the Scoundrel	VFR 365	Edouard Molinaro: French (English subtitles) 100 mins. 1997. From the award-winning director of the smash hit LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (The Birdcage) comes this playful romp matching the witticism of Ridicule and the splendor of Amadeus. Fabrice Luchini shines as the legendary French playwright Pierre- Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (The Marriage of Figaro). An artist whose work influenced the likes of Mozart snide Rossini, Beaumarchais the Scoundrel was one of history's most extraordinary figures: inventor, playwright, diplomat, playboy, Royal spy for King Louis XV, an emissary of the colonial attacks against Britain during the American Revolution. Love affairs, scandals, and espionage fill director Edouard Molinaro's hilarious, yet elegant and richly detailed period piece exploring the years 1774-1784 an explosive period in Beaumarchais' unprecedented life.
Beauty and the Beast	VFR 308	Jean Cocteau: French (English subtitles) B&W. 93 mins. 1946. Jean Cocteau's superb adaptation of Marie Leprince de Beaumont's dark fairy tale is ferociously inventive and stylized depiction of erotic obsession, about a young woman's discovery of a ravaged soul beneath a monstrous beast. With Jean Marais, Josette Day and Marcel Andre. Cinematography by Henri Alekan. 'A sensuously fascinating film, the visual progression of the fable into a dream-world casts its unpredictable spell' (Bosley Crowther).
Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete)	DVFR 810	Jean Cocteau: French (English subtitles) B&W. 93 mins.1946. Once upon a time, in a world of magic and wonder, the true love of a beautiful girl finally dispelled the torment of a feral but gentle-hearted beast. Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete) is a landmark feat of cinematic fantasy in which master filmmaker Jean Cocteau conjures spectacular visions of enchantment, desire, and death that have never been equaled. The Criterion Collection proudly presents the original film version of Mme. Leprince e Beaumont's fairy-tale masterpiece in a newly restored special edition.
La Bete Humaine	VFR 388	Jean Renoir: French (English subtitles) 75 mins. 1938. A dark and threatening mood is set throughout this movie by master film director Jean Renoir. How far will the train engineer (gabin) go for his lover.
Blue	VFR 343	Krysztof Kieslowski: French (English subtitles) 98 mins. 1993. Praised as one of the top films of the year by critics and audiences alike, this stylish and provocative mystery delivers captivating performances and stunning imagery! Sexy star Juliette Binoche (1997 Oscar winner/ The English Patient) is a young woman left devastated by the unexpected death of her husband and child. She retreats from the world around her, but soon reluctantly drawn into an ever-widening web of lies and passion as the dark, secret life of her husband begins to unravel. With each startling discovery and heart-stopping surprise, Blue is sure to entertain you from beginning to end!
Le Boucher	VFR 314	Claude Chabrol: French (English subtitles) 90 mins. 1969. A first rate psychological thriller from Claude Chabrol about the evolving relationship of a beautiful school teacher and a serial murderer. ' In Chabrol's films, the relationships are plotted with mathematical precision that does not rule out surprising developments' (Roy Armes). With Stepahne Audran, Antonio Passallia, Mario Beccaria and Pasquale Ferone.
Le Bourgeouis Gentilhomme	VFR 303	La Comedie Francaise: French (English subtitles) 97 mins. 1958. The classic by Moliere played by the Comedie francaise.
Camille Claudel	VFR 323	Bruno Nuytten: French (English subtitles) 159 mins. 1989. Intense performances by Isabelle Adjani and Gerard Depardieu add fire to this adaptation of the family authorized 'biography' of overlooked sculptress Camille Claudel. After years of living with master sculptor Auguste Rodin (Depardieu) as pupil and lover, Claudel fell into a paranoid depression when he left her. Her disapproving family had her committed to a mental institution, where she wasted away for the remaining thirty years of her life. Adjani won a Cesar for her performance in this tragic story.
The Chambermaid on the Titanic	VFR 377	Bigas Luna: French (English subtitles) 96 mins. 1998. In the tradition of Like Water For Chocolate and IL Postino, THE CHAMBERMAID ON THE TITANIC is a mystical and unpredictable fable full of mad passion and unbearable sensuality. Once again, Horty (Olivier Maritnez) is the winner of the annual trial of strength organized by the foundry where he works. This year his prize is extraordinary: a round-trip ticket to Southampton, England to watch the Titanic leave on its maiden voyage. In his Southampton hotel room Horty is approached by Marie, a stunning chambermaid due to board the Titanic the next day. Believing in Maire's hard luck story of having no place to spend the night, Horty apprehensively agrees to share his room with the beautiful stranger Returning home to his wife, Horty's recount of the night he met Marie will change his life forever as the magical tale of his forbidden romance transforms all those who hear it. Donated by Prof. Cecile Insdorf, Dept. of Romance Languages, May 2000.
Chaos	DVFR 819	Coline Serreau: French (English subtitles) 109 mins. This is a rousing and daring tale combining aspects of pulse-pounding melodrama with loopy battle-of-the-sexes comedy. Hélène and Paul, a bourgeois couple, are rushing to a dinner engagement when they see Malika, a young prostitute being chased by three men. As the thugs attack the woman, Paul immediately rolls up the windows and speeds off. Full of remorse, Hélène tracks down Malika in the hospital. As Hélène nurses Malika through her recovery, she realizes that her life has been changed forever. She can never return to her selfish husband and son. Malika tells Hélène a shocking story. She ran away from her family after her father sold her to an Algerian businessman. Homeless, living on the streets, she was turned into a sex slave by a vicious criminal organization. In the tense final act, Hélène joins forces with Malika in an elaborate and daring scheme to double-cross her pimps and get both her freedom and her revenge.
The Charterhouse of Parma	VFR 360	Louis Salou Coedel: French (English subtitles) B&W. 165 mins. 1948. Fabrice Del Dongo (Gerard Philipe), a young archbishop of Parma, falls in love and wishes to break his vows to the church. His aunt, the Countess of Sanseverina, in love with Fabrice herself, will stop at nothing to further his celibate career. A wonderful portrait of Italian court life during the early 1800's, full of intrigue, ambition, duels and passionate crimes. An action/adventure film that will transport you back to an era of romantic love where honor and virtue were worth dying for.
Children of Paradise	VFR 313	Marcel Carne: French (English subtitles) 189 mins. 1943-1945. Set in the 1840's, when pantomime and melodrama were at height on Paris' famed theater street, le Boulevard du Crime, Marcel Carne's delicate yet elaborate portrait of the authors and thieves who made the Boulevard their home has all the passion, the intelligence and authority of a truly great work of art.
Chocolat	VFR 312	Denis Claire: French (English subtitles) 105 mins. 1988. Claire Denis takes the viewer on an emotional and strikingly visual memory trip back to the colonial Africa of her youth. In her directorial debut, she spins an engaging tale of a small white girl growing up in Cameroon on the isolated compound of her French official father and her lonely gorgeous mother. With Giulia Boschi, Issach de Bankole, Francois Cluzet and Cecille Ducasse.
The City of Lost Children	DVFR 823	Jeunet & Caro: French (English subtitles) 112 mins. 1995. A gutsy little girl and a sentimental strongman (Ron Perlman) join hearts and hands to save a small boy's dreams from a madman's master plan. Phenomenal French duo Jeunet & Caro ('Delicatessen') deliver a fantastically-twisted fairy tale chock-full of curious characters, spectacular stunts and unforgettable visuals.
Claire's Knee	VFR 318	Eric Rohmer's most popular work, a vibrant luscious comedy which focuses on the temptations of a diplomat who visits his childhood home just before he married to a woman with whom he has lived for six years. Charming and sunny sex comedy. With Jean-Claude Brialy and Lawrence de Monaghan.
Un Coeur En Hiver	VFR 340	Claude Sautet: French (English subtitles) 100 mins.1991. Claude Sautet's 13th feature is loosely based on Lermontov's novel 'A Hero of our Time'. Two violin makers (Daniel Auteuil and Andre Dusollier) are affected when a beautiful violinist enters their lives. The film addresses the question of whether Auteuil is able to reconcile his cold rigid nature with his deep emotional attraction to Beart. With Elizabeth Bourgine, Myriam Boyer, Brigitte Catillon and Maurice Garrel as a brilliant music teacher.
