Filmography France and French Speaking Countries
The videos contained in the list are produced in France, Canada, or other French speaking countries or are about France or about other French speaking country. For further information on a title please use the online catalog or feel free to contact Cindy Badilla-Melendez, the Media Resources Librarian or call (651) 962-5464.
Titles in French are for videos in French with English subtitles. English titles are for videos in English.
- France - History - Documentaries
- African Feature Films
- Canadian Films
- French Feature Films
- Other Films
FRANCE- HISTORY- DOCUMENTARIES
L'ancien Regime: DC125 .A53 2004 DVD
Louis XIV was both the first and the last absolute monarch. This program shows Versailles and its political purpose and the arbitrary applications of despotism: revocation of the Edict of Nantes, deportation of Huguenots, persecution of Jansenists, and the relationship between the king and the Church which gave rise to the anti-clericalism of the Revolution. When Louis XIV died, new political concepts were swirling about. The program covers the echo of Montesquieu, conflicts between the parliaments and the king, the Encyclopedie, the ideas of Voltaire and Rousseau, and the satires of Beaumarchais. Amidst the intellectual and political turmoil, financial difficulties beset the crown and Louis XVI convoked the Etats-Generaux, which had not met since 1614.
Au dela de la Haine: HV6250.4.H66 A9 2008 DVD
An in-depth look at the murder of a young gay man, who was taunted before being viciously beaten and thrown in a pond, where he drowned, by three French skinheads. Explores the social and psychological roots of homophobia and other hate crimes.
Cathedral: NA5543 .C38 1988
Tells the story of the construction of Notre Dame de Beaulieu, a fictional gothic cathedral in medieval France. Since the construction techniques that are demonstrated, such as building with flying buttresses and stained glass, are no longer used in the modern world, this program clearly illustrates to a contemporary audience how all the parts of this process came together to make an entire cathedral.
Charles de Gaulle: DC373.G3 C4 1995
Historical biography of Charles de Gaulle and the role he played in World War II.
Chateaux of the Loire: DC611.L81 C43 1984
History and views of chateaux of the Loire Valley. The gardens and interiors of fourteen castles and manor houses show the evolution of the feudal chateau into the Renaissance country house. Includes Chinon, Angers, Loches, Saumur, Ussbe, Chambord, Blois, Chenonceaux, and others.
Chats Perches = the Case of the Grinning Cat: ND2748.P3 C5 2004 DVD
In November 2001, Chris Marker became intrigued by the sudden appearance of grinning yellow cat paintings on Paris buildings and began to document them , as well as other incidents and protests in the city of Paris while he filmed. The creator is eventually revealed to be an art collective known as Mr. Chat.
Un Chien Andalou: PN1997 .C45 1990
Un chien andalou (16 min.) consists of a surrealistic series of incidents. Land without bread (27 min.) is a documentary on the poverty-stricken Las Hurdas region of Spain.
Danton: DC146.D2 D3 1999
Georges Danton, the popular revolutionary leader, returns to Paris at a time when the new Republic is in disarray. Robespierre and his allies have set up a monstrous dictatorship, beginning the infamous "Reign of Terror." Danton pleads with the people for an end to the bloodshed which violates the spirit of their revolution.
De Gaulle and France: DC373.G3 D4 1992 pt.1 - pt.2
A vivid portrait of Charles de Gaulle as a person and as one of the giants of 20th century political leadership. Combines rare archival footage and candid interviews with men and women whose lives intersected that of the great military officer, politician, statesman, orator and chronicler of history.
Discovering France: DC29.3 .D57 2002 DVD
Explore the country where love, art and pleasure are considered national treasures. Visit the northern regions, with stops at Chartres Cathedral and Normandy's World War II battleground. See Paris, the "city of light," and the royal palace at Versailles. Tour the vineyards of Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux. Watch French chefs prepare mouth-watering delicacies. View the spectacular French Alps and the pastoral region of Provence.
La Diversite Culturelle: au Coeur de Bull: HD62.4 D58 1990
Employees of Bull Worldwide Information Systems discuss business and cultural practices in France and the United States.
10e Chambre: Instants d'audiences: KJW3573.46.D5 D5 2006 DVD
The subtle details of human behavior and the issues of guilt, innocence, law enforcement, and racial perceptions are highlighted in this unprecedented look inside the French legal system.
The Eiffel Tower: NA2930 .E34 1994
This historical tour of the world's most fabled and famous tower begins with the engineer behind it, Gustave Eiffel. When it was first built, just over a century ago, it provoked outrage and ire. The challenges and breakthroughs of its construction are examined.
Eternal France: DC29.3 .E84 1990
A feast for the eyes -- tour of France from Paris to the countryside. Looks at the culture and artistry of the country -- the Normandy Coast, cathedrals, glass and lace making, Loire Valley chateaux among other sights.
The Europeans: CB203 .E97 2003 v.1-7 DVD
A seven-part series providing a study of the major epochs in European history from the Greeks and Romans to the fall of communism.
The French Revolution: Impact & Sources: DC148 .F74 2004 DVD
In this program, historians examine a selection of primary sources with which to consider the impact of the French revolution. Among the documents are examples of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary money and petitions of grievances from 1789, which give a minutely detailed record of the common man's problems.
The French Revolution: Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite, a New Republic Is Born in Blood: DC148 .F75 2005 DVD
...encapsulates this heady (and often headless) period in Western civilization...vividly unfurls in a maelstrom of violence. King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Maximilien Robespierre, and Napoleon Bonaparte lead a cast of thousands.
French Style in Ads: PC2066 .F74 2004 DVD
This program demonstrates the enormous range and variety of the uses of television advertising in France, using extensive footage from actual advertisements. Analysis are provided by producers, directors, and members of the '89 Cannes Broadcast Commercial jury, together with interviews with those responsible for sponsoring, commissioning, evaluating, creating and producing television commercials.
Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse: HD1945 .G53 2002 DVD
Varda's most recent effort-- the first filmed with a digital videocamera-- focuses on gleaners, those who gather the spoils left after a harvest, as well as those who mine the trash. Some completely exist on the leavings; others turn them into art, exercise their ethics, or simply have fun. The director likens gleaning to her own profession-that of collecting images, stories, fragments of sound, light, and color.
The Impressionists: ND547.5.I4 I4 2001 v.1-4 DVD
The success that had long eluded the Impressionists finally arrived in 1886, but they had to cross the Atlantic to find it. That year, Durand-Ruel, the dealer who had championed them since opening his gallery in 1871, arranged for a showing of their work in New York City. It proved to be the breakthrough they had long sought. Just a few years, their paintings were finally selling in France, and they were at last able to enjoy the rewards of their long labors.
The Internationale: M1977.P75 I5 2005 DVD In English
Using rare archival footage and performances and interviews with Billy Bragg, Pete Seeger, and other historians, musicians and activists, this film tells the story of this 100-year-old anthem of the oppressed and exploited, and celebrates the relationship between music and social change. The film explores the song's impact, from the Paris Commune to the Soviet Union, from Jamaica to Tiananmen Square. Focusing on individuals from a Spanish Civil War veteran, a labor activist, a student leader of the Tiananmen Square protests and others who describe the emotional reaction they have when they hear the notes which still unite those who are part of the international movement for justice and equality.
Jean Paul Sartre & Simone de Beauvoir: PQ2637.A82 J4 2005 DVD
In this rare 1967 documentary... Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir intimately discuss their work, their lives, and the role of public intellectuals in modern society. Having always refused to be interviewed together for French TV, for this film they agreed to appear together for the first time, and to talk to Canadian journalist Madeleine Gobeil and Les Temps Modernes editor Claude Lanzmann. Filmed in his Montparnasse apartment, Sartre discusses, among other things, his reasons for refusing the Nobel Prize in Literature, the moral as well as sociological reasons for his opposition to the Vietnam War, and the seeming contradiction between such political involvements and his then-current project on Flaubert. Simone de Beauvoir takes us onto the Paris streets to show us her birthplace, childhood school, and cafes where she and Sartre met with friends and colleagues. She discusses her memoirs as well as such influential books as The Second Sex, and passionately expounds on her ongoing commitment to women's liberation
Joan of Arc: DC103 .J63 2000 DVD In English
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
The story of a 15th century French peasant girl who rouses a nation and inspires the world with her faith and bravery. This powerful, visually stunning epic of one of history's fascinating heroines features spectacular action and unforgettable drama.
Joan of Arc Child of War, Soldier of God: DC103 .J63 2005 DVD
Joan of Arc's story is viewed through her own eyes and told through her own words. Based on the actual testimonies of the legendary peasant-girl-turned-soldier.
Living Memory: Six Sketches of Mali Today: DT551.4 .L58 2003 In French and English
A documentary about Mali's ancient culture and the place of that culture in the modern country. The film is constructed in six sections: ritual arts, culture on display, style, architecture, contemporary artists and music.
The Louvre: a Golden Prison: N2030 .L68 1989
Charles Boyer presents the history of the building that is the Louvre, the persons who lived in it, built it and remodeled it; discusses significant historical events and shows some of the art treasures housed in the Louvre.
Le Malentendu Colonial: BV3625.N42 M3 2004 DVD In French with English subtitles
This documentary looks at European colonialism in Africa through the lens of Christian evangelism, in the 19th and 20th centuries, as a model for the relationship between Africa and western countries today. The history of German missionaries, specifically in the 1904 genocide of the Herero people, is also discussed by African and German historians and theologians, revealing how colonialism destroyed African beliefs and social systems and replaced them with European ones. The film also focuses on the role of African Christians in Namibia's struggle for independence in 1990.
Marcel Proust: Remembrance of Things Past: PQ2631.R63 A5 2007 DVD
Dramatization of part seven of Marcel Proust's masterpiece, in which narrator Marcel attends a reception for the new Princesse de Guermantes and discovers his life's true vocation in the process. This dramatization is accompanied by interviews with Professor Michel Butor, of Geneva University, and translator Terence Kilmartin, that analyze the novel's philosophical exploration of time, memory, and individual creativity.
Marcel Proust: a Writer's Life: PQ2631.R63 Z4 2002 DVD
The documentary is an introduction to the life and work of Marcel Proust, with emphasis on his struggle to create the 3,000-page masterpiece "Remembrance of Things Past" (A la recherche du temps perdu). Through the use of rare archival footage, dramatizations of key scenes from Proust's life, and interviews with writers Dame Iris Murdoch, Shelby Foote, and writer-critic Roger Shattuck, this program places Proust's personal struggles and accomplishments in a historical context.
Les Monuments de Paris: PC2065 .M66 1997
Explores the sites and architectural masterpieces of the capital of France. Learns the history of these famous monuments of Paris.
Le Mystère Picasso: N6853.P5 M9 2003 DVD In French with English subtitles
Explores the mind and motivations of Pablo Picasso as he creates twenty works before the camera. Using a specially designed transparent 'canvas' to provide an unobstructed view, Picasso creates as the camera records. He begins with simple works and progresses to more complex paintings, in which he repeatedly adds and removes elements, transforming the entire scene, until at last the work is complete.
Napoleon: DC203 .N37 2001 DVD
Framed by the grand sweep of history, woven from intimate accounts of and by the man himself, this program is a tale as grand as any novel, a story of passion, vaunting ambition, and pride ending in exile and loss.
Napoleon's Last Great War: DC226.4 .N37 1986
Lecture by A.J.P. Taylor on the end of the Napoleonic Wars, from Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 to his defeat at Waterloo in 1815.
Napoleon: Soldier, Emperor, Lover, Statesman: DC203 .N37 2000 v.1-2
For nearly two decades he strode the world stage like a colossus--loved and despised, venerated and feared. From his birth on the rugged island of Corsica to his final exile on the godforsaken island of St. Helena, 'Napoleon' brings this extraordinary figure to life.
Notre-Dame, Cathedral of Amiens: NA5551.A45 N6 1997 pt.1 -2
The Cathedral of Notre-Dame at Amiens, located north of Paris and built in the forty-nine years after 1220, offers an extraordinary vision of Gothic space and structure, expressing the zenith of medieval technical prowess. Through film images, digital modeling and animation, these films reveal how the Cathedral is encoded as an image of heaven, the way it was built, and why it nearly collapsed.
Nuit et brouillard: D805.5.A96 N8 2003 DVD In French with English subtitles
Ten years after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, this piece documents the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek. One of the first cinematic reflections on the horrors of the Holocaust and contrasts the stillness of the abandoned camps' quiet, empty buildings with haunting wartime footage.
L'Oeil de Vichy: D810.P85 E9 2002 DVD English narration
A compilation of long forgotten film footage and newsreels, produced by the Nazis and French collaborators during World War II. From the small town of Vichy in Central France, Field Marshall Petain's puppet government worked with their Nazi overlords in creating pro-Nazi propaganda. They skillfully produced a strange alternative history of the war years in order to turn public emotion against the Allies and the Jews.
Paris in the 19th Century: the making of a modern city: DC733 .P37 2004 DVD
This program thoroughly maps out the transformation of Paris during the 19th century from a stifling, congested city of narrow and winding streets to an aesthetically pleasing model of industrial age modernity
Picasso and His Time: N6853.P5 P5 2003 DVD
The documentary covers the long and extraordinary life of Picasso, beginning with the first period of his life in Malaga, La Coruna, and Barcelona and continuing in Paris, Villauris, and Vouvenargue. It follows the development of the artist through the pink and blue periods, surrealism, cubism, sculpture, and ceramics. An artist who excelled in all styles and all media and remained, regardless of where he was, Spanish to the core.
La Reine Margot: PQ2227.R3 R4 1995 DVD
Thrown into a political marriage of convenience by her ruthlessly power-hungry family, the beautiful Margot soon finds herself hopelessly drawn into their murderous affairs. It's then she realizes her only hope of escape lies somewhere between the heroic soldier who loves her and the enemy husband who could save her.
The Romantics: PN603 .R652006 pt.1-3 DVD
Filmed on location at British and French historical sites, this three-part series delves into the art, literature, and politics of 18th- and 19th-century Europe--telling the tumultuous story of Romanticism and its reshaping of Western culture. Part 1: Examining the birth of Romanticism through the lenses of art and uprising, this program illustrates the political and cultural roots of the movement. The film begins by describing the significance of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his influence on the French Revolution, and his belief that civilization and governmental systems suppress the individual human spirit. Linking Rousseau's philosophy to the emergence of New World political ideals and the American struggle for independence, the program also studies the writings and illustrations of William Blake, the collaboration of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and the notions of freedom advanced by all three poets. Part 2: After the chaos of the French Revolution, the concept of liberty became associated with nature rather than political events. This program analyzes the Romantic fascination and identification with the power of the natural world. Shedding light on William Blake's early childhood experiences in the countryside, the film also explores the work of John Clare--conveying how both poets revered the sublime power of the earth's environment and exalted a rural way of life rapidly yielding to urbanization and the Industrial Revolution. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is also featured--highlighting its cautions against science, technology, and the exploitation of nature's wild innocence. Part 3: Viewing life in strictly corporeal terms was abhorrent to Romantic sensibility. This program examines attempts by Romantic poets to transcend the physical world and expand the limits of human imagination--presaging 20th-century notions of the unconscious. Illustrating how the idea of transcendence effectively became the religion of Romanticism, the film reflects on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's opium-inspired composition of "Kubla Kahn," Lord Byron's defiance of social and sexual mores in pursuit of inner truth, John Keats' worldly fragility and literary immortality, and Percy Shelley's legendary incarnation, in death, as the ultimate Romantic symbol--a disembodied heart.
Secret Files of the Inquisition: BX1713 .S43 2007 DVD In English
For centuries the historical records of the Inquisition have been locked away to become the subject of legend. In 1998 the Vatican opened these archives for the first time ever. Secret Files of the Inquisition unveils the incredible true story of the western world's most potent religion and its determination to maintain power at any cost. From the pages of secret documents hidden in European archives comes a tale of faith and fervor, of torture and courage, of the fight for human rights and religious tolerance.
Speaking Out: Women, AIDS, and Hope: RA643.86.M42 S6 2002 In French with English subtitles
Profiles a remarkable HIV and AIDS support project in Bamako, Mali, and three brave women who work tirelessly on behalf of the infected community.
Thomas Sankara: the Upright Man: DT555.83.S36 T5 2006 DVD In French with English subtitles
The film recovers for the present a detailed history of Sankara's brief four-year rule and his revolutionary program for African self-reliance as a defiant alternative to the neo-liberal development strategies imposed on Africa by the West, both then and today. Sankara, a charismatic army captain, came to power in Burkina Faso, in 1983, in a popularly supported coup. He immediately launched the most ambitious program for social and economic change ever attempted on the African continent. To symbolize this rebirth, he even renamed his country from the French colonial Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, Land of Upright Men. As soon as he took office, he reduced the salaries of all public servants, including his own, and forbade the use of chauffeur-driven Mercedes and 1st class airline tickets. Like many revolutionary leaders, he banned unions, a free press, anything which might stand in the way of his plans for the immediate and radical transformation of society. He was one of the first to recognize that key to the development of Burkina Faso and Africa was improving the status of women. He was the first African leader to appoint women to major cabinet positions and to recruit them actively for the military. He outlawed forced marriages and encouraged women to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant. He launched a nation-wide public health campaign vaccinating over 2 1/2 million people in a week, a world record. He was also one of the first African environmentalists, planting over 10 million trees to retain soil and halt the growing desertification of the Sahel.
TV Commercials in French: PC2066 .T83 1999 pt.1 - 2
Featuring a series of authentic French television commercials, this two-volume set illustrates contemporary French tastes, attitudes, and lifestyles. The videos offer insight into French culture and encourage viewers to learn through cultural comparison.
Versailles: DC801.V56 V4 2000 DVD
Presents the history, design, architecture and interior of the palace and gardens at Versailles.
Une Visite a Paris: PC2065 .V57 1989
A tour of Paris, France.
Waterloo: PN1997 .W37 1991
Stirring drama of the historic battle between Napoleon and Wellington.
The Year One Thousand: BX4705.A2544 Y4 2003 DVD
Depicts 11th century Europe by dramatizing the life of Ad?mar de Chabannes, a monk who wrote a remarkable chronicle of the early years of the millennium and its calamities, famine, and war. Shows, through Ademar's eyes, the whole range of 11th century life, with all its hysteria, religious zeal, and visions of the coming of the end of the world and the Apocalypse from St. John's Revelations.
14 Kilómetros: PN1997 .C378 2008 DVD Region 2 In French with English subtitles
Buba is an auto repairman living in Niger with his brother Mukela, their village is mired in poverty, and given Buba's talent as a football player, they decide to travel to Spain, where they believe Buba might have a shot at playing as a professional. Unable to travel legally into Europe, Buba and Mukela pay a smuggler $1,000 each for passage in the back of a panel truck into Algeria, where the can easily pass into Spain. En route, Buba and Mukela meet Violeta, a teenage girl from Mali who is escaping an arranged marriage with a man she hates. During the trip into Algeria, the three begin to have doubts about the smugglers, and their fears become reality when they're dumped in the desert fourteen kilometers from their destination. Buba, Mukela and Violeta are told that they're only a four hour walk away from their destination, but without navigation tools they finds themselves lost in the sandy plains with no idea of how to make their way to civilization.
Adanggaman: PN1997 .A32 2007 DVD In Bambara, Baule and French; optional subtitles in English
Ossei is a strong-willed young man who sets out to rescue his mother when their village is raided. His quest leads him to the stronghold of the dreaded King Adanggaman, an arrogant despot who thrives on the slave trade and uses fierce female warriors to enforce his power. One of these Amazons, herself a former slave, falls in love with Ossei, and they escape to the bush.
Afrique, Je te Plumerai: DT572 .A37 1992
A compelling and sardonic essay on the history of colonialism in Cameroon, and by extension, on the African continent. Focuses on historical as well as contemporary European cultural domination, particularly in the publishing and media industry.
Bamako: PN1997 .B35 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
Melé, a bar singer, and her unemployed husband Chaka are on the verge of breaking up. In the courtyard of the house they share with other families in Bamako, the capital city of Mali, African civil society representatives have taken proceedings against such international financial institutions as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, whom they blame for Africa's woes. As numerous trial witnesses air bracing indictments against the multinational economic machinery that haunts them, life in the courtyard presses forward.
Camp de Thiaroye: PN1997 .C3650 2008 DVD In Wolof and French with English subtitles
Deals with the dilemma of African troops in the French Army at the end of World War II. The story opens with repatriated Senegalese infantrymen being placed in a transit camp ostensibly for temporary internment before discharge. The real purpose, however, is to reestablish the structures of white oppression disrupted by the war. A dispute over petty regulations soon escalates into a full-scale rebellion, culminating in a massacre.
Daresalam: PN1997 .D37 2004 DVD
This feature film focuses on two young men caught up in the Civil War in Chad. It begins in the 1970s with the story of Koni and Djimi as the central government invades their village and insistes on buying the farmer's millet at below market and then browbeats the villagers into paying taxes to help fight the war. When they resist the government burns the village and massacres the inhabitants. Djimi, wounded, remains behind with the hard-liners, while Koni joins a faction which supports compromise with the government.
Divine Carcasse: PN1997 .D58 1998
Divine Carcasse is an unusual hybrid, a half fictional, half ethnographic film. It is a study in cultural contrast, between a desacralized, materialistic European view of reality and an animist, pre-industrial African one. Belgian director Dominique Loreau has described her film as an encounter with another culture, another way of relating to the world, objects and death, one that challenges our own relationships to the world.
Le Grand Blanc de Lambarene: PN1997 .G733 1995
Shot on the site of Schweitzer's hospital in Gabon, the film reveals a man blinded to the people around him by his own spiritual self-absorption and arrogance. For Schweitzer to see himself as a stern but loving father, he had to cast Africans as childlike primitives who needed to be protected from the temptations of modernity. He even refused to install electricity and modern hygiene in his hospital wards.
Heremakano: PN1997 .H468 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
A young man, Abdallah returns to his homeland, a seaside town of Nouadhibou in Mauritania, where his mother lives, before emigrating to Europe. He feels disconnected from his people because he dresses in Western clothes, and he does not speak the language, but he connects in small ways during his stay. Opposed to Abdallah is Khatra, a young boy who is being taught by an elderly electrician, Maata, his trade, while a traditional singer teaches a talented young girl her's. All amidst Abdallah's mother vain urges for him to follow traditional customs while he's in town.
Karmen Geï: PQ2362 .K37 2005 DVD In French and Wolof with English subtitles
Karmen Gei is an inmate in a women's prison on notorious Goree Island in Senegal. Karmen uses her dancing and sensual demeanor to seduce Angelique, the prison's warden. Once Angelique falls asleep, Karmen escapes into the Dakar underworld, where she is caught by military policeman Col. Lamine Diop after she insults the nation's military leadership. However, Diop is also seduced by Karmen and once again she escapes and Diop finds himself behind bars. Karmen arranges for Diop's escape, but it is not long before he realizes she is using him, however, by this time he's too deeply addicted to Karmen's passions to turn away.
Keita! L'heritage du Griot: PN1997 .K45 1995
Based on an important work of African oral literature, the Sundjata epic. When a dj?liba, a master griot or bard, arrives mysteriously at the home of Mabo Keita to teach him "the meaning of his name," the boy and griot are inevitably brought into conflict with his Westernized mother and schoolteacher, who have rejected African tradition. The griot reveals to Mabo the story of his distant ancestor, Sundjata Ke?ta, the 13th century founder of the great Malian trading empire.
Lumumba, la Mort du Prophete: DT658.22 .L8 1992
Reexamines the independence struggle in the Belgian Congo and its leader, Patrice Lumumba. This multi-award-winning film recounts Lumumba's tragic 200 day rule culminating with his assassination. Combines archival documentary footage of Lumumba with the memories of journalists who reported from the Congo.
Lumumba: PN1997 .L86 2002 DVD
Dramatizes the life of Congolese revolutionary, Patrice Lumumba, who led his country to independence from Belgium in 1960. He served for less than a year as the first elected prime minister, until he was brutally assassinated.