Colonel Chabert	VFR 352	Yves Angelo: French (English subtitles) 111 mins. 1992. Gerard Depardieu stars as the returning war hero who is not supposed to return. Now he faces another battle at home to claim that which is rightfully his. Honore de Balzac's novel is treated to a lush production.
Contempt	VFR 392	Jean-Luc Godard: French (English subtitles) 102 mins. 1963. A young French dramatist living in Rome accepts an assignment to write a screenplay for an American film producer. Suddenly, and for seemingly no reason, his wife begins to regard him with utter contempt. He pleads for an explanation, but one is not given. Declaring simply that she no longer loves him. They are invited to stay at the producer's villa in Capri during the filming of the movie. Once there, the film's director and the writer immediately disagree on the approach to the film... An epic, romantic adventure... or an intimate psychological drama drawing from the legend of Ulysses' Penelope and Penelope's suitors - paralleling the couple's conflict. An affair ensues between the producer and the writer's wife; and when the outraged husband confronts her, she admits she stopped loving him because she felt he was pushing her into the affair to further his own career... he was no longer a man! She decides to leave her husband and return to Rome with the producer, but something quite unexpected happens…
Contempt (Le Mepris)	DVFR 812 A	*Jean-Luc Godard: French (English subtitles) 104 mins. 1963.* Jean-Luc Godard's subversive foray into commercial filmmaking is a start-studded cinemascope epic. Contempt (Le Mepris) starts Michel Piccoli as a screenwriter torn between the demands of a proud European Director (played by legendary director Fritz Lang) , a crude and arrogant American producer (Jack Palance), and his disillusioned wife, Camille (Brigette Bardot) as he attempts to doctor the script for a new film version of The Odyssey. The Criterion collection is proud to present this brilliant study of marital breakdown, artistic compromise, and the cinematic process in a new special edition.
Contempt (Le Mepris)	DVFR 812 B	Documentary. *Jean-Luc Godard. French (English subtitles) 104 mins. 1963.*
Contre Vents Contre Marées	DVFR 828	Pat Mire presente par Zachary Richard. French 80 minutes. Against the Tide is the epic story of one of the most celebrated and misunderstood ethnic communities in North America. Ravaged by bloody religious wars, French farmers left Western France in the 17th century to establish a new homeland in the wilderness of what today is Nova Scotia. After a brutal deportation by the British, (ethnic cleansing in contemporary parlance) the ancestors of the Cajun people were able to end their exile and reunite their families in Louisiana. Through the years, the Cajun people have maintained their identy and language in spite of the overwhelming pressure of Americanization.
The Counterfeiters	DVGE 808	Stefan Ruzowitzky: German, French ( Eng,Fre,Spa Subtls) 99 Mins. The Counterfeiters tells the true story of Solomon Sorowitsch ( Karl Markovics), a swindler who made a name for himself as a Berlin's "King of the Counterfeiters. However, his life of women and easy money is cut short when he is arrested and placed in a Nazi concentration camp. With the German army on the verge of bankruptcy, Sorowitsch makes a sobering deal with his captors: in exchange for a comfortable bed, good food and fair treatment, Sorowitsch, along with the other hand-picked specialist, must counterfeit bank notes to fund the Nazi war effort. If he does as they say, he lives another day. If he rebels, he faces the same fate as the rest of camp's prisoners. But if he lives, will he be able to live with himself?
Coup de Torchon	DVFR 833	Bertrand Tavernier: French (English subtitles) 128 Mins. An inspired rendering of Jim Thompson's pulp novel pop.1280, Bertrand Tavernier's coup de torchon (which means clean slate) deaftly transplants the story of an innempt police chief-turned-heartless killer and his scrappy mistress from the American south to French West Africa. Featuring pitch perfect performances by Philippe Noiret and Isabelle Huppert, this striking neo-noir straddles the line between violence and lyricism with dark humor and visual elegance, perfectly captured by Criterion's glorious new anamorphic transfer.
Cyrano de Bergerac	VFR 354	Jean-Paul Rappeneau: French (English subtitles) 138 mins. 1990. Gerard Depardieu is magnificent as poetic soldier with the prominent proboscis. Based on the classic play by Rostand in which a 17th century swordsman proves inarticulate only when it comes to expressing his love for his cousin Roxanne face to face. Packed with pageantry, poetry and robust performances. With Anne Brochet, Jacques Weber, and some 2000 extras.
Danton	VFR 301	Andrzej Wajda: French (English subtitles) 143 mins. 1982. 'Brilliant filmmaking - a controlled tumult of painterly compositions and sensational performances, one of the most gripping revolutionary thrillers I've ever seen' wrote Andrew Sarris in The Village Voice of Wajda's historical epic of the French Revolution, with implications to modern day Poland.
Danton	DVFR 328A	Andrzej Wajda: French (English subtitles) 136 Mins. Gerard Depardieu and Wojciech Pszoniak star in Andrzej Wajda's powerful, intimate depiction of the ideological clash between the earthy man of the people Georges Danton and the icy Jacobin extremist Maximilien Robespierre, both key figures of the French Revolution. By drawing parallels with the Polish Solidarity movement, which was being quashed by the government as the film went into production, Wajda drags history into the present. Meticulous and fiery, Danton has been hailed as one of the greatest films ever made about the Terror.
Danton	DVFR 328B	Andrzej Wajda: French (English subtitles) 136 Mins. The Supplements.
A Day in the Country	VFR 320	Jean Renoir: French (English subtitles) B&W. 40 mins. 1936. Based on story by Guy de Maupassant: 'an innocent girl comes of age in Jean Renoir'sshort film. This lyrical tragedy rates with Renoir's greatest. Visually it captures the impressionist period' (Pauline Kael).
Diabolique	DVFR 805	Criterion Collection. French (English subtitles) B&W. 116 mins. 1954 An Acknowledged influence on PSYCHO, Henrigeofges Clouzot's Horror classic is the Story of a sadistic headmaster who brutalizes his fragile wife and his headstrong mistress. The two women murder him and dump his body in a swimming pool; when the pool is drained, no corpse is found. Criterion presents Diabolique in a new digital transfer.
La Discrete	VFR 369	Christian Vincent: French (English subtitles) 96 mins. 1990. A sophisticated tale of seduction and romance, La Discrete, begins when Antoine, a would-be novelist, finds his latest girlfriend has dropped him before he has had the chance to break up with her. Reeling from this blow to his pride, Antoine vows to take revenge on women-he will seduce and abandon a woman at random, and then publish a diary of the affair. Catherine as his victim, Antoine gets much more than he bargained for. The bookstores and cafes of Paris' Left Bank have never looked more beautiful than in this truly remarkable first film from director Christian Vincent. La Discrete also introduces Judith Henry, who won France's Best New Actress award for her powerful and subtle performance. Donated by Prof. Cecile Insdorf, Dept. of Romance Languages, May 2000.
The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie	VFR 330	*Luis Bunuel: French (English subtitles) 100 mins. 1972.* An all-star French cast assembles for a diner party, but whenever they try to eat, something happens to interrupt them. Bunuel brilliantly mixes biting social satire with bold surrealistic invention as the dinner party serves to lampoon such targets as diplomats, wealthy socialites socialites and even radical terrorists.
Diva	VFR 326	Jean- Jacques Beneix: French (English subtitles) 123 mins. 1981. A breathtaking series of visual images in this stylish romantic thriller; at the heart of the film is an opera-intoxicated 18-year old mail carrier who becomes unwittingly entangled in a web of murder, intrigue and passion.
The Earrings of Madame de...	DVFR 827	*Max Ophuls: French ( English Subtitles) B&W 100 Mins.* 1953.** The Earrings of Madame de. . . Is an emotionally profound, cinematographically adventurous tale of false opulence and tragic romance. When the aristrocratic woman known as Madame de ( The extraordinary Danielle Darrieux) sold her earrings, unbeknownst to her husband ( Charles Boyer) , in order to pay personal debts, she sets off a chain reaction, to financial and carnal consequences of which can only end in despair.