Moolaadé: PN1997 .M6661 2007 DVD In Jula and French with English subtitles
Set in a small village in Burkina Faso. Four young girls, facing ritual "purification,” flee to the household of Collé Ardo Gallo Sy, a woman who has managed to shield her own teenage daughter from the traditional mutilation. Collé invokes the custom of moolaadé (sanctuary) to protect the girls, but few in the village are willing to support Collé’s choice. Meanwhile, Collé’s daughter, Amsatou, has fallen in love with Doucouré, the heir to leadership of the village. Even though Doucouré cares for Amsatou, he’s also struggling with what his family considers Amsatou’s “impureness.”
La Nuit de la Verite: PN1997 .N89 2007 DVD
In an unspecified country in Africa, after ten years of bloody war, the Nayaks, the President's ethnic group, and the Bonandes, rebels supporting Colonel Theo, come together to celebrate the peace agreement. But the reconciliation festivities are overshadowed by the terrible barbarities that have been committed on both sides.
Pièces d'Identités: PN1997 .P531 1999 DVD In French with English subtitles
A Congolese king searches for his daughter in Brussels where for a time he loses his royal fetishes, his identity, but finds a friend, a local cabdriver with a secret identity. With his help and a chain of coincidence (it must be destined), Mani Kongo is reunited with his daughter and his regalia and returns to Africa with a circle of friends.
Rêves de Poussière: PN1997 .R491 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
Mocktar, a Nigerien peasant, comes looking for work in Essakane, a dusty gold mine in Northeast Burkina Faso, Africa, where he hopes to forget the past that haunts him. In Essakane, he quickly finds out, the gold rush ended twenty years before, and the inhabitants of this wasteland and strange timelessness manage to exist simply from force of habit. The beautiful Coumba, however, is still courageously struggling to raise her daughter after the death of her family. Mocktar will soon be fighting not only to survive, but also to provide a better future for this mother and her child.
Touki Bouki: PN1997 .T679 2005 DVD In French with English subtitles
Set in Senegal. Mory and his girlfriend Anta are alienated from their hometown of Dakar and dream of escaping to Pairs. The young couple embark on a life of crime in order to raise money for their trip. They try gambling but lose; they steal the receipts of a charity wrestling match, but take the wrong strongbox. Finally, they manage to rob a rich, predatory man and escape in his roadster. Finally the hope of reaching Paris is in their grasp. However, once they board the ocean liner that will take them to their destination, only one of them will stay on to face the truth of realizing a dream.
La Vie sur Terre: PN1997 .V545 2000 DVD In French and Bambara; optional English subtitles
On the eve of the year 2000, Abderrahmane Sissako, a Mauritanian filmmaker living in France, goes home to visit his father in a small village in Mali. At the post office, he encounters a young woman. A relationship develops, while on the streets of the village, daily life goes on peacefully and unchanged as a new millennium arrives.
Xala: PQ3989.S46 X3 2005 DVD
In a fictional African country, a rich, self-made businessman and member of the post-colonial ruling elite take on a third wife to show the world his wealth, only to be stricken by a curse resulting in impotency. His efforts at getting cured lead to disastrous yet comical results.
2 Secondes: PN1997 .D495 1998 DVD In French with English subtitles
A champion mountain bike racer named Laurie hesitates at the start gate, and the two seconds lost cost her the race--and her place on the team. Forced into retirement, she is delighted to discover a job as a bike messenger. By chance, she meets Lorenzo, an Italian bike shop owner and former champion himself. Their mutual love and appreciation of cycling draw them together in spite of initial clashes.
Jesus de Montreal: PN1997 .J48 2004 DVD In French with English subtitles
A Montreal shrine seeks to inspire its congregants by modernizing its staging of the Passion play. A promising cast of vibrant young actors are signed on, one fresh from perfume commercials, another from the pornographic film industry, and another who had an affair with the basilica's priest, quickly drive the production on to become a smash hit. But as the play enjoys the success, the actors become more and more challenged to separate their real lives from their lives onstage.
Jesus de Montreal: PN1997. J43 1991
A troupe of underemployed actors joins a charismatic young man to help a church update its annual Passion play, which attracts a city full of hope, praise, temptation and condemnation.
Mon Oncle Antoine: PN1997 .M6660 2008 DVD In French with English subtitles
Claude Jutra's portrait of a boy's coming of age in wintry 1940s rural Quebec is delicate, naturalistic, and tinged with a striking mix of nostalgia and menace. Mon oncle Antoine follows Benoit, as he first encounters the twin terrors of sex and death, and his fellow villagers, who are living under the thumb of the local asbestos mine owner. Set during one ominous Christmas, Mon oncle Antoine is a holiday film unlike any other, and an authentically detailed illustration of childhood's twilight.
Reconquering the Conquest: Quebec: F1053.2 .R43 1994
An examination of the motivations for and consequences of the push by French-speaking nationalists to establish Quebec as a nation independent from the rest of Canada, and the different yet similar fight the Cree people are waging against the Quebec government.
Wolves in the Snow: PN1997 .C45 2004 DVD
Antoine has been cuckolding Lucie for years. A violent argument results in Antoine's death. After lying about his whereabouts, Lucie discovers that he had a secret life involving gangsters, money laundering and violence. Followed, threatened and badgered by the gangsters, Lucie becomes trapped by her deceit. The body of Antoine disappears, other corpses appear, and, very quickly, the money becomes only the pretext of an alarming turn of events, in which Lucie learns how to lie, to live, and perhaps also to like. Wolves in the Snow is an intense drama set against the backdrop of Montreal.
13 Tzameti: PN1997 .T548 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
22 year-old Sébastien leads an impoverished life constantly struggling to support his immigrant family. While repairing the roof of a neighbor's house he overhears a conversation about a forthcoming package which promised to make the household rich. Sensing the opportunity of a lifetime Sébastien intercepts the package which contains a series of veiled instructions. Following the cryptic clues he assumes a false identity and manages to slip through the grasp of the encroaching police as he ventures deeper towards the unknown. The closer he gets to his destination the less he understands. Ultimately he comes face to face with a disreputable ring of clandestine gamblers placing bets on a depraved game of chance where the spoils are unimaginable millions and the losses are counted in lives.
À tout de suite: PN1997 .A76 2006 DVD In French with English subtitles
Lili is an impulsive, free-spirited art student living a staid existence with her father in 1970s Paris. When she meets a mysterious young Moroccan man at a nightclub, she falls instantly in love. Soon she learns he was involved in a botched bank robbery -- where a man was killed -- and without hesitation allows him and his accomplice to hide out in her apartment. The two embark on a wild spree throughout France, Spain, Morocco, and Greece, in a contemporary joy ride.
Une Affaire de Femmes: PN1997 .A34 2004 DVD
To survive Nazi-occupied 1940's France, Marie turns to illegally aborting pregnancies for a hefty fee. As her income increases, Marie moves her family to a posh apartment. Completely seduced by her lifestyle, Marie ignores her shell-shocked husband Paul. Things take a disastrous turn after one of Marie's "customers" dies and her husband turns her over to the authorities. Inspired by the real-life of Marie-Louise Girard, who was executed in 1943 by the Vichy Government, who'd declared abortion as a Crime against the State because it diminished the number of potential soldiers.
The Affair of the Necklace: PN1997 .A34 2002 DVD
The film is a romantic drama based on the controversial true story of Jeanne De La Motte Valois, a countess whose name was stripped from her by the Royal Family during the late 18th Century. The story of her fight to restore her name and proper place in society is filled with mystery, intrigue and desire, with an infamous diamond necklace at the center of it all.
Aime ton Pere: PN1997 .A33 2004 DVD
Drama about a celebrated writer on the brink of being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature who sets off for Sweden from Switzerland by motorcycle. During the journey he encounters the scene of a terrible accident involving his estranged son Paul (who was on his way to his father having heard the news of the award). The two end up driving to Stockholm together as they try to patch up their relationship.
Un Air de Famille: PN1997 .A39 1999 DVD
A dysfunctional family eats together one night a week. On this Friday family politics and fights disrupt a birthday party.
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf: PN1997 .A441 2003 DVD In French with English subtitles
A homeless artist, Michele, who is losing her sight finds herself drawn into a passionate relationship with a troubled street performer, Alex. Despite all obstacles, they find love and shelter on the famed Pont-Neuf bridge in Paris. But in time, their unlikely love will be tested as the Michele's secret past catches up with her.
And Now Ladies and Gentlemen: PN1997 .A533 2004 DVD
A thief is on the run from a life of crime. A nightclub singer is hoping to escape from the blues of heartache. Two lost souls who have become fugitives from the past. Now fate is bringing them together in the unfolding present. Halfway around the world, in a mysterious and enchanted village, they will each seek a way to literally save their lives, while discovering a love that will radically change them both.
L'anglaise et le Duc: PN1997 .A54 2002 DVD
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 in 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.
L'annee Derniere a Marienbad: PN1997 .A56 1999 DVD
A handsome stranger tries to convince a lovely young woman that they had a passionate affair a year ago, 'perhaps at Marienbad,' but she claims not to remember him. He haunts her mind with images by mixing memory and fantasy, fear and desire.
L'Argent de Poche: PN1997 .A74 2001 DVD
A poetic comedy about a group of children in a French village as they grow from children to adolescents to adulthood. Truffaut interweaves vignettes of puppy love, school days, bragging rights, trips to the movie house, loving parents and one boy's escape from child abuse, as he explores the range of young emotions from humor to fantasy to the serious side of life.
L'Auberge Espagnole: PN1997 .A93 2003 DVD
Xavier 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. But sharing cramped quarters with students from all over Europe quickly leads to multi-cultural chaos as Xavier gets an eye-opening lesson on how to live, love, laugh and party.
Au Plus Pres du Paradis: PN1997 .A96 2004 DVD
While traveling on business in New York, a French author discovers that a charming and seductive American has replaced her usual photographer.
Au Revoir les Enfants: PN1997 .A97 1989 (DUBBED IN ENGLISH, NO FRENCH)
Based on the director's life, this film chronicles Malle's experiences during the German occupation of France in World War II. Julien (Malle) is 12 years old, and the smartest boy in his class at boarding school when a new student appears. The two form a friendship even though Julien senses that there is something different about his new friend.
Avant Garde and Experimental Films: PN1995.9.E96 A9 1999 v.1
Five short films selected from the avant garde movement of the 1920's and 1930's.
Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and '30s: PN1995.9.E96 A9 2005 DVD Silent with English subtitles
Originally produced as individual silent motion pictures in France, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States, these twenty-five short films epitomize the avant garde movement of the 1920's and 1930's. The films are drawn from the collection assembled by Raymond Rohauer, one of the nation's foremost proponents of experimental cinema, founder of the Hollywood Film Society, and longtime programmer at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles. Rohauer helped preserve and promote avant-garde cinema, and these films from his personal archive are some of the most influential and eclectic short films made during the 20th Century.
Avant-Garde. 2: Experimental Cinema, 1928-1954: PN1995.9.E96 A9 2007 DVD In French and English with English subtitles
Originally produced as individual motion pictures in France and the United States, these seventeen short films epitomize the avant garde movement between 1928 - 1954. The films are drawn from the collection assembled by Raymond Rohauer, one of the nation's foremost proponents of experimental cinema, founder of the Hollywood Film Society, and longtime programmer at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles. Rohauer helped preserve and promote avant-garde cinema, and these films from his personal archive are some of the most influential and eclectic short films made during the 20th Century.
Avant Garde #2: 1924, 1928 Germany, France: PN1995.9.E96 A9 1999 v.2
Includes three silent experimental films with music scores: Symphonie diagonale (1924), L'Etoile de mar (1928), and Entr'acte (1924). The films exemplify the cinematic Dada movement of 1921-1929 in France and Germany.
Avenue Montaigne: PN1997.A99 2007 DVD
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. Jessica's customers include a popular TV actress who is courting a major Hollywood director for her first serious film role; a wealthy art collector who is about to liquidate a lifetime's worth of treasures at auction; and an illustrious classical pianist who is at odds with his manager/wife as to where his career is headed. Precisely because Jessica doesn't know how celebrated these people are, her guileless and completely unintimidated engagement in their lives has a transforming effect on them and ultimately her.
Babette's Gaestebud: PT8175.B545 B3 1989
Babette, a superb French chef, lives an anonymous life among a pious congregation on the desolate coast of Denmark. As housekeeper and cook to two elderly, religious women, she's never called on the prepare anything very exciting. Then, one day she wins 10,000 francs and decides to spend it all by creating the most memorable meal ever consumed, even though her guests will have no idea what they're eating.
Le Ballon Rouge: PN1997 .B3491 2008 DVD In French with English subtitles
The story of Pascal, a lonely French boy who discovers a stray balloon, which seems to have a mind of its own, on the streets of Paris. The two become inseparable, yet the world's harsh realities finally interfere.
Balzac: PQ2178 .B35 2000 DVD
A bio-pick about the passionate life of the great French novelist, Honore de Balzac, who was ignored by critics and harassed by debt-collectors and sustained by the Russian countess whom he loved his entire life.
La Bataille d'Alger: PN1997 .B38 2004 DVD
Focuses on the harrowing events of 1957, a key year in Algeria's struggle for independence from France. Recreates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, the French torture prisoners for information and the Algerians resort to terrorism in their quest for independence. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafes. The French win the battle, but ultimately lose the war as the Algerian people demonstrate that they will no longer be suppressed
De Battre Mon Coeur s'est Arrêté: PN 1997 .B39 2005 DVD
Tom is a man in his early thirties who finds himself caught between two very different worlds. Tom loves music, and longs to have a career as a concert pianist; he also has talent, and is taking advanced music lessons from Miao-Lin. But Tom supports himself working as a collection agent for his father, Robert, a mid-level gangster and loan shark, as well as helping Sami and Fabrice, two of Robert's cronies who put together crooked real-estate deals. Tom's hair-trigger temper makes it easy for him to adapt to the violent life of a gangster's muscle man, but he wants to give his creative side a chance to grow, and struggles to get his skills in order for an audition with a concert promoter interested in his music. Tom is also walking on a wire with his employers by having an affair with Aline, Fabrice's wife, and is forced to mediate a bitter feud between his father and a Russian gangster, Minskov.
Beach Cafe: PS3552.O874 C3 2005 DVD
Strong-minded but naive Driss makes his living in Tangier doing odd jobs while dating a young European antiques dealer. His attention is increasingly drawn to Fouad, a reclusive cafe owner who excoriates his fellow Moroccans as lazy and lacking ambition. Driss pursues a friendship with Fouad despite his friends' efforts to dissuade him and becomes a victim of the man's underhanded, treacherous nature.
Belleville Rendez-Vous: PN1997 .B42 2004 DVD
A bicyclist is kidnapped from the Tour de France by mysterious gangsters; his grandmother travels to the city of Belleville (which has a sardonic version of the Statue of Liberty in its harbor), where she tracks him down with the help of a musical trio gone to seed, the Belleville Triplets.
La Bête Humaine: PQ2498 .B48 2006 DVD In French with English subtitles
Train engineer Jacques Lantier is attracted to Severine, the wife of his co-worker Roubaud. When Roubaud is in danger of losing his job, Severine offers herself to her husband's boss. In a fit of jealous rage, Roubaud kills his boss. Lantier is witness to this, so Severine promises herself to him if he'll keep quiet. Eventually Severine tries to get Lantier to kill Roubaud. Sick of the whole affair, Lantier murders Severine and then kills himself.
Blind Light: PQ2605.A3734 B5 2002 DVD
Axel Munthe, a scientist and architect, is so obsessed by the power and beauty of the sun that he drives himself to blindness. A photographer searching for locations comes across his villa and discovers the energy held there. Slowly their two lives become unalterably intertwined as she becomes infatuated with his work and loses sight of where his life ends and hers begins.
Bon Voyage: PN1997 .B67 2003 DVD
Following the premiere of her latest picture Viviane finds herself with a dead man in her apartment. Frederic is a writer who's been falsely accused of murder, thanks to Viviane. Viviane has fled Paris for Bordeaux with a cabinet minister, and once Fr?d?ric escapes from prison, he is not far behind. Once they reach the city, which is in chaos, they become entangled in a plot involving a rickety physicist, his endlessly resourceful assistant, an amiable ex-con, a shady reporter and several bottles of heavy water that absolutely, positively must not fall into the hands of the Germans.
A Bout de Souffle: PN1997 .A26 2001 DVD
A small-time hood kills a policeman and tries to leave France, but his American girlfriend betrays him to the police and he gets killed trying to escape.
La Buche: PQ2680.H645 B8 2002 DVD
When Yvette's second husband suddenly dies days before Christmas, she turns to her three daughters from her first marriage to console her during the holidays. Not wanting their father to be alone, one of the girls invites him to Christmas dinner, forcing their parents to speak to each other for the first time in 25 years. As their complicated lives converge, secrets are revealed that will test their love and their loyalties.
Cache: PN1997 .C33 2006 DVD
A talk show host and his wife and son seem to be living an ideal life until clandestinely-filmed videotapes of their private lives start to show up on their front porch. As the tapes reveal more secrets, the resulting stress and fear leads to conflict, obsession, and deceit for the couple and brings back episodes from the husband's childhood when he wronged a young Algerian boy.
La Cage aux Folles: PN1997 .C342 2001 DVD In French with English subtitles
"La Cage au folles" is the name of a nightclub run by a pair of aging gay men, one of whom has a son. The son wihses to marry a woman whose father is the chief of the Department of Morals. In order to help the couple, the boy's "parents" make an attempt to curb their life-style, with comedic results.
Camille Claudel: NB553.C44 C3 2001 DVD
A historically accurate depiction of one of the most important collaborations in the history of art, that of legendary sculptor Rodin, and the creative prodigy Camille Claudel.
La Captive: PQ2631.R63 C3 2004 DVD
Simon is obsessed with Ariane and keeps her as his willing captive. She tolerates his elaborate desires, his endless interrogations and surveillance. Still Ariane is able to maintain her own reserve of privacy, her own mental and physical freedom. Although often affectionate to Simon. Ariane prefers women and so leads a double-life. But this only magnifies Simon's pain until his obsessive desires culminate in devastation and tragedy
La Cemonie: PR6068.E63 J8 2004
Catherine hires the illiterate Sophie to work as her maid at her remote home in the French countryside. But Sophie soon falls under the influence of the mysterious Jeanne and suddenly the stage is set for murder, violence and betrayal.
Cet Amour-la: PQ2607.U8245 C4 2005 DVD
Marguerite Duras is one of the most widely read French novelists today. She had a celebrated love affair with Yann, her much younger muse and apprentice. The film also offers an insight into the heart and mind of one of the world's literary figures.
Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train: PQ2680.H645 C4 2000 DVD
Jean-Baptiste is a French painter who has requested to be buried in his hometown of Limoges. When he dies, his friends take the train from Paris to Limoges to attend his funeral. During this journey, they all review their lives and relationships.
Chacun sa Nuit: PN1997 .C40 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
Brother and sister Lucie and Pierre share an intimate relationship which is torn apart when Pierre is found murdered; after the investigation drags, Lucie becomes determined to find the killer herself.
Le Chateau de Ma Mere: PQ2631.A26 C4 2002 DVD
The story of Marcel Pagnol's childhood holidays in Provence continues in My Mother's Castle. During a Christmas in the region Marcel's affection for the area deepens and he also learns to love and appreciate his mother's true nature.
La Chevre: PN1997 .C445 2003 DVD In French with English subtitles
After unsuccessfully searching for a French businessman's missing daughter in Mexico, Campana, a dedicated detective, is reluctantly partnered with accident-prone accountant Perrin, a would-be detective presumed to be so maladroit that he will accidentally lead Campana to the missing girl.
Un Chien Andalou: PN1997 .C45 2004 DVD
Made in 1929, Un Chien Andalou is regarded as the first film produced from within the Surrealist Movement, and a landmark in the history of cinema. Based on an exchange of dreams between artist Salvador Dali and director Luis Bunuel, the film is a tale of unfulfilled desires and moments of intense violence; a razor slashing a woman's eye in extreme close-up; a man dragging a piano, two bishops, and a pair of rotting donkeys across a room; and ants swarming around a hole in a man's palm.
Chocolat: PN1997 .C48 2000 DVD
A young woman returns to Cameroon to trace her past. Soon the sights, sounds and smells sweep her back to her childhood and memories of the people who populated her youth.
Chocolat: PR6058.A68828 C5 2001 DVD
When a single mother and her young daughter move to rural France and open a chocolate shop - with Sunday hours - across the street from the local church, they are met with some resistance from the rigidly moral community. But as soon as the townspeople discover their delicious products, their attitudes begin to change.
Les Choristes: PN1997 .C488 2005 DVD
Unemployed music teacher Clement Mathieu becomes the supervisor at a boarding school for the rehabilitation of minors. Dismayed by the repressive administration, he works to positively transform the students' lives through music.
La Cite des Enfants Perdus: PN1997 .C5331 1999 DVD
This fantastically-twisted fairy tale is chock-full of curious characters and special effects. A sad and heartbroken madman, Krank, is aging prematurely because he can't dream. He kidnaps little children, hoping that eventually he will find a way to steal their sleeping thoughts. The story takes the form of a quest, as a sentimental harpooner-turned-fairground strongman, One, sets out to find his young brother on dilapidated oil rig. He soon falls in love with the gutsy nine-year old girl (who is head of the orphan gang), and together they run a gauntlet of fantastical dangers as they join hearts and hands to save a small boy's dreams from the madman's master plan.
Clara et Moi: PN1997. C534 2005 DVD
Antoine is a 33-year old modern male, searching for the love of his life while at odds with the scarier reaches of commitment. Then he meets Clara. She's beautiful, generous, and has an air of freedom about her that causes Antoine to immediately fall for her. Their romance develops quickly, seemingly a perfect love affair between soulmates, but when life deals them an unforeseen blow, their relationship faces a test it may not survive.
Un Coeur en Hiver: PN1997 .C64 2006 DVD
Camille, a concert violinist, becomes intrigued by her lover's business partner, Stephane. She interprets his distance as a sign of intellectual seduction. The love triangle that develops reveals the complexity and imperfection of the three characters.
Cœurs: PR6051.Y35 C6 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
Set in Paris, France, during the winter. Six individuals struggle to hold on to the relationships with those they care most for. Dan has recently finished service in the Army, but rather than deal with his emotional issues, Dan prefers to drink. While he barely communicates with his girlfriend Nicole, she's convinced they will still marry and decides to ignore his problems. Lionel is a bartender who has become increasingly isolated and cut off from his friends as he looks after his father Arthur. Arthur, however, is in failing health and has little appreciation for his son's sacrifices. Thierry is a real estate salesman who has fallen for one of his co-workers, Charlotte.
Comedie de l'innocence: PQ4808.O65 C6 2003 DVD
Shortly after his 9th birthday, Camille tells his mother Ariane that he is really Paul, and that he would like to return to his "real" mother, Isabella, who lives on the other side of town. Alarmed at first, but willing to humor him, she takes him to Isabella's and is startled to find out he knows her apartment intimately. It turns out that Isabella's son drowned two years earlier. Is Camille the reincarnation of Isabella's dead son?
Comme une Image: PN1997 .C657 2005 DVD
Celebrity has unexpected consequences for everyone who lives in its shadow, as the family, friends and hangers-on of a famous writer discover. Lolita's father is a writer whose fame has made him so self-centered he has no clue the effect his egotistical behavior has on everyone around him. Now that she has grown up, Lolita becomes even more determined to make him notice her - especially since she's discovered a talent of her own and would like his approval. There are people who she thinks will help her, but she always winds up competing against them for her father's attention. And when she meets a guy who likes her for herself, Lolita finds she may actually be more like her father than she would ever have imagined.
Les Comperes: PN1997 .C66 2003 DVD
When her teenage son runs away and her husband refuses to hunt for him, a frantic mother calls on two old lovers to help. This odd couple makes a hilarious search on the Riviera, bickering and competing as they defeat gangsters and motorcycle toughs to rescue the boy.