The Earrings of Madame de...	VFR 384	Max Ophuls: French (English subtitles) B&W. 105 mins. 1953. A spoiled socialite (Darrieux) married to a general (Boyer), flirts with an amorous diplomat (Di Sica). As the affair escalates, the glittering shallowness of their privileged existence plunges into disaster, as all three risk everything for love and honor. The crowning masterpiece of virtuoso Ophuls (LA RONDE, LOLA MONTES, LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN), this dazzling experience in cinematic style ripens from a soufflé of social satire into a profoundly moving romantic tragedy. With a complexity worthy of the music of Mozart and the novels of Stendhal, Ophuls explores the consequences of passion as a projection of personality, creating an elaborately artificial world now gone forever, and animating it with timeless emotions.
East/West (Est/Ouest)	DVRU 801	Réges Warnier: French/Russian (English subtitles) 125 mins 1993. From the director of Academy Award -winning Indochine comes another highly acclaimed film. Academy Award -nominated (1999) for Best Foreign Language film, EAST/WEST (EST/OUEST) is a wonderfully imagined film that follows the plight of a young couple and their child as they choose to go back to the Soviet Union in 1946. At the end of the war, Stalin invited Russians who fled the country to return. The talented young doctor Alexei Golovine (Oleg Menchikov), accompanied by his French bride the beautiful Marie (Sandrine Bonnaire) and their son, optimistically returns to the Soviet Union. Their arrival is a rude one. Interrogations are followed by the grim reality of post-war Soviet Union: shared apartments, suspicious neighbors and lack of privacy. Marie soon starts to rebel against the circumstances, but her husband finds that his talents are needed and appreciated by the authorities, so he starts to get ahead. Marie meets up with a touring French actress (Catherine Deneuve), and soon faces a terrifying choice: to leave her husband and child for freedom, or stay and confront a grim future.
Egalite for All	DVENG 804	Noland Walker: English (Color & B&W) 60 minutes. It was the only successful slave insurrection in history. It grasped the full meaning of French Revolutionary ideas and used them to create the world's first black republic. It elevated a former slave, Toussaint Louverture, to such intrnational fame that admirers ranked him on par with George Washington. It was the Haitian Revolution, a movement of admirable aspirations..and appalling destruction. Vaguely remembered today, the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804 traumatized planters in the American South and inspired U.S. slaves. EGALITE FOR ALL explores this history through music, voodoo ritual, powerful recreations, and insightful writers and historians.
Les Enfants Terribles	VFR 386	Jean Cocteau: French (English subtitles) B&W. 100 mins. 1949. Two seemingly disparate filmmakers - Jean-Pierre Melville, best known for his dark black-and-white ventures into the criminal underworld, and Jean Cocteau, the poet of the mythical underworld- come together to bring Cocteau's celebrated play of love, death and incest to the screen. Paul (Edouard Dermithe) not only shares his untidy single room with his sister Elisabeth 9Nicole Stephane), but these two teens also share an unhealthy obsession for each other. Outside forces compel them to face thair attraction and leads them to tragedy.
Entre Nous	DVFR 802	Diane Kurys: French French (English subtitles) 112 mins. 1983. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, Entre Nous beautifully captures the rare friendship between two married women trying to find the courage to defy the social rules of their time in order to escape their unfulfilling lives. Their friendship blossoms over the years as each faces a succession of crises that greatly alter their lives. Written and directed by Diane Kurys (Peppermint Soda) who was inspired by her own parent's relationship and the woman that came between them.
L'Esquive	DVFR 831	Abdellatif Kechiche: French ( English Subtitles) 120 Mins. 2003. Abdelkrim, nicknamed krimo, fifteen years old, lives in a housing project in the suburbs of Paris. He goes through his boring mundane life with his best friend, Eric, and their group of friends. Its spring and Krimo falls under the spell of his classmate Lydia, a lively, chatterbox and mischievous young girl. He takes the risk to act in a school play by Marivaux to attract her attention.
The Eternal Return	VFR 306	*Jean Delannoy: French (English subtitles) 112 mins. 1943.* Jean Delanoy's modernized version of the legend of Tristan and Isolde. An enormous commercial success during the worst days of the German occupation of France, the film is based on a script by Jean Cocteau, and is the tragic love story of two friends, Patrice and his Uncle Marc, who share a deep friendship. When Patrice falls on love with Marc's wife Nathalie, the loyalty he feels for his Uncle prevents him from telling her of his love, only to find that she returns it.
Exiles	DVFR 822	Tony Gatlif: French (English Subtitles) 104 mins. Romain Duris and Lubna Azabal give charismatic and sensual lead performances as Zano and Naima, a bohemian Parisian couple, who impulsively set off for Algeria. In the classic road movie tradition, international award- winning director Tony Gatlif (Latcho Drom) evocatively charts the young couple's odyssey though memorable encounters and indelible images of foreign landscapes. The vibrant soundtrack propels "Exiles" with its fusion of percussive contemporary music and mesmerizing traditional ethnic rhythms that reconnect the couple with their lost heritage
La Femme Nikita	VFR 350	Luc Besson: French (English subtitles) 117 mins. 1991. A stylish punk thriller from director Luc Besson, in which a French street junkie (anne Parillaud) is arrested and threatened with life imprisonment. She is then allowed to leave if she agrees to go to work for the French secret police as an assassin. This suspenseful film is highlighted by Besson's stylishly decorous visual composition and innate sense of dramatic pacing.
Germinal	VFR 351	*Patrick Bordier: French (English subtitles) 166 mins. 1993.* Gerard Depardieu stars in this sweeping film based on Emile Zola's masterful novel. A simple but honest and charismatic miner takes on a heroic quest for justice that leads him and his entire community to a fateful end. This tale of unforgivable wrongs stirs the soul.
Gervaise	VFR 341	Rene Clement: French (English subtitles) 121 mins. 1956. A perfect example of a polished adaptation of a novel, this one, L'Assommoir by Emile Zola. Gervaise is a young woman whose husband becomes an alcoholic after an accident. Notable for a marvelous reconstruction of 19th century Paris.
La Guerre Est Finie	VFR 311	Alain Resnais: French (English subtitles) 120 mins. 1966. This great film by Alain Resnais, scripted by Jorge Semprun, stars Yves Montand, Genevieve Bujold, Ingrid Thulin and Michel Piccoli. Resnais shifts between reality and Montand's mental states in an incisive portrait of an aging Spanish revolutionary exile who is imprisoned by his past as he confronts the failure of his ideas. Resnais explores Montand's insecurities through his relationships with two very different women (Thulin and Bujold)
Hate (La Haine)	VFR 353	*Mathieu Kassovitz: French (English subtitles) 95 mins. 1996.* Maybe you think you've seen it before: Three racially divergent boys in the hood bang heads with the riot police in a housing project where drugs, violence and hatred are facts of life. Nothing new here, except that this hood is just outside Paris. The issues in this bonfire of a movie transcend geographical barriers to speak a universal language of unrest.
Hiroshima Mon Amour	VFR 309	*Alain Resnais: French (English subtitles) 90 mins. 1959.* From the beginning, in which the love-making of a French actress (Emanuelle Riva) and a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) is inter-cut with newsreel footage of Hiroshima's atomic holocaust and its aftermath, to the couple's painful walk through the reconstructed city, Resnais' film recaptures both the pain and the richness of the war.
Hiroshima Mon Amour	DVFR 816	*Alain Resnais: French (English Subtitles) B&W. 90 mins. 1959.* A cornerstone of French cinema, Alain Resnais' first feature is one of the most influential films of all time. A French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) and a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) engage in a brief, intense affair in postwar Hiroshima, their consuming fascination impelling them to exorcise their own scarred memories of love and suffering. Utilizing an innovative flashback structure and an Academy Award-nominated screenplay by novelist Marguerite Duras, Resnais delicately weaves past and present, personal pain and public aguish, in this moody masterwork. .