Le Comte du Monte Cristo: PQ2226 .C6 2005 DVD
Tells the dramatic story of Edmond Dantes, a young French sailor who is falsely denounced as a political traitor and unjustly imprisoned for eighteen years without trial. After a daring escape, Dantes flees to the island of Monte Cristo, where he finds a colossal treasure bequeathed to him by a dying fellow inmate. Using these riches, he assumes a new identity and devises a plan of vengeance upon all those who betrayed him.
La Commune: DC316 .C66 2006 DVD
Explores that famous, brief, romantic, and tragic period when poor and working-class Parisians rose up against the "bourgeois" French national government, which fled the capital and re-established itself in Versailles. As the historical drama unfolds, it is also "covered" by two television news crews - one from "National TV Versailles" which broadcasts the official version and the other from "Commune TV," giving voice to the rebellious Communards.
Cote d'Azur: PN1997 .C78 2005 DVD
For summer vacation, Marc and Beatrix take their two kids to the seaside house of Marc's youth, where their daughter takes up with a biker and their son roams the beach with his best friend, who is in love with him. Things get steamier when Beatrix's lover Mathieu shows up, and Marc's old flame appears.
Coup de Foudre: PN1997 .C68 2002 DVD
Set in Lyon in the 1950s, this is the story of Madeleine and Lena who are trapped in a rut of middle-class complacency. Their relationship deepens into a dependency that eventually bursts the confines of the provincial society around them.
Cours Toujours: PN1997 .C683 2003 DVD In French with English subtitles
Set during the 1997 papal visit to Paris, 23-year old Jonah, a young musician and father to a newborn son, learns at the last minute that he must complete an obscure Jewish custom within three days without fail.
Croire, Imaginer, Penser. 1, les Milles et une Nuits: PJ7737 .C76 2004 DVD
Encompassing fairy tales, romances, legends, fables, parables, and anecdotes, "The thousand and one nights" is a composite of popular oral stories that developed over several centuries, mainly during the Empire of the Caliphate. This program scrutinizes the wonderfully audacious tale of Scheherazade and what it tells the attentive reader about the dreams of Arab men and women during the empire's golden age. Recurring themes such as hunger for adventure and a desire to be free from tradition are explored, as well as a conception of power that glorifies self-control and disparages violence.
Cyrano de Bergerac: PQ2635.O7 C9 1991
In 17th-century Paris, Cyrano de Bergerac, is in love with young and beautiful Roxane. Believing his is too ugly, because his long nose, to win Roxane's love, he helps Christian to woo her with love letters.
Cyrano de Bergerac: PQ2635.O7 C9 2004 DVD In French with English subtitles
Cyrano, a master swordsman and poet, feels he can not woo his beloved Roxane due to an unfortunate physical flaw: his grotesquely large nose. Resigning himself to helping another suitor, the dashing yet tongue-tied Christian, Cyrano uses his mastery of words to win Roxane for him. But when Roxane finds that she has fallen for Christian's mind, and not for his beauty, which of her two suitors will finally possess her heart?
Daddy Nostalgie: PN1997 .D33 2005 DVD
Caroline, a divorced screenwriter, returns home to visit her father who is recovering from a serious operation. While his wife pampers and overprotects him, Caroline realizes that restricting a man who has enjoyed life to its fullest may do more damage than good. With her help, Daddy furtively finds his way back to the local bar. Nursing a scotch, he recalls stories from his past which bring the father and daughter closer together.
Dan's Paris: PN1997 .D351 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
Paul, depressed from his recent break-up with Anna, returns home to live with his divorced father and womanizing, slacking younger brother, Jonathan. With little success, his carefree sibling and doting father try to cheer him up with women, wine, and home-cooked meals. When, in the midnight hour, Paul is forced to entertain one of his brother's desperate girlfriends, he begins to realize that while things never go according to plan, family and the pursuit of love are always worth the fight.
Dangerous Liaisons: PN1993.L22 D3 1988
Set in 18th century France, this is the story of two bored aristocrats and the havoc they wreak when they play dangerous games with people's lives. The beautiful widow Merteuil challenges rakish Valmont to seduce a virtuous young married woman, never suspecting that he would violate his personal credo and fall in love.
Danton: DC146.D2 D3 2009 DVD In French with English subtitles
Georges Danton, the popular revolutionary leader, returns to Paris at a time when the new Republic is in disarray. Robespierre and his allies have set up a monstrous dictatorship, beginning the infamous "Reign of Terror." Danton pleads with the people for an end to the bloodshed which violates the spirit of their revolution.
Delicatessen: PN1997 .D45 2006 DVD In French with English subtitles
In a post-apocalyptic society where meat is scarce, cannibalism is no longer unsavory. And when a young ex-clown takes a job in a dilapidated deli, he's completely unaware that the butcher plans to serve him to the building's bizarre tenants! But when the butcher's nearsighted daughter falls for the clown, she'll go to absurd lengths to foil her father's plan!
Delicatessen: PN1997 .D45 1992
This crazy-quilt story takes place in a rickety apartment building. There, a sweet-natured clown takes a room and becomes a catalyst in the lives of a cleaver-wielding butcher, his myopic daughter, a woman with a flair for suicide, toymakers who create little boxes that go "moo", and other unusual tenants.
Le Dernier Metro: PN1997 .D47 2002 DVD
In Nazi-occupied Paris, a Jewish director is forced to hide in the basement of his theatre while his wife stars in its latest production.
La Desenchantee: PN1997 .D478 2001 DVD In French with English subtitles
Beth is 17 years old, she lives at home with her mother and a younger brother. Her mother is the mistress of a wealthy man they have been taught to call "uncle," and he has paid for their apartment all these years. Now that Beth is becoming a woman, "uncle" has indicated that he would like to transfer his attentions to her, which it not something that is agreeable to her. Meanwhile, Beth's teen-aged boyfriend has begun making unreasonable demands on her, and she is trying to break up with him.
Les Destinees Sentimentales: PQ2605.H374 D4 2002 DVD
A sweeping epic spanning three decades and a world war. The film follows the life and loves of Jean Barnery, a provincial gentleman and reluctant heir to his family's porcelain empire.
Deux Hommes dans la Ville: PN1997 .D49 2005 DVD In French with English subtitles
After an early release from prison, due to the help of prison reformer Germain Cazeneuve, ex-safe cracker Gino Strabliggi returns to his wife after ten years of being away. However, after a fatal car accident kills Gino's wife and a ban, by statute, prohibits him from returning to Paris, Gino decides to move to the south of France with the help of Germain. Gino finds work as a printer and remarries to a women named Lucie who works as a bank officer. However, Gino's past catches up to him when a cop begins to stalk him, and Gino's ex-gang starts checking out Lucie's bank.
Le Diner de Cons: PQ2682.E24 D5 2003 DVD
Pierre and his snobbish friends have a standing date for dinner. Every week, they compete to see who can bring the biggest idiot to the party.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie: PN1997.C44 2000 DVD
An upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined.
Double Vie de Véronique: PN1997 .D6861 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
Weronika is a Polish choir soprano, and her double, Veronique, is a French music teacher. Though they are unknown to each other, the two women share an enigmatic, purely emotional bond. The two were born on the same day and each senses that somewhere there exists another person with whom their lives are intertwined.
La Doublure: PN1997 .D686 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
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 François Pignon, the porter who was passing by and ended up on the photograph. To make his story believable, Levasseur convinces Pignon and Elena to move in together and to pretend to be a couple. Things get more complicated when this creates tensions between Pignon and his former flatmate Richard and his love interest Émilie. Ultimately, Levasseur's wife discovers the truth and decides to play games with her husband.
The Dreamers: PN1997 .D75 2004 DVD
When two girls invite a man to stay with them, what begins as a casual friendship ripens into a sensual voyage of discovery and desire in which nothing is off limits and anything is possible.
Drole de Felix: PN1997 .D766 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
Felix, is an unemployed, gay Frenchman of Arab descent, who has a series of adventures during a trek through the French countryside. On his journey he is forced to confront the anger he feels toward his father for abandoning him, and the fear and shame he has, living as an outsider in a predominantly straight, Caucasian world.
Égloge de l'amour: PN1997 .E45 2003 DVD In French with English subtitles
Structured in two parts, the film opens in Paris, where the young artist Edgar is developing a project on the four stages of a love affair- meeting, sexual passion, separation. and rediscovery. During the casting process, Edgar discovers a beautiful young woman who he is convinced he has met before. In the second part, set two years earlier, Edgar interviews an elderly couple- former Resistance fighters during the war- only to find that their memories are being bought up for a Steven Spielberg blockbuster. Linking the two parts is Edgar's relationship with the enigmatic woman he met and re-encounters.
L'enfant: PN1997 .E54 2006 DVD
Bruno, a down-and-out petty thief who reaches rock bottom when he sells his newborn son on the black market. In a bid to redeem himself in the eyes of his girlfriend Sonia, the baby's mother, Bruno goes against all odds to bring their baby home.
L'enfant Sauvage: PN1997 .E545 2001 DVD In French with English subtitles
Dramatized account of Dr. Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard's efforts to civilize a young boy who was discovered living wild in a forest. The boy, named Victor, becomes increasingly divided between his longing for the wilderness and his new life with the doctor. Itard, whose teaching strategies survive today in the Montessori Method, is unsure whether he is helping a savage become human or turning a forest child into a semi-civilized idiot.
Les Enfants du Siecle: PN1997|.E54 2003 DVD
A biographical history of the love affair between George Sand and Alfred de Musset that scandalized their families, friends and the salons of Paris in nineteenth century France.
L' Equipier: PN1997 .E68 2004 DVD Region 2
In 1963, a soulful stranger and veteran of the Algerian war, Antoine, arrives at the small Breton island of Ouessant to become the new keeper of the lighthouse. He replaces Emile, the tower's adored deceased patriarch, despite the locals' feeling that the job should have gone to one of their own. Easygoing and good-humored about the community's animosity towards him, Antoine eventually bonds with sullen, unfriendly Yvon while they work together at the offshore lighthouse. Back on shore, Antoine also develops a deep attraction for Emile's daughter Mabe, who just so happens to be Yvon's wife.
Est-Ouest: PN1997 .E877 2000 DVD
Follows the story of an expatriate Russian and his French wife as they return to the Soviet Union in 1946 and learn to live in the post-war Soviet Union. The story eventually revolves around the struggle of Marie to decide if she should stay or leave.
Un Ete a la Goulette: PN1997 .E84 1996 DVD Region 2
Youssef is a Muslim, Jojo is Jewish and Giuseppe is an Italian Catholic, and they are best of friends until each of their daughters swears to lose their virginity by a certain date. To make matters worse, each daughter sets her sights on a boy of a different religion, thus challenging an inviolable taboo and causing a rift between their fathers. As the families resolve their differences, the Six Day War breaks out in the Middle East, which will divide Jews and Arabs the world over.
Etre et Avoir: LA694 .E87 2002 DVD
Charting the events within a small single-class village school over the course of one academic year, Etre et avoir takes a warm look at primary education in the French heartlands.
Exils: PN1997 .E95 2006 DVD In French with English subtitles
A young Arabic couple, Zano and Naima, leave Paris with no money, jobs, or connections, and travel to their ancestral home of Algeria, in search of re-connecting with their roots. While traveling they encounter Leila and Habib, an Algerian couple traveling to France. Leila gives Zano and Naima a letter of introduction to her family, and after a long journey they eventually arrive in Algeria and are befriended by Leila's brother Said. Now with Said as a guide, Zano and Naima explore the city and immediately discover a land that is truly removed from the culture they had left in France.
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain: PN1997 .A45 2002 DVD
Amelie is a young woman who had a decidedly unusual childhood; misdiagnosed with an unusual heart condition, Amelie didn't attend school with other children, but spent most of her time in her room, where she developed a keen imagination and an active fantasy life. Despite all this, Am?lie has grown into a healthy and beautiful young woman who works in a cafe and has a whimsical, romantic nature. She decides to step into the lives of others around her to help them out.
La Faute à Fidel: PQ4863.A365 F3 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
Caught up in the political revolution sweeping France in the early 1970s, Fernando and Marie reject the comforts of their bourgeois life and dedicate themselves full time to radical activism. This comes as a shock to their precocious nine year-old daughter, Anna, who struggles to understand her parents' newfound ideals.
La Femme Nikita: PN1997 .F46 2003 DVD
Thriller about a street junkie who is arrested and rather than going to jail is sent to a secret government training center for assassins. She is transformed into a sleek, calculating bombshell with a license to kill. When she rejoins the real world she falls in deeply in love with a man who knows nothing about her. Now she must choose between the deceitful maneuverings of her dual identity or a life-threatening mission that will shape her life.
Feux Rouges: PQ2637.I53 F4 2005 DVD In French with English subtitles
It's a summer holiday weekend in Paris. Antoine, an insurance salesman, and his wife Helene are off to the south of France to pick up their children from camp. While they are on the road they begin to quarrel and Antoine pulls over for a drink at a bar along the highway. When he returns, Helene is gone and he is forced to continue the journey without her. He eventually gives a hitchhicker a lift, but soon suspects that the young man may be a fugitive from the police, and might also have met his wife earlier that evening.
Le Fils: PN1997 .F55 2004 DVD
Oliver is working as a carpentry instructor in a French suburb. He develops an obsession with a new student and offers him friendship and advice with a frightening lack of affection. Oliver's connection to the boy is slowly and painfully revealed.
Fin Août, Début Septembre: PN1997 .F555 2003 DVD In French with English subtitles
Examining several relationships over a year's span, capturing varying textures and shades of feeling between people from late August of one year until early September of the next. Gabriel and Jenny separate, despite the affection that still binds them. A new love develops between Gabriel and young designer Anne as they overcome their fears and uncertainties. At his publishing job, much of Gabriel's emotional energy is spent on his close friend Adrien, a once-promising novelist whose recent writing failed to repeat the critical and commercial success of his early novels. Jenny, who remains friends with Adrien, embarks on a new relationship with Jeremie. When an old illness reappears, Adrien must come to terms with an early death; he begins an affair with 15-year-old schoolgirl Vera. The personal tragedy of Adrien's death impacts the fabric of friendships, as the individuals in the group reflect on death, life, and the future.
Flandres: PN1997 .F5793 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
André is forced to leave his secret love, Barbe, to serve as a soldier. On his last night of freedom, he witnesses Barbe and another local sleeping together in a parking lot. A twist of fate forces the two men to fight side by side.
For Ever Mozart: PN1997 .F66 2005 DVD
For ever Mozart is an episodic film that follows a theater troop from France attempting to put on a play in Sarajevo. Along their journey they are captured and held in a POW camp, and they call for help from their friends and relations in France.
Frontier(s): PN1997 .F76 2008 DVD In French with English subtitles
Using a political protest and race riots as cover, a group of young Parisians pull off a robbery, then flee and hide out in a country inn near the French border. There they encounter a neo-Nazi innkeeper and his cannibal family, who are bent on preserving the master race.
Genealogies d'un Crime: PN1997 .G45 2005 DVD
Based on the case of Hermine van Hug, a 1920s psychoanalyst who believed that criminal tendencies are formed at age five and who labeled her nephew a murderer before he reached adolescence. The nephew proved her right by strangling her.
Germinal: PQ2504 .G4 1994
The story of a miner's strike that destroys one family, yet plants the seeds of change for future generations.
The Girl From Paris: PN1997 .H568 2004 DVD
Sandrine is a successful Parisienne who tires of her job in the rat race and decides to buy Adrien's isolated farm with the caveat that he remain onsite for a period of time. A touching story of growth and change and of the glorious ability of nature to stir the depths of one's heart.
Les Goût des Autres: PN1997 .G687 2000 DVD In French with English subtitles
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!
La Haine: PN1997 .H35 2004 DVD Region 2
Said is an Arab, Hubert is black, and Vinz is a Jew, all of them young, unemployed and living in a dreary, troubled Paris suburb, largely inhabited by poor immigrant families. Each of them needs to vent the anger they feel about the police brutality that landed another friend in the hospital. The film focuses on one day in the lives of these three hoodlum friends and the result is a brutal, harrowing study of the cyclical nature of violence.
La Haine: PN1997 .H35 2007 DVD
Said is an Arab, Hubert is black, and Vinz is a Jew, all of them young, unemployed and living in a dreary, troubled Paris suburb, largely inhabited by poor immigrant families. Each of them needs to vent the anger they feel about the police brutality that landed another friend in the hospital. The film focuses on one day in the lives of these three hoodlum friends and the result is a brutal, harrowing study of the cyclical nature of violence.
Handling social situations with finesse: PC2129.E5 H3 2002
Part 2 of a six-part video series filmed in the south of France, which introduces the necessary components of contemporary conversational French for beginners and spotlights cultural aspects of France.
Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien: PN1997 .H3761 2001 DVD In French with English subtitles
Michel, who wrote poetry, and Harry, a rich spoiled brat, were school chums. Now twenty years later, Michel, who is married with three young girls, meets up with Harry on the way to Michel's summer home. Harry "forces" his way into their lives and nothing will be the same again. Trying to make Michel's life "easier", Harry embarks on a path that will become self-destructive.
Au Hasard Balthazar: PN1997 .A96 2005 DVD In French with English subtitles
Follows the donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations beyond his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of man. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly.
Hiroshima Mon Amour: PN1997 .H57 2003 DVD
A Japanese architect and a French actress engage in a brief intense affair in Hiroshima in 1959. Both deal with their personal memories of World War II--he by articulating his firsthand experience with nuclear disaster, she by remembering her traumatic affair with a German soldier.
L'Histoire d'Adele H.: PQ2295.7 .H57 2001 DVD
Based on the true story of Adele Hugo's obsessive love affair which led her to run away from home to follow her womanizing lover across an ocean to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
L'homme de Sa Vie: PN1997 .H655 2008 DVD In French with English subtitles
Frederic, his wife Frederique, and their entire clan are spending another summer in their family house deep in the verdant Provencale countryside. A solitary gay man, Hugo, has moved in next door. After a convivial dinner, Frederic and Hugo stay up on the terrace until dawn, exchanging their radically different visions of love. Entirely unaware of their exchange, Frederique nonetheless notices a distance opening up between her and her husband, and a powerful bond developing between Frederic and Hugo a bond which grows stronger daily.
L'homme du Train: PN1997 .H66 2003 DVD
Two strangers, a criminal named Milan and a retired poetry teacher, Manesquier, meet in a sleepy French village and gradually become unlikely friends. As their friendship grows, each develops a desire to trade his life with that of the other.
8 Femmes: PN1997 .H85 2002 DVD
A wealthy industrialist is found murdered in his home while his family gathers for the holiday season. The house is isolated and the phone lines have been found to be cut. Eight women are his potential murderers. Each is a suspect and each has a motive. Only one is guilty.
Le Hussard Sur le Toit: PQ2613.I57 H8 1996 DVD
In a world ravaged by revolution and violence, two strangers--a handsome renegade and a beautiful countess--find their only chance for survival in each other! Together they undertake a perilous cross-country journey where they will also discover unmatched danger, excitement ... and passion!
Indigenes: PN1997 .I53 2007 DVD
The tale of a 1943 WWII French Algerian Unit facing discrimination by its European counterparts due to prejudice and ignorance. The French armed forces are preparing to land troops in Europe to win back their homeland from the Axis Powers, but they cannot accomplish their task without recruiting men from their African colonies. The Africans themselves start their long journey full of hope and anticipation, but as they get closer to their goal they realize that their enemy is not necessarily the Germans.
Indochine: PN1997 .I5 1993
Set in French Indochina in the 1930s as the Vietnamese begin to rebel against French colonialism. Dramatizes the last years of French rule through the relationship between plantation owner Eliane, French by birth but born and raised in Indochina, and her adopted daughter Camille, an orphaned Annamese princess who becomes a Vietnamese revolutionary and representative at the Geneva Conference after having a child by French officer Jean-Baptiste, Eliane's past lover.
Indochine: PN1997 I545 1999 DVD In French with English subtitles
Set in French Indochina in the 1930s as the Vietnamese begin to rebel against French colonialism. Dramatizes the last years of French rule through the relationship between plantation owner Éliane, French by birth but born and raised in Indochina, and her adopted daughter Camille, an orphaned Annamese princess who becomes a Vietnamese revolutionary and representative at the Geneva Conference after having a child by French officer Jean-Baptiste, Éliane's past lover.
L'intouchable: PN1997 .I583 2008 DVD In French with English subtitles
On her birthday, Jeanne, learns from her mother that her father is Indian, a Hindu she met on her travels. An 'Untouchable,' her mother says. Intending to find her father, Jeanne sets out on her own for the vastness of India. In the hope that she will find what she is looking for, she immerses herself into the jumble and life of a continent that is totally foreign to her. Eventually, she befriends a young man who acts as a guide, assisting her and introducing her to the mysteries of India.
Jean de Florette: PQ2631.A26 J4 2001 DVD
The story of Jean Cadoret, a man who inherits a farm from his mother and foolishly hopes to become a gentleman farmer. But even before he arrives, his powerful neighbor is plotting to steal his land.
Jeanne et le Garcon Formidable: PN1997 .J42 2000 DVD
Always in a hurry, Jeanne is a beautiful young woman with a profusion of boyfriends. Then one day, she meets Olivier, the true love she's been searching for. When Olivier tells Jeanne that he's HIV positive, she refuses to get upset. Her devotion to Olivier is intense and unswerving.
Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion: PN1997 .G73 1990
Duty and honor conflict in a German prisoner of war camp during World War I, when an aristocratic French officer becomes friends with the commandant yet must cooperate with his comrades in a daring escape.
Je Rentre a la Maison: PN1997 .J47 2003 DVD
Gilbert Valance is a successful theater actor who learns that his wife, daughter, and son-in-law have been killed in a car accident. Over time, Valence's life regains a semblance of normalcy - he takes care of his orphaned grandson, strolls the streets of Pairs, frequents his favorite cafe and returns to the stage. But when an American film director casts him against type in an English-language production of Ulysses, Valance struggles to master the dialogue and his own emotions.
Jeux Interdits: PQ2603.O878 J4 2005 DVD In French and English with English subtitles
Set in France during World War II. Paulette, a five-year-old refugee from Paris is taken in by a peasant family after her parents are killed during a bombardment of a civilian convoy. Michel Dolle, the family's 11-year-old son, becomes her best friend, and they create a cemetery in which Paulette's dog is interred, along with other animals and insects, some of whom the children kill themselves. The Dolle family is too busy feuding with the Gouards, their neighbors, to notice the absence of the children. Eventually, authorities locate Paulette and insist that she be placed in an orphanage for legal adoption.
Journal d'un curé de campagne: PQ 2603.E5875 J6 2004 DVD In French with English subtitles
A new priest arrives in the French country village of Ambricourt to attend to his first parish. The rural congregation rejects him immediately. Through his country diary entries, the suffering young man relays a crisis of faith that threatens to drive him away from the village and God.
Jules et Jim: PQ2635.O1958 J8 2005 DVD
Considered Truffaut's greatest film, this is a story of friendship between two artists and their mutual love for the same woman.
Lancelot du Lac: PQ1445.L3 L3 2004 DVD In French with English subtitles
Set in the last days of the quest for the Holy Grail. King Arthur's knights return to Camelot, their ranks badly reduced and their morale gone. Lancelot in particular feels responsible for the failure of the mission, due to his love affair with Queen Guinevere. The discouragement that Lancelot brings back to the court foreshadows the end of the Round Table ranks.
Juste une Question d'Amour: PN1997 .J87 2005 DVD
Laurent, a 23 year-old student, shares an apartment with his best friend, Carole, using their relationship to deflect questions about his private life. This perfect ruse falls when he meets and falls in love with Cedric, a young man completely comfortable with and unburdened by his homosexuality
Un Long Dimanche de Fiancailles: PQ2678.O72 L6 2005 DVD
Mathilde is waiting desperately for her fianc? to return from the war. When bad news arrives she refuses to believe he is dead. Instead, she begins her own investigation into his infantry, hiring a private detective and piecing together his war stories.