Immigrant Memories	VFR 379 A	*Yamina Benguigui: French (English Subtitles) 1997. Part1:* The Fathers. In this now classic three-part documentary on Maghrebian immigration to France, Yamina Benguigui weaves together narratives from three different times. She begins by focusing on the first wave of immigrants to France after WW II, male laborers recruited to provide a temporary workforce. In the second and third parts she chronicles its changing nature, by focusing on the wives who came to join their husbands, and then on the children who were born in France. Through extensive interviews with both immigrants and politicians, interspersed with historical footage, Benguigui's film has been a major contribution to the study of immigration in modern France.
Immigrant Memories	VFR 379 B	Yamina Benguigui: French (English Subtitles) 1997. Part 2: The Mothers. In this now classic three-part documentary on Maghrebian immigration to France, Yamina Benguigui weaves together narratives from three different times. She begins by focusing on the first wave of immigrants to France after WW II, male laborers recruited to provide a temporary workforce. In the second and third parts, she chronicles its changing nature, by focusing on the wives who came to join their husbands, and then on the children who were born in France. Through extensive interviews with both immigrants and politicians, interspersed with historical footage, Benguigui's film has been a major contribution to the study of immigration in modern France.
Immigrant Memories	VFR 379 C	*Yamina Benguigui: French (English Subtitles) 1997. Part 3:* The Children. In this now classic three-part documentary on Maghrebian immigration to France, Yamina Benguigui weaves together narratives from three different times. She begins by focusing on the first wave of immigrants to France WW II, male laborers recruited to provide a temporary workforce. In the second and third parts, she chronicles its changing nature, by focusing on the wives who came to join their husbands, and then on the children who were born in France. Through extensive interviews with both immigrants and politicians, interspersed with historical footage, Benguigui's film has been a major contribution to the study of immigration in modern France.
Inch' Allah Dimanche	DVFR 824	Yamima Benguigui: French and Arabic (English Subtitles) 98 Mins. French/Algerian director Yamina Benguigui bring us a passionate immigrant story of a woman struggling against old traditions. Zouina leaves her homeland with her three children to join her husband in France, where he's been living for the past ten years. In a land and culture foreign to her, Zouina struggles against her mother in-law's tyrannical hand and her husband 's distrustful bitterness in an attempt to adjust to her life in exile.
Indochine	VFR 335	Regis Wagner: French (English subtitles) 156 mins. 1992. Regis Wagnier's epic is set during the French occupation of South-East Asia in the 1930's. Catherine Deneuve plays a plantation owner who searches for her adopted Vietnamese daughter Camille (Linh Dan Pham) after the young woman falls in love and becomes a communist revolutionary. 'this intimate and tautly scripted work interweaves layers of deep affection with stirring historical details of 30's French Indochina' (Toronto Festivals of Festivals). Winner of the 1992 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Irma Vep	DVFR 800	Oliver Assayas: French (English subtitles) 96 mins. 1996. Vidal chooses Cheung to play Irma Vep, the leader of a band of jewel thieves. Arriving in Paris unable to speak a word of French, Cheung finds herself stuck in the middle of a stressful situation when the production begins to fall apart and Vidal suffers a nervous breakdown.
J'ai Faim, J'ai Froid (I'm Hungry, I'm Cold) / Saute Ma Ville / Hotel Monterey	VFR 385	Chantal Akerman: French (English subtitles) 82 mins. 1984. AKERMANIA-SHORTER WORKS SHORTER WORKS by Chantal Akerman. "J'AI FAIM, J'AI FROID (I'M HUNGRY, I'M COLD) " Two young Belgian girls run away from home in Brussels. They spend a day and a evening in Paris looking for food and love, with comic and poignant results. Stars Maria de Medeiros (Henry & June) "SAUTE MA VILLE" Belgium/1968/ A young woman (Akerman) comes home to her apartment in Brussels, where she cooks pasta and seals herself in with duct tape. The story end with a bang. Akerman's first film made at the age of 18. "HOTEL MONTEREY" USA/1972/Color A stark, silent look at a N.Y. pension hotel.
Jean de Florette	VFR 304	*Claude Berri: French (English subtitles) 122 mins. 1987.* A marvelous tale of greed and intolerance from the novel by Marcel Pagnol about a city hunchback who inherits a valuable piece of property in rural France only to have his efforts thwarted by the villainy of his venal neighbor. With Gerard Depardieu, Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, Elisabeth Depardieu and Ernestine Mazurownas as little Manon.
Le Jour Se Lève	VFR 364	Marcel Carne's: French (English subtitle) B&W. 88 mins. 1939. Jean Gabin gives a flawless performance as a tough romantic who barricades himself in his apartment after committing a crime of passion. Released just months before the German Occupation, Le Jour Se Leve (Daybreak) is a stunning example of French poetic realism accentuated by rich, expressionistic sets; highly detailed, reoccurring objects; and simplistic dialogue. Through and intense musical score and exact balancing of characters, Marcel Carne projects a powerfully persuasive vision of a world in which love is inevitably crushed by the blind forces of evil. A remarkable cinematic achievement from the director- writer team responsible for the legendary Children of Paradise
The Lady and the Duke	DVFR 809	Erick Rohmer: French (English and Spanish subtitles) 129 mins. 2001. The Lady and the Duke is a suspenseful, visually opulent story based on a true story about an unusual friendship during a dangerous time. From highly acclaimed master director Eric Rohmer (Tales of Four Seasons) starring exceptional talents Lucy Russell 9Following) and Jean-Claude Dreyfus (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children). Beautiful aristocrat Grace Elliott enjoys her comfortable upper-middle class life and warm friendship with her former lover the Duke of Orleans, until the turbulent French Revolution of the 1790s frighteningly begins. Their friendship unravels as Grace risks her life taking a fugitive against the Duke's wishes. Soon, Grace urges the Duke not to make a horrifying decision. But ultimately she's unable to prevent several bloody fates -including the possibility of her own.
The Little Thief	VFR 349	Claude Miller: French (English subtitles) 100 mins. 1989. The story of a female teenage delinquent in France who was reformed by the power of the photographic image. Based on a treatment never filmed by the late director Francois Truffaut and completed by Claude Miller. Story mirrors 400 Blows in tone and subject matter.
Lola Montes	VFR 347	Max Ophuls: French & German (English subtitles) 110 mins. 1955. 0phuls' opulent biography of the famous 19th-century courtesan whose adventures and love affairs with King Ludwig I, Liszt and student are told in flashback from a circus ring by the ring master, Peter Ustinov. Brilliant use of color and cinemascope, breath taking shots and camera movements; Ophuls conjures up a sublime work that is pure cinema.
Love After Love	VFR 387	Diane Kurys: French (English subtitles) 104 mins. 1992. Spanning a year in the life of Lola (Isabelle Huppert), a novelist famous for turning her life into fiction, we follow her loves and the loves of her loves. It is the story of how the 70's generation is dealing with the 90's and the contradiction, often comic, between what we expect of romance and the need from love.
Lumumba	DVFR 811	Roul Peck: French (English subtitles) 115 Mins.2002 Made in the tradition of such true-life political thrillers as MALCOM X and JFK, Raoul Peck's award-winning LUMUMBA is a gripping epic that dramatizes for the first time the rise and fall of legendary African leader Patrice Lumumba. When the Congo declared its independence from Belgium in the 1960, the 36-year-old, self-educated Lumumba became the first Prime Minister of the newly independent state. Called "the politico of the bush" by journalists of the day, he became a lightning rod of Cold War politics as his vision of a united Africa gained him powerful enemies in Belgium and the U.S. Lumumba would last just months in office before being brutally assassinated. Strikingly photographed in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Belgium as civil war.
Madame Bovary	DVFR 817	*Claude Chabrol: French (English & French Subtitles) 143 mins. 1991.* Isabelle Huppert is "ravishingly erotic" (Newsday) as Madame Bovary in acclaimed director Claude Chabrol's masterful adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's novel. An uncompromising portrait of a woman desperate to escape her bourgeois life, Madame Bovary is a "triumphant [and] provocative" (Rolling Stone) tale of passion and destruction. The beautiful and fiercely Emma Bovary (Huppert) is trapped in a loveless marriage with a small-town physician (Jean Francois Balmer). Possessed for a hunger for life and love, Emma pursues scandalous affairs with passionate abandon. But when her equally spending triggers a financial crisis, she must gain control over her behavior before she completely destroys the lives of those around her.