The Lover: PQ2607.U8245 L6 1996 In English
A poor French teenager embarks on a love affair with a wealthy Chinese man in 1929 French colonial Vietnam, defying the boundaries of age, race and class.
The Lover: PQ2607.U8245 L6 2006 DVD In English
Set in French Indochina in 1929. A poor French teenager is sent to a Saigon boarding school. While there she begins an affair with a 32-year-old wealthy Chinese man. However, they both soon realize their love cannot last, because of her mentally-ill mother and drug-addicted brother would not approve of an interracial affair. But then neither would his family, since in order to inherit his father's wealth, he must not break from a traditional Chinese arranged marriage.
Ma Saison Preferee: PN1997 .M38 1997 DVD
Drama exploring the relationship between Emilie and her brother Antoine during an emotional eruption of their dysfunctional family
Ma Vie en Rose: PN1997 .M39 1999 DVD In French with English subtitles
Ludovic is waiting for a miracle. With six-year-old certainty, he believes he was meant to be a little girl and that the mistake will soon be corrected. But where he expects the miraculous, Ludo finds only rejection, isolation and guilt--as the intense reactions of family, friends, and neighbors strip away every innocent lace and bauble.
Madame Bovary: PQ2246 .M2 2002 DVD
Emma Bovary is a woman possessed by a burning hunger for life and love--and a passion that can never be fulfilled. Feeling trapped in a loveless marriage, Emma indulges herself in a lifestyle of reckless overspending and a series of shocking affairs which threaten to destroy her and everyone around her
Manon des Sources: PQ2631.A26 M3 2001 DVD
Ten years after the tragic events of Jean de Florette, Manon (Jean's daughter) seeks revenge against those she holds responsible for her father's death.
La Mariée était en noir: PS3515.O6455 M3 2001 DVD In French with English subtitles
The film follows the story of an obsessed woman who will stop at nothing to avenge her husband's death. Julie, a beautiful young bride, has just married her childhood sweetheart and love of her life. But just moments after the ceremony, her beloved is murdered on the steps of the church. Emotionally distraught, Julie becomes obsessed with her bridegroom's death and begins a descent into madness as she relentlessly pursues the men responsible. One by one, Julie sees to their demise, and, with each murder more bone chilling and diabolically clever than the last, the question is not who will be next--but rather how they will meet their ghastly end
Marius and Jeannette: PN1997 .M3776 2006 DVD
In a small port outside of Marseilles, an animated circle of friends and neighbors join to share in the funny, colorful and off-beat love story of Marius and Jeannette. The vivacious, loud-mouthed Jeannette first meets Marius when he catches her trying to steal paint from the grounds of the cement factory he was hired to guard. Although it's a precarious beginning, the two quickly turn their initial attraction into a budding romance. However, just as their relationship begins to flourish, the warm-hearted Marius retreats with no explanation. Troubled with Marius' mysterious withdrawal, Jeannette's spirited neighbors decide to intervene with hopes of helping the two unlikely lovers save their romance.
Merci pour le Chocolat: PS3501.R566 M4 2000 DVD In French with English subtitles
Mika, wife of celebrated pianist André Polonski and stepmother to his son, Guillaume, whose mother died in a carwreck on his sixth birthday. Their lives are interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Jeanne, a young woman who has learned that she was almost switched at birth with Guillaume. Also a pianist, she harbours a suspicion that she may be André's daughter.
Le Moine et la Sorciere: PN1997 .M65 1988
A drama set in the 13th century concerning a Dominican friar, sent by the Pope to seek out heretics, and a forest woman who performs ancient healing rituals. A historically accurate dramatization of the conflict between ancient customs and religious dogma.
Moliere: PQ1842 M65 2008 DVD In French with English subtitles
Moliere is a playwright who's in debt. The wealthy Jourdain offers to cover that debt so that Moliere's theatrical talents might help Jourdain win the heart of a certain widowed marquise. Disguised as a priest, Moliere becomes a guest in Jourdain's palace on the subtext of teaching Jourdain the craft of the stage, all this to the annoyance of Jourdain's wife, Elmire. But, soon after, the confrontation between Elmire and Moliere turns seductive. Jourdain enlists the aid of a well-connected and scheming acquaintance to help him pursue the widowed marquise.
Mon Meilleur Ami: PN1997 .M655 2006 DVD In French with English subtitles
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. Enlisting the assistance of charming taxi driver Bruno, François goes to outrageous lengths to be a likeable guy.
Monsieur Hire: PQ2637.I53 M6 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
Set in a French apartment block, Monsieur Hire endures a lonely life of work as a tailor and scorn from his neighbors. Hire's only comfort is an occasional night out bowling and the admiration of his neighbor, Alice, a young woman who is having an affair through un-drawn curtains across the way. But when police discover the nude body of another young woman in a nearby vacant lot, Hire becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation, bringing him face to face with Alice.
Monsieur Lbrahim et les Fleurs du Coran: PQ2679.C37844 M6 2004 DVD
An elderly Turkish Muslim grocer befriends a lonely teenage Jewish boy in a working class section of Paris.
Monsieur N: DC203 .M66 2005 DVD In French with English Subtitles
After his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to the South Atlantic island of St. Helena, where he died a few years later. Or did he? Using a combination of historical records and creative speculation, Monsieur N creates a fascinating portrait of the Emperor's exile and the implication that Napoleon escaped St. Helena so cleverly that his disappearance has remained undiscovered to this day.
Mouchette: PQ2603.E5875 M6 2006 DVD In French with English subtitles
Faced with a dying mother, an absent, alcoholic father, and a baby brother in need of care, the teenage Mouchette seeks solace in nature and daily routine, a respite from her economic and pubescent turmoil.
Moulin Rouge: PS3523.A465 M6 2004 DVD
As a dwarf, Toulouse-Lautrec believes he's too ugly to ever fall in love. So he loses himself in painting ... and cognac. A fixture at Paris' infamous turn-of-the-century Moulin Rouge nightclub, Lautrec meets a girl from the street ... who breaks his heart.
La Moustache: PQ2663.A7678 M6 2007 DVD
"What would you think if I shaved my moustache?" asks Marc of his wife, Agnes, one fateful night as they prepare to visit friends for dinner. She's never seen him without it, but while she goes to do some last-minute shopping, he impulsively shaves the moustache off. Thus begins a tragic odyssey that leads Marc to question every relationship in his life, and even his own identity. Marc's journey into darkness begins when Agnes returns home. At first, he playfully tries to conceal what he's done. When he finally reveals his bare face to her, with a flourish, her reaction is...nonexistent. She baffles him by appearing not to notice the change. Confused, he says nothing, and they proceed with their plans for the evening. When the couple's friends Serge and Nadia also fail to make note of the change in Marc's appearance, he begins to get angry, believing that Agnes is playing an elaborate prank on him. In the car on the way home, he loses his temper, and it's her turn to be baffled. What moustache? How can she have noticed that he shaved his moustache when he's never had one? While Agnes begins to question her husband's sanity, Marc frantically searches for evidence of his former facial hair. Things only get worse for Marc, as no one at his job remembers him having a moustache either, and before long, he discovers that there are other details of his life that only he remembers.
Napoleon: DC203 .N37 1986 v.1 - v.2
A historical epic on the life of Napoleon from boyhood to military triumph including treatment of the French Revolution.
Nathalie Granger: PQ2607.U8245 N3 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
An unnamed expressionless woman lives with her equally expressionless friend Isabelle Granger and her troubled elementary school-aged daughter Nathalie Granger and younger no problem child. The women are concerned that Nathalie is reported by her teacher to have behaved exceedingly violent, and the seemingly well-heeled Isabelle decides to transfer her daughter to the more progressive school, Datkin, but is upset to learn that they will not force Nathalie to take piano lessons--even if mommy insists she continue with her lessons, as the concerned parent seems to think that stopping the lessons would ruin her daughter's life. At home, Nathalie appears to be a docile child who seems content just playing with her frisky cat or seems serene when playing with her playmate Laurence by the nearby pond.
Notre-Dame de Paris: PQ2288 .A23 1999 DVD In French with English subtitles
Notre Dame de Paris is a French-Canadian musical which debuted on 16 September 1998 in Paris. It is based upon the novel Notre Dame de Paris by the French novelist Victor Hugo. The story is one of love and Quasimodo's secret feelings for the beautiful Esmeeralda. Quasimodo is in love with the bohemian girl; but she loves Phoebus, the fiance of Fleur-de-Lys. Frollo, the priest of Notre-Dame cathedral, feels uncontrolled and violent desires for Esmeeralda: jealous, he steals Phoebus. However, the bohemian girl is wrongly found guilty. Quasimodo manages to free her and takes her to one of the cathedral towers. Sadly, the story ends with both Esmeralda and Quasimodo dying.
Nuit et Brouillard: D805.G3 N8 1997
Combines film footage and photography shot inside Nazi concentration camps with scenes of the death camps taken 10 years after the war. Narration describes the horrors that took place there
Oriana: PN1997 .O75 2004 DVD
Marie returns to a rundown Venezuelan house in the jungle where she spent summers as a child. Her return ignites memories of a summer when her adolescent sexual curiosity led to a surprising encounter.
Le Papillon: PN1997 .P37 2004 DVD
Legendary actor Michel Serrault stars as Julien, an ornery butterfly collector. When eight-year-old Elsa moves in next door, she adopts Julien as her grandpa. When Julien travels to the Alps on an expedition, he discovers an uninvited guest - Elsa!
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg: PN1997 .P376 2004 DVD
Genevieeve, 17, lives with her widowed mother who owns an umbrella shop in Cherbourg. She and Guy, an auto mechanic, are in love and want to marry. Her mother disagrees, thinking Genevieeve is too young and Guy is not wealthy enough. Guy leaves for a two year army leave and Genevieeve is pregnant. She still loves Guy, although she receives little news from him. Because the baby needs a father, she marries Roland Cassard, a rich gem dealer, who fell in love with her at first sight and promises to bring up the child as his own.
Paris, Je T'aime: PN1997 .P378 2007 DVD In English and French with English subtitles
18 short films present different perspectives of life in Paris, France. Some of which include; The racial tensions and paranoia of the city felt by an American tourist. A young foreign worker moves from her own domestic situation into her employer's upper-class neighborhood. An American actress finds escape as she is shooting a movie. A man is torn between his wife and his lover. A young man working in a print shop unknowingly encounters the affections of another young man. A father grapples with his complex relationship with his daughter. An elderly couple tries to add spice to their sex life. An American actress falls in love with a blind French student. A grieving mother is greeted by a spectral cowboy while she looks for her son. A housekeeper longs for her own child as she tends to the infant of her wealthy employer. A postal worker from Colorado shares her thoughts on her visit to Paris in broken French.
La Passion de Jeanne D'Arc: DC103 .P37 1999 DVD
Dramatization of the life of Joan of Arc centering on her trial and execution.
Persepolis: PK6562.29.A87 P4 2008 DVD In French with English subtitles; dubbed in English
Marjane is precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl who was nine years old during the Islamic Revolution when the fundamentalists first take power--forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. She cleverly outsmarts the "social guardians" and discovers punk, ABBA and Iron Maiden, while living with the terror of government persecution and the Iran/Iraq war. Then Marjane's journey moves on to Austria where, as a teenager, her parents send her to school in fear for her safety and, she has to combat being equated with the religious fundamentalism and extremism she fled her country to escape. Marjane eventually gains acceptance in Europe, but finds herself alone and horribly homesick, and returns to Iran to be with her family, although it means putting on the veil and living in a tyrannical society. After a difficult period of adjustment, she enters art school and marries, continuing to speak out against the hypocrisy she witnesses. At age 24, she realizes that while she is deeply Iranian, she cannot live in Iran. She then makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her homeland for France, optimistic about her future, shaped indelibly by her past.