Madame Bovary	VFR 381	Claude Chabrol: French (English subtitles) 1991. It's a mixed blessing, but Claude Chabrol's 1991 adaptation of Madame Bovary can at least claim a proper French pedigree in its fidelity to Flaubert's literary classic, it's certainly more faithful than Madame herself, played here with icy determination by Isabelle Huppert. Frustrated, repressed, and desperate for any opportunity to break free of her numbing marital bondage, the wife of Dr. Bovary finds her chance in the affections of Rodolphe Boulanger (Christophe Malavoy), but she is too shallow and too selfish to sense his lack of commitment. And as Flaubert's tale unfolds (along with Chabrol's dryly accurate interpretation), Emma Bovary finds herself caught in a snare of her own design. This tragedy of self-absorption--a universal study of indulgence, ignominy, and fatal discontent--should prove potent for anyone who feels the oppression of an unhappy marriage, but it's also a compelling study of boredom as an internal phenomenon. Huppert conveys exasperation, passion and self-destruction in equal measure, yet she barely alters passive, blank expression; her performance is too cold to ignite the resonant themes of Flaubert's novel. All in all, one wonders if Chabrol--seemingly uneasy with costume drama--is being too respectful of Flaubert at the cost of his own directorial mastery. This is a prestigious and worthwhile adaptation, but like one of Dr. Bovary's patients, it's being bled to the point of paleness and fainting. The result is a literate film that's "good for you," even though it may not be entirely good. --Jeff Shannon
Madame Bovary	VFR 307	*Jean Renoir: French (English subtitles) B&W. 102 mins. 1934.* Jean Renoir's French version of Flaubert's great novel stars Valentine Tessier 'as an anomalous creature, half swan, half goose. This large woman is not at all what one expects, yet she's surprisingly effective. The sunlight and the spaciousness emphasize Emma's loneliness; she's a middle class woman with an ample figure, drifting along on romantic daydreams.' (Pauline Kael). With Pierre Renoir, Jean's brother, as Charles Bovary, Max Dearly as M. Homais.
Madame Rosa	VFR 329	Moshe Mizrahi: French (English subtitles) 104 mins. 1977. Madame Rosa is an aging Jewish prostitute who earns her living raising other prostitutes' children when they can no longer tend to them. Simone Signoret gives a riveting performance performance as the ailing Holocaust survivor turned prostitute, whose spirit is renewed by her love for an Arab boy abandoned in her care. Their enduring relationship makes this a truly unique and touching love story. With Simone Signoret, Sammy Ben Youb and Claude Dauphin.
Manon of the Spring	VFR 305	Claude Berri: French with English subtitles 113 mins. 1987. Companion film to JEAN De Florette. Emanuelle Beart is the grown-up, revenge seeking daughter of the kindly hunchback who was destroyed by the greed of his neighbors. Yves Montand and his nephew Daniel Auteuil learn the awful truth of their villainy in the conclusion of a classic tale of misinformation and retribution. From the novel by Pagnol
Marius and Jeannette	VFR 368	Robert Guediguian: French (English subtitles) 102 mins. 1996. 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 Jeanette. This quirky romantic comedy is a lyrical and mature chronicle about listening to the music of the heart. Donated by Prof. Cecile Insdorf, Dept. of Romance Languages, May 2000.
Masculin / Feminin	VFR 321	Jean-Luc Godard: French (English subtitles) 103 mins. 1966. A film about Marx and Coca Cola directed by the child of Brecht and Hollywood. Two young lovers attempt to communicate throughout 15 discontinuous, contrapuntal vignettes. Dancing between precision and improvisation, this is one of Godard's most complex films, representing both a search for tenderness and a disheartening foray into the Sex War. With Jean Pierre Leaud, Chantal Goya, and Catherine Isabelle Duport. Donated by Prof. Cecile Insdorf, Dept. of Romance Languages, May 2000.
The Milky Way (La Voie Lactée)	VFR 302	*Luis Bunuel: French (English subtitles) 105 mins. 1969.* Luis Bunuel's outrageous and very funny satire on the Catholic Church and church ritual, and a road movie in its own right. Two tramps on a pilgrimage encounter the Devil, the Virgin Mary, and different arguments about catholic doctrine.
Moliere - Le Misanthrope	VFR 378	Duc/Andry: French. 100 mins. In this hilarious and ironic story, Alceste, a sincere and ingenuous man, finds himself at odds with the artificial and hypocritical milieu of the 17th century royal court. Unfortunately, he falls in love with Celimene, a fashionable young beauty whose coquetry makes her the perfect product of her society. Mistaking her flirtation for an expression of true love, Alceste makes a bid for marriage, only to discover that a clutch of other courtiers have done the same thing. Realizing at last that Celimene's love is a chimera, he determines to live alone, far from the machinations of country life.
Mondo	VFR 383	Tony Gatlif: French (English subtitles) 80 mins. 1994. Homeless in a paradisiacal world of sun and sea, no one knows where Mondo comes from. A gypsy boyof about 10, he appears one day on the streets of Nice, France with an irresistible smile and the question, "Would you like to adopt me?" Hiding from the police while introducing himself to complete strangers, Mondo makes many friends: The Magician, who takes him on as his assistant, Thi-Chin, a Vietnamese woman who offers him shelter, Giordan, a fisherman who teaches him to read with letters drawn on beach stones and Dadi, a veteran of the streets, who is often a companion. Although hardships exist for him, Mondo reveals the sheer beauty of life on earth, a beauty he brings to those he meets as well... until one day he disappears again.
Mon Oncle d'Amerique	VFR 390	Alain Resnais: French ( English Subtitles) 123 mins. 1980. Three lives, three ambitions…Jean, Rene, Janine: two men and a woman from different generations and different backgrounds, whose paths meet at a crisis point in mid-life. Faced with disappointment and frustration, all three muse about a legendary "Uncle in America", a guardian angel who gives them their hearts' desires and tells them exactly what they want to hear. From Alain Resnais, one of France's most acclaimed directors, comes a fascinating story about the roots of human behavior.
Monsieur Ibrahim	DVFR 821	François Dupeyron: French (English Subtitles) 95 mins. Monsieur Ibrahim is an elderly widower who owns a grocery store in a shabby, working-class section of Paris. His life takes on new meaning when he befriends Momo, a lonely teenage boy (Pierre Boulanger). In Ibrahim, Momo finds the father he never had, a patient man infused with kindness and a wisdom that he freely shares. And Momo awakens within Ibrahim a taste for grand adventure, which takes them on a journey that will change their lives forever.
Monsieur Lazhar	DVFR 830	*Philippe Falardeau. French (English subtitles) 94 Mins. 2012.* Monsieur Lazhar tells the moving and poignant story of a Montreal middle school class shaken by the death of their well-liked teacher, and the 55-year-old Algerian immigrant who offers his services as a substitute teacher and aids the process of collective healing.
My Father's Glory	VFR 339	Yves Robert: French (English subtitles) 110 mins.1991. An 11-year old boy spends an enchanting summer in the rugged French country side with his family. The experience becomes a turning point in his young life and cements his relationship with his father. From the novel by Marcel Pagnol, a gorgeous film starring Philippe Caubere and Nathalie Roussel.
My Life to Live	VFR 391	Jean-Luc Godard: French (English Subtitles) 85 mins. 1962. My Life To Live is a meditation on the nature of existence. It contemplates the soul of its heroine, living her life in the cafes, streets, and hotel rooms which make up her world. The film has thriller -novelette basis-the story of Nana, a girl who leaves her husband and child , turns to casual prostitution, meets a pimp and becomes a professional and tries to quit because she falls in love. My Life To Live is arranged into a series of haphazard incidents. It is one of Godard's most richly paradoxical works and perhaps the most beautifully designed of all his films.
My Mother's Castle	VFR 336	Yves Robert: French (English subtitles) 117 mins.1991. In the companion film to My Father's Glory, a boy continues his love affair with the wild country of southern France. Through frequent family visits to their summer home, he learns to love and understand his mother's true nature. The heartfelt conclusion to the story by Marcel Pagnol.
Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud	VFR 376	Claude Sautet: French (English subtitles) 103mins. 1995. Renowned director Claude Sautet reunites with his UN COEUR EN HIVER star Ennanuelle Beart in this engaging romance of longing and denial, reminiscent of Krzysztof Kieslowski's RED. The stunning Beart plays Nelly, a disheartened young Parisian with marriage and financial troubles. Introduced to the wealthy Arnaud by a mutual friend, Nelly agrees to assist him in his memoirs. The unlikely couple initially develop a playful flirtation: Arnaud is immediately captivated by Nelly's radiant beauty and Nelly by Arnaud's brusque air of dignity and sophistication. This budding relationship is threatened when Nelly becomes involved with Arnaud's charming editor (Jean-Hughes Anglade of LA FEMME NIKITA and KILLING ZOE ). What follows is a succession of near-misses and might-have-beens that frame the hesitations and sudden pleasures of unexpected love. NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD features brilliantly nuanced performances from Beart (MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, MANON OF THE SPRING, LA BELLE NOISEUSE) and Serrault (LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, DIABOLIQUE) in this poignant love story where the greatest emotions are often revealed only through glances and gestures. Donated by Prof. Cecile Insdorf, Dept. of Romance Languages, May 2000.
The Nun (La Religiese)	VFR 359	Jacques Rivette's: French (English subtitles) 155 mins. 1966. Originally banned by the French government, acclaimed French New Wave director Jacques Rivette's adaptation of Diderot's classic 18th century novel explores with poetic simplicity the moving tale of a 16 year old girl who is forced by her mother to enter a convent. Suzanne, played by the exceptional Anna Karina, is persuaded by a kind Mother Superior soon dies and Suzanne meets with the rigors and abuses of her harsh successor. Her desperate attempts at freedom land her first in another convent, and then finally, though with tragic ends, in the outside world. Despite the controversy over its release, THE NUN is less and indictment of religious order than a condemnation of the repressiveness of the 18th Century society- a society in which women had two choices addictated by their families: marriage or the convent.
Orpheus (Orphee)	VFR 355	*Jean Cocteau: French (English subtitles) B&W. 86 mins.1949.* Crafted by one of this century's most revered artists, Orpheus is a film whose beauty defies description. The viewer stands transfixed in a world where fantasy is as tangible as reality. This dazzling centerpiece to Cocteau's Orphic trilogy (Blood of a Poet, The Testament of Orpheus) is perhaps his greatest work. Venice Film Festival, Best Direction; La Critique International, Grand Prix.
Overseas (Outremer)	VFR 382	Brigitte Roüan: French (English subtitles) 96 mins. 1992. This stunning Cannes award-winning film features three beautiful sisters caught 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. The movie presents the sisters' stories from three distinct perspectives -each more graphically revealing the startling truth about events that will forever alter their lives. Overseas is a film of sensual beauty and Mediterranean passion.
Paris Belongs to Us	VFR 327	Jacques Rivette: French (English subtitles) 138 mins. 1958-60. Shot on weekends, with no money and no sets, with actors donating their time and Chabrol providing left-over film stock, this film concerns a group of amateurs who come together in Paris to stage a performance of Shakespeare's Pericles. But sexual and political tensions develop, the composer dies, the producer kills himself, and a fascist conspiracy seems to be lurking in the background. The result of Rivette's two year struggle is a work of total originality and inventiveness, of amazing depth and independence of vision.
Phedre	VFR 362	Peierre Jordan: French (English subtitles) 92 mins. 1984. According to Greek legend, Theseus returned from war with the Minoans on Crete to become king of Athens and took Phedre, the daughter of the vanquished King Minos to be his wife. Phedre fell in love with the King's son, Hippolyte, but he did not return the love, prefering one his own age. Phedre caused her husband, the King, to be wrongly jealous of his son and prayed to Neptune to destroy him. When Hippolyte was in fact killed after fighting a sea monster, Phedre killed herself in remorse. Starting with this basic legend, Jean Racine, the dramatist considers 'the most French of French writers', adapted the story for the stage in 1677. His pure Alexandrine verse, realistically portraying the characters, has lead to a continuing appreciation of his works. Marie Bell, thought of so highly by the contemporary French author and statesmen Malraux, possesses a classic background in keeping with the purity of the legend and tradition of the French adaptation. A member of the Comedie Francaise since 1928, she began her film career in 1924 and was a remarkably a well-preserved 68 years old when she undertook the portrayal of this tragic figure. Her decoration for valor in the French Underground during the war was the Legion of Honor, awarded by General DeGualle himself. Phedre therefore, comes with a French pedigree as authentic as the Eiffel Tower. A powerful film of human emotion in the style of a classic Greek tragedy. Cinema for the intellect indeed.
Pickpocket	VFR 373	Robert Bresson: French (English subtitles) B&W 75 mins. 1959. Robert Bresson's masterpiece is a magnificent drama about a thief: his techniques, motives and secret existence. Loosely based on Dostoevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, it tells the compelling story of an insignificant man who drifts into crime. Michel, a melancholy and sensitive young man, is moved by an irresistible compulsion and begins stealing at the racetrack and on the subway. He develops a methodical study of the black art of pick- pocketing, associating with other thieves and practicing his techniques with others. When he provokes a sympathetic police investigator who had been following his movements, Michel flees from Paris. Returning several years later, he finds redemption and love in Jeanne, a young woman who once cared for his mother. -Donated by Prof. Cecile Insdorf, Dept. of Romance Languages, May 2000.
Pierrot Le Fou	DVFR 804	Jean-Luc Godard: French (English subtitles) 110 mins. 1965. Hailed as Jean-Luc Godard's most popular film since Breathless, Pierrot Le Fou, captures the 60's French cool that only Godard could create. After attending a mindless party full of shallow chatter, Ferdinard feels his mundane world is closing in on him. Desperately wanting to escape, he finds himself in the arms of another woman. Unaware that Marianna's dark past still haunts her, they take off for the pictures South of France. What proceeds is a roller coaster ride filled worth passion, desperation and regret as these two lovers meet their final fate.
Le Plaisir	VFR 348	*Max Ophuls: French B&W (English subtitles) 94 mins. 1952.* Max Ophuls' ironic, humorous trilogy of De Maupassant short stories stars some of France's greatest stars. The three tales are Le Masque, in which an old man rediscovers his youth by wearing a mask; La Maison Tellier, in which a group of prostitutes go on an annual holiday trip to the country; and La Modele, in which an artist who makes mistresses out of his models marries one when she cripples herself while trying to commit suicide.
Police	VFR 374	Maurice Pialat: French (English subtitles) 113 mins. 1985. Gerard Depardieu (GREEN CARD) stars as a tough romantic cop living on the edge in Maurice Pialat's exciting crime drama POLICE. While investigating a North African drug ring, he falls in love with a sullen, voluptuous suspect and struggles to reconcile his personal ethics with his growing passion for her. As this dark love story unwinds, it becomes clear that good and evil, cops and crooks not only coexist but are intimately engaged in a deadly embrace. Donated by Prof. Cecile Insdorf, Dept. of Romance Languages, May 2000.
La Promesse	VFR 366	Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne: French (English subtitles) 93 mins. 1996. Hailed by critics everywhere as one of the top ten films of the year, The Promise, is the extraordinary story of a boy's ascendance to grace. Under the conscienceless guidance of his father (Olivier Gourmet as Roger), fifteen-year old Igor appears destined to a life of petty crime. All changes, however, when Igor delivers an uncompromising promise to Hamidou -an immigrant who while working illegally for Roger accidentally falls to his death. As Roger scrambles to cover-up the accident, Igor suddenly finds himself torn between his loyalty to Roger and the agreement he made with Hamidou. Suspicious of Roger's motivation and intimately drawn to the heart of his promise, Igor must choose between his love for his father and the demands of his awakening conscience. Donated by Prof. Cecile Insdorf, Dept. of Romance Languages, May 2000.