Petit Home: PN1997 .P48 2005 DVD
Sixteen-year-old Tom is sent to a group home when his mother goes into a coma after a car accident. He is forced to cope with other young punks as well as a stern headmaster. He sneaks away from the group home and dedicates himself to helping his mom.
Le Petit Lieutenant: PN1997 .P489 2007 DVD
In French with English subtitlesAntoine, an ambitious young rookie cop from Normandy, joins an elite plainclothes crime unit in Paris. He is happy, but misses his wife, who prefers the countryside and has stayed behind. His co-workers, drinking buddies, and mentors include cynical veteran Mallet and Moroccan Muslim Solo. Antoine also develops a close relationship with his supervisor, Inspector Vaudieu, a recovering alcoholic who develops maternal feelings towards Antoine. When the body of a Polish drifter is found murdered along the Seine, a seemingly routine investigation suddenly turns violent and changes Antoine's life forever.
Le Petit Soldat: PN1997 .P49 2001 DVD
Set during the Algerian War, [the film] follow Bruno Forestier, a disillusioned young deserter who becomes involved in the French nationalist movement. He is ordered to kill an Algerian sympathizer, and although he does not hold deep political beliefs, commits the murder and undergoes torture when captured. At the same time, he meets and falls in love with a woman who he does not know is fighting for the other side.
La Petite Jerusalem: PN1997 .P488 2006 DVD
In a Paris suburb nicknamed Little Jerusalem, a family of Sephardic Orthodox immigrants shares a low-income apartment. Beautiful, teenaged Laura distances herself from her family's religion and her own burgeoning desire by devoting every waking moment to intellectual discipline and secular philosophy. Mathilde, Laura's married older sister, worries that strict observance of the Torah's marital codes has driven her husband Ariel into the bed of another. When Laura falls under the spell of Djamel, a handsome Muslim journalist, and Mathilde discovers that her worst fears are true, the two very different sisters find themselves in very similar crises.
Phedre: PQ1898 .A3 1999
Motion picture based on Racine's classic French drama, which was based on the Greek legend of Theseus, who returned from war with the Minoans to become king of Athens, and took Phedre, daughter of the vanquished King Minos, to be his wife. Phedre falls in love with Theseus' son Hippolyte, who does not return her love. In anger she prays to Neptune to destroy him, but when Hippolyte is in fact killed after fighting a sea monster, Phedre kills herself in remorse.
Phedre: PQ1898 .A3 2003 DVD In French with No English subtitles
According to Greek legend, Theseus returned from war on Crete to become a king of Athens and took Phèdre, the daughter of the vanquished King Minos, to be his wife. Phèdre fell in love with the king's son Hippolyte, but he did not return her love. Phèdre caused the king to be wrongly jealous of his son and prayed to Neptune to destroy him. Hippolyte was killed by a sea monster and Phèdre killed herself in remorse.
Pierrot le Fou: PS3573.H4738 P5 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
Set in the 1960s in the south of France. When Ferdinand's wife hires Marianne, an ex-lover of Ferdinand's, as a baby-sitter, his life changes forever. As he drives Marianne home, Ferdinand decides to leave his bourgeoisie lifestyle behind and run away with her. The couple ends up getting caught in the middle of a mysterious gun-running scheme involving Marianne's brother.
Le Placard: PN1997 .P533 2001 DVD
Francois Pignon, a very bland sort of man who works as an accountant in a condom factory, is about to be fired. His new neighbor comes up with an idea to prevent such a thing from happening: he creates photos and then spreads the rumor that Francois is gay so that the factory management might be afraid they'll be sued for sexual discrimination. Of course, nothing happens as it should, but the changes in Francois Pignon's life-- and other people too - is drastic!
Place Vendome: PN1997 .P54 2002 DVD
Marianne is the wife of a famous diamond jeweler. When he suddenly commits suicide, she learns that the business is in shambles and she is drawn back into the jewel dealing world. Forced to sell a cache of stolen gems her husband hid in their home, she finds herself confronted by plenty of would-be suitors, including the Russian mafia and the De Beers diamond cartel.
Ponette: PN1997 .P66 1998 DVD
Sent to live with her relatives, Ponette experiences the hopes, dreams and fears of a child following the loss of a parent. Ultimately, it is her faith, love and strength of character that enables Ponette to triumphantly overcome her tragedy.
Portraits Chinois: PN1997 .P67 2003 DVD
An amusing look at a circle of friends in Paris and their romantic difficulties
Les Poupées Russes: PN1997 .P69 2006 DVD In French with English subtitles
Xavier has given up his aspirations of a career in international finance, but his new path as a writer is not going as well as he hoped. His novel about his experiences in Spain has yet to be published, and lately he's been writing scripts for a French soap opera. When Xavier lands an assignment writing an autobiography for fashion model Celia Shelburn, he finds himself traveling between Paris and London. In London, Xavier becomes reacquainted with Wendy, whom he met during his time in Spain, and he attempts to form a new relationship with her. However, Xavier is also interested in Celia. Needing romantic advice, Xavier turns to his lesbian friend, Isabelle, who offers her understanding of women as well as a spare bedroom in her flat. Xavier also gets pointers from his ex-girlfriend Martine, who has a child and is trying to sort out her own romantic troubles.
La Promesse: PN1997 .P76 1996 DVD
The life of a fifteen-year old changes forever when he makes a promise to a dying m
Une Pure Formalite: PN1997 .P985 1995
A famed French novelist is found, breathless and disoriented, in a small provincial town and is interrogated about the identity of a mutilated murder victim.
Les Quatre Cents Coups: PN1997 .Q83 1999 DVD
Fourteen-year-old Antoine Doinet lives in a cramped apartment with his mother and stepfather, neglected by them and unlucky at school. Living an intense imaginative life of his own he gets into trouble and is finally committed to reform school from which he escapes and runs towards the sea, which he has never seen.
Que la Fete Commence: PN1997 .L48 2004 DVD
France, 1719. Louis 14th died four years ago and Philippe d'Orleans is the new regent. This film is a description of the court in this famed period of transition where the French Revolution smolders.
La Question Humaine: PQ2665.M53 Q4 2008 DVD In French with English subtitles
Simon Kessler, is a psychologist working for a multinational petrochemical corporation, SC Farb. His successful role in a corporate downsizing proved to SC Farb's director that Simon is perfect for a delicate situation concerning the firm's head-office in Germany. The Germans want a report on a CEO named Mathias Just, who they fear is unfit for his role. But Just becomes aware of Simon's investigation and challenges Simon with confidential information relating SC Farb to crimes against humanity reaching back to WWII.
Rachida: PN1997 .R33 2004 DVD
Rachida lives and teaches in an old neighbourhood in Algeria. Like most of the people in Algeria, she thinks she is far removed from the bloody conflict the country is in, until one day she is attacked by a terrorist group. The terrorists ask her to plant a bomb in her school. After refusing, they shoot her in cold blood. Miraculously, she is saved and seeks refuge in a neighbouring village and must overcome succumbing to her anger and hate and be the schoolteacher she was born to be.
Raja: PN1997 .R35 2004 DVD
Raja is a nineteen year old orphan literally and figuratively scarred by life. Fred is an emotionally bankrupt westerner living amid his plush gardens and palm trees. Set against the backdrop of contemporary Marrakech, Raja is a cross-cultural drama about a wealthy middle-aged Frenchman's complex relationship with local youth. Fred's attempts to seduce Raja, and their mutual attempt at manipulation, are fractured by their gross disparity of income, age and cultural sophistication.
La Regle du Jeu: PN1997 .R44 2004 DVD
Cloaked in a comedy of manners, this scathing critique of corrupt French society is about a weekend hunting party at which amorous escapades abound among the aristocratic guests, which are also mirrored by the activities of the servants downstairs.
Rendez-vous: PN1997 .R461 2005 DVD In French with English subtitles
Nina moves to Paris to become an actress, once there she befriends Paulot, a real estate clerk infatuated with her. Though Nina intends to be true to Paulot, she begins a relationship with Paulot's roommate, Quentin, a self-centered actor who performs in live sex shows. After an affair with Nina, Quentin dies under questionable circumstances. Nina's search for answers to Quentin's sudden death leads her to Scrutzler, the theater director who had once cast Quentin in Romeo and Juliet. Scrutzler has similarly suffered a loss in his life: his Juliet was also his wife, who also died unexpectedly. Scrutzler casts the inexperienced Nina as Juliet and before long, both individuals find a common emotional ground.
Ressources Humaines: PN1997 .R475 2004 DVD
Frank's dad, a laborer, saved his whole life to give him a good education. Now, back home with a management job at his dad's company, Frank is torn between his old life and new responsibilities. Thinking he understands both sides, he gets in the middle of a union dispute that risks his reputation and his father's future
Le Retour de Martin Guerre: PN1997 .R48 1997 DVD
The plot revolves around the unraveling of the identity of a 16th century peasant who disappeared as a young husband, and the man who returns to resume his marriage nine years later.
The Return of Martin Guerre: PN1997 .R48 1984 (In English)
Set in 16th century France, the action is based on an actual case that took place in a small peasant village. Martin Guerre disappeared as a young husband and returns years later to resume his marriage and life. He is denounced as an impostor and a trial is demanded. Not until the very last minutes of a tension-filled courtroom sequence is the situation resolved.
Ridicule: PN1997 .R53 2003 DVD
Fish out-of-water drama has a minor country aristocrat enter the depraved world of the 18th century court at Versailles.
Le Rouge et le Noir: PQ2435.R7 R6 2006 DVD
Set in 1830's France, this is the story of an ambitious man of humble birth, his spiritual misguidance and his struggle to succeed in a world dominated by the snobbish thinking partisans of absolute monarchy.
Le Scaphandre et le Papillon: PN1997 .S335 2008 DVD In French with English subtitles
The French editor of Elle magazine, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who, in 1995 at the age of 43, suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body, except his left eye. Using that eye to blink out his memoir, Bauby eloquently described the aspects of his interior world, from the psychological torment of being trapped inside his body to his imagined stories from lands he'd only visited in his mind.
Six in Paris: PN1997 .S59 2008 DVD In French with English subtitles
Six directors release six vignettes set in different sections of Paris. Includes: Saint-Germain-des-Pres: An American girl in Paris, in love with the myth of the Left Bank, is picked up by two different men who give her the same line; Gare du Nord: A young wife, bored with her mild, unambitious husband, dreams of wealth and romance. On her way to work she has a chance encounter with a man who offers her everything she has ever wanted; Rue Saint-Denis: A battle-fatigued hooker returns to the home of her reluctant customer, a virginal dishwasher; Place de l'Etoile: A timid salesclerk believes he has accidentally murdered a fellow pedestrian. In flight, he has to cope with the madness of traffic in Paris; Montparnasse and Levallois: A woman dears she has mixed up letters to her two boyfriends, one a modern sculptor and the other a garage mechanic; La Muette: Fed up with his bourgeois parents' endless bickering, a young boy decides to exclude them from his life by means of earplugs.
Sorceress: PN1997 .S673 2008 DVD In French with English subtitles
Set in 13th century France, Etienne de Bourbon, a Dominican friar is sent by the Pope to seek out heretics in a small French village. Upon his arrival he meets a forest woman named Elda. Elda is respected in the village because she performs ancient healing rituals and understands the secrets of nature. However, as an inquisitor, Etienne must investigate Elda's rites and practices and in doing so reveal the conflict between ancient customs and religious dogma.
Sous le Sable: PN1997 .S68 2001 DVD
For years, Marie and Jean have spent their vacations at their country home. One day at the beach, Marie falls asleep while Jean goes for a swim. When she awakens, he is gone. Marie notifies the authorities and even after an extensive search, no body is found. Did he drown or did he just run off
Tartuffe: PQ1842 .A37 2003 DVD
When the religious charlatan Tartuffe insinuates himself into the household of the wealthy but credulous Orgon, it is not long before he takes over, acquiring the deed to the property, disinheriting Orgon's son, and becoming betrothed to Orgon's daughter. But when clever Elmire, Orgon's wife, trips up the imposter, Orgon throws him out-only to find himself arrested and his family evicted instead. A last-minute intervention by the King restores order and metes out justice. This play was suppressed twice before permission was given to perform