Queen Margot	VFR 344	Patrice Chereau: French (English subtitles) 144 mins. 1994. Winner of five Cesar Awards, Patrice Chereau's stylish, realistic adaptation of Alexander Duma's tale is set during the Catholic Protestant wars of 16th-century France. Isabelle Adjani plays Margot, the unwilling daughter of Catherine de Medici (Virna Lisi in a Cannes Festival-winning role), who is married to Protestant leader King Henry of Navarre (Daniel Auteuil). In the film Chereau creates a non-stop series of betrayals, intrigues, plots, poisonings, love affairs and executions as Margot falls for a common soldier (Vincent Perez).
Red	VFR 333	*Krysztof Kieslowski: French (English subtitles) 99 mins.1994.* Kieslowski's striking conclusion of this Three Colors trilogy stars Irene Jacob as a model, separated from her lover, who is brought by accident into the life of the aging Jean-Louis Trintignant, retired judge and electronic peeping Tom. As Irene slowly uncovers her lover's secret life, she discovers that her own past is inevitably linked to her destiny. With Jean- Pierre Lorit and Frederique Feder.
The Red and the Black	VFR 337	Claude Autant-Lara: French (English subtitles) 134 mins.1957. Stendhal's The Red and The Black stands a landmark in international literature, initiating the psychological realism that dominated the 19th century novel. Director Claude Lara's faithful screen adaptation, preserving much of Stendhal's original dialogue, has received international acclaim of its own. The struggle of ambitious, amoral Julien Sorel to rise within the rigid social order of post-Napoleontic France is a story brought vividly to life in this spectacular production. With Gerard Philippe, Danielle Darieux.
Rendevous in Paris	VFR 372	*Eric Rohmer: French (English Subtitles) 100 mins. 1995.* A witty, enchanting comedy about the complications of love, Rendezvous In Paris follows three young couples as they face the vanities, cruelties and deceptions of their romantic entanglements. Through the picturesque cafes and parks of springtime Paris, New Wave master Eric Rohmer (Boyfriends and Girlfriends, Pauline at the Beach) once again displays his unique take on the follies and treacheries of the human heart. Donated by Prof. Cecile Insdorf, Dept. of Romance Languages, May 2000.
The Return of Martin Guerre	VFR 338	Daniel Vigne: French (English subtitles) 123 mins.1982. Dramatization of an extraordinary imposture that took place in the 16th century and became a legend; the husband leaves his family and years later, returns. He re-integrates himself into family and community, but then serious doubts spring up about his identity. Is he the real Martin Guerre? With Gerard Depardieu, Nathalie Baye.
Ridicule	DVFR 826	Patrice Leconte: French (English Subtitles) 103 mins. Nominated for an Academy Award (Best Foreign Language Film,1996 and honored by critics as of the Year's 10 Best Motion Pictures, RIDICULE is an exceptionally entertaining tale of passion and deceit! In a desperate quest to save his hometown, a young man quickly learns that a sharp wit is the key to open any door in the Versailles court of Louis XVI! But his mission is complicated when he finds himself locked in a dangerous triangle with two very seductive ladies: a sophisticated older woman who can help him... and an innocent young beauty with nothing to offer but her love! Wickedly funny humor and outstanding performances highlight this must-see triumph!
La Ronde	VFR 393	Max Ophuls: French (English subtitles) 97 mins. B&W 1950. Set in dimly lit parlors and boudoirs, Max Ophuls' wonderfully wicked film pulls the viewer onto a carousel of romance. In ten timeless sketches adapted from Arthur Schnitzler's play Reigen, a charming corss section of society persues passion in turn-of-the-century Vienna. Leading a glittering international cast, Antoo Walbrook (The Red Shoes) acts as the ringmaster who smoothly ties the humorously risqué tales together. The film's merry-go-round feel, heightened by Ophuls' legendary camera movements and Oscar Straus' waltzes, comments exquisitely on the fleeing nature of physical love. Once deemed "immoral" by U.S. critics. La Ronde is a delightful satire on sexual behavior.
Russian Dolls	DVFR 825	Cédric Klapisch: French (English subtitles) 129 Mins.
Scarlet and Black - Part 1	VENG 345 A	*Ben Bolt: English, 208 mins. 2000.* Handsome, brilliant and ambitious, Julien Sorel is a man of affairs in every sense. Determined to fulfill his lust for power and wealth, he believes that if one is to rise in society that the route no longer lies in the Army (the `scarlet') but rather in the Church (the `black'). An irresistible story of love, politics and manners. Julien is sent by his mentor, Father Chelan, to work as a tutor for the children of the influential Monsieur De Renal. Julien is loved by the children and household, however, it is the love shown to him by Madame De Renal which has the most bearing upon his stay with the family and life thereafter.
Scarlet and Black - Part 2	VENG 345 B	Ben Bolt: English, 208 mins. 2000. Handdsome, brilliant and ambitious, Julien Sorel, is a man of affairs in every sense. Determined to fulfill his lust for power and wealth, he believes that if one is to rise in society that the route no longer lies in the Army (the `scarlet') but rather in the Church (the `black'). An irresistible story of love, politics and manners. Julien is sent by his mentor, Father Chelan, to work as a tutor for the children of the influential Monsiuer De Renal. Julien is loved by the children and household, however, it is the love shown to him by Madame De Renal which has the most bearing upon his stay with the family and life thereafter.
A Single Girl	DVFR 806	Philippe Carcassonne: French (English subtitles) 90 mins. 1996. This intimate drama shows a day in the life of a young Parisian woman named Valerie played by Virginie Ledoyen (The Beach). Before her first day at work as a room service waitress at a four star hotel, Valerie reveals to her boyfriend, Remi (Benoit Magimel) that she is four weeks pregnant. Shot in real time, we follow Valerie around as she meditates on the paths of human nature she crosses, sometimes comic, sometimes hostile, which lead her to make important decisions about her future.
Sitcom	VFR 371	Francois Ozon: French (English subtitles) 80 mins. 1997. I'll never forget the day my father brought it home. I mean, I can understand Mom's distaste for such a pet, however domesticated it was, but who could have ever suspected such unbound horror from this cute little animal. Through its gaze my younger brother found the courage to declare his homosexuality to our family - whether he believed it to be true or not. At first this didn't seem to cause much concern, until my mother tried to 'convert' him back by forcing her own sexual impulses on him. I, on the other hand, ended up a suicidal paraplegic dominatrix who tried to seduce my father before his twisted admiration for the rat changed him too, literally. Donated by Prof. Cecile Insdorf, Dept. of Romance Languages, May 2000.
The Sorrow and the Pity	VENG 340	Marcel Ophuls: English, 260 minutes. Marcel Ophuls' monumental documental covering the German occupation of France during World War II. Through poignant interviews and stark newsreel footage, Ophuls creates a sense of living history. 'A magnificent epic on the themes of collaboration and assistance. There's nothing comparable to [it]' (Pauline Kael).
The Story of Adele H	VFR 325	Francois Truffaut: French (English subtitles) 97 mins. 1975. In 1863, the beautiful young daughter of the world-famous writer Victor Hugo crosses the Atlantic in desperate pursuit of the man she believes is her fiancé, her lover, her destiny. For months and years she waits for him, throws herself in his path. Finally, her intensity gives way to madness. Truffaut called this film an autopsy of passion.
Sugar Cane Valley (La Rue Cases-Negres)	VFR 328	Euzan Palcy: French (English subtitles) 107 mins. 1985. Euzan Palcy's lyrical village drama set in French-occupied 1930s Martinique. The story examines the relationship of a determined, impoverished 11-year-old and his equally difficult and shrewd grandmother, who sacrifices everything for the boy's happiness. With Darling Legitimus, Gary Cadenat, Routa Seck and Joby Bernabe.
A Sunday in the Country	VFR 357	Bertrand Tavernier: French (English subtitles) 94 mins. 1984. Alive with the subtle brush strokes of an artist at the top of his form, Bertrand Tavernier's acclaimed A Sunday In The Country is a lovingly photographed and exquisitely acted portrait of French family life on the brink of World War 1.The film was one of the major works to seal Tavernier's reputation in the United States, along with THE CLOCKMAKER, COUP DE TORCHON, 'ROUND MIDNIGHT and more recently CAPITAINE CONAN. Kino is proud to present it here in a letter-boxed, newly remastered version.
The Swindle	VFR 367	Claude Chabrol: French (English subtitles) 105 mins. 1997. Mysterious relationships, suspenseful double-crosses, vicious gangsters and deft humor fill this witty and elegantly woven tale of intrigue. Victor and Betty have established a very comfortable life together as two small-time con artists who specialize in bilking ordinary people out of their money. For year, Victor's well-planned scams have managed to keep them out of trouble. Betty's growing desire for the less mundane begins to threaten their success. Bettyreveals that, for the past year, she has been secretly wooing the perfect target -a handsome executive (Maurice) who also works as a courier for money- laundering mobsters. Using the prospect of millions to lure Victor into her con, Betty arranges what she thinks is the perfect shakedown. Playing both men against one another each other, she initiates a tricky three-cornered game of double-cross that leads from a Swiss resort to a Caribbean island, where the stakes get higher and the game turns into more than she bargained for. Donated by Prof. Cecile Insdorf, Dept. of Romance Languages, May 2000.
La Symphonie Pastorale	VFR 334	*Jean Delannoy: French (English subtitles) 105 mins. 1946.* This sensitive adaptation of Andre Gide's introspective novel is precisely constructed, brilliantly acted, and beautifully photographed. Set in a mountain village, the emotionally complex story follows the spiritual growth and decline of its two lead characters, a well-meaning pastor and the blind orphan he takes into his home. Initially, the minister is guided by Christian principles to raise the orphan, Gertrude, with fatherly love, but as she grows into a beautiful woman, he is driven by a passion that destroys the happiness of his wife and son. With Michele Morgan and Pierre Blanchar. Black and white.
Tartuffe	VFR 361	*Gerard Depardieu: French (English subtitles) 135 mins. 1984.* In his first directorial effort, Gerard Depardieu (GREEN CARD, UNDER THE SUN OFSATAN, CYRANO) breaths new life into Moliere's masterpiece about religious and sexual hypocrisy. Inspired by a stage production directed by Jacques Lassalle of the Theater National de Strasburg, Depardieu takes bold chances, underscoring Moliere's satiric wit, poetic language and profound comic insights into human greed and delusion. Events unfold when a rich merchant falls under the spell of a charismatic religious zealot. Gerard Depardieu's TARUFFE is a powerful manipulator, charming his way into the merchant's household, making passes at the master's wife and wreaking havoc with his daughter's engagement party. Pushed to their limits, the entire family conspires to expose the impostor. Gerard Depardieu stars with a dazzling cast, including his wife, Elisabeth and renowned classical actor, Francois Perier.
The Taste of Others	VFR 389	Agnès Jaoui: French (English Subtitles) 112 mins. 2000. Fun, sexy and richly rewarding, The Taste of Others earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Foreign Language Film (2000)! The lives and loves of several completely opposite men and women artfully intersect in what becomes a delightfully funny web of romantic entanglements! While negotiating differences in wealth and status, style and taste, this vivid collection of characters mix and match in outrageously volatile combinations! Internationally acclaimed for its sexy comic sophistication-expect the unexpected from this uncommonly entertaining motion picture!
That Obscure Object of Desire	VFR 324	Luis Bunuel: French (English subtitles) 104 mins. 1977. A final masterpiece from Bunuel, in which he uses two actresses playing one role to illustrate the unfathomable nature of sexual obsession. Fernando Rey stars. Nominated for Two Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Film.
Three Lives and Only One Death	VFR 375	Raoul Ruiz: French (English subtitles) 123 mins. 1997. Marcello MastroianniI stars as Banker/Armsdealer Luc Allamand in a surrealistic shell game during which the primary players remain a mystery to each other. Fitting together the pieces to this clever puzzle, Luc's tangled life takes us on a dynamic journey through the live of his adversaries: Mateo Strano, a traveling salesman who leaves home for a pack of cigarettes and returns to his wife twenty-years later; Pat Vickers, a world famous professor of Negative Anthropology who chooses to moonlight as a homeless panhandler while his lover (Anna Galiena as Tania) splits her time running a large corporation with her need to explore eroticism as a high class call girl; and an opulent butler whose manipulation of Luc's daughter (Chiara MastroianniI) will lead to the games tragic conclusion in a small French cafe. In the tradition of a Nathaniel Hawthorne novel with a hint of Bunuel and Borges, Raoul Ruiz's fairy tale mixes comedy and suspense in this fictional examination of man- kind's capacity to host a multitude of identities. Donated by Prof. Cecile Insdorf, Dept. of Romance Languages, May 2000.
Three Men and a Cradle	VFR 346	*Coline Serreau: French (English subtitles) 106 mins. 1985.* One of the funniest French films in recent years, an unlikely story of three confirmed bachelors who receive a six-month-old roommate. This little bundle of joy can turn into a big bundle of trouble, and chaos of a hilarious kind ensues.
To Be and to Have	DVFR 820	French (English Subtitles) 104 mins. France's highest grossing documentary of all times is an intimate and touching portrait of life inside an one-room schoolhouse in a rural French Village and one of the most emotionally gratifying films about teaching ever made. At the center of the story, and now an international celebrity, is George López -a remarkably devoted teacher responsible for nurturing a dozen children ages 3-11 in all their school subjects and life lessons-. Whether mediating fights flipping omelets, or discussing a father's illness with a trouble student, López upholds a firm, but gentle paternal approach. This incredible film demonstrates how a teacher, if well trained, dedicated and sensitive to a child's educational and emotional needs, can hugely influence a generation of children at their most critical time of development.
Two English Girls	DVFR 808	Francois Truffaut: French (English subtitles) 130 mins 1971 . A darkly beautiful love story centering around one man's (Jean-Pierre Léaud) romantic affairs with two sisters (Kika Markham and Stacey Tendeter). Anne (Markham) originally intends Claude (Léaud) to fall in love with her younger sister Muriel (Tendeter). However, when Anne starts developing feelings for Claude, complications between the three arise. Based on a novel by Henri-Pierre Roché (Jules and Jim), Two English Girls explores the sensitive and painful story of an emotionally charged love triangle.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg	DVFR 803	Catherine Deneuve: French (English subtitles) 91 mins. 1990. A long unseen triumph in cinematic beauty, Jacques Demy's 1964 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize Winner is available for the first time in this digitally remastered fully restored version. Dazzling sets brought to life by revolutionary use of color and music by Academy Award winner Micheal Legrand's classic unforgettable soundtrack (every word of dialogue id sung!), make this bittersweet love story one of the most beautiful films of all time. Catherine Deneuve stars in this ageless fairytale of doomed love. The restoration, long thought to you as a loving tribute by Denny's widow, filmmaker Agnes Varda. Composer Micheal Legrand produced the new Dolby stereo mixing.
Under the Roofs of Paris	VFR 322	Rene Clair: French (English subtitles) 87 mins. 1930. Clair's poetic exploration of Parisian life evokes characters' follies with shabby little garrets, cobblestoned streets, bistros, boudoirs and jails, all recreated within the studio. Also notable is Clair's adventuresome use of music.
The Wanderer	VFR 345	*Jean-Gabriel Albicocco: French (English subtitles) 108 mins. 1967.* Alain Fournier's classic novel, Le Grand Meaulnes, is interpreted by Albicocco with fantastic imaginary and stunning color-in a remarkable recreation of a child's memories and examination of his transition from romantic, idealistic youth to clear-eyed adult. With Jean Blaise and Brigitte Fossey.
When the Cat's Away	VFR 356	Cedric Klapisch: French (English subtitles) 91 mins. 1997. WHEN THE CAT'S AWAY is a purr-fect romantic comedy about a beautiful girl, her missing pet and her search for true love in Paris. Featuring a dazzling Parisian backdrop and a hip, acid-jazz soundtrack, When The Cat's Away is 'wonderfully funny, and touching and unforgettable!'
White	VFR 332	Krysztof Kieslowski: French And Polish (English subtitles) 92 mins. 1993. The second part of Kieslowski's Blue-White-Red trilogy, based on the concepts of the French tri-color. A Polish man's life disintegrates when his new French bride deserts him after only six months. Forced to begin anew, he returns to Poland and plans a clever scheme of revenge against her. July Delpy is great as the young wife.

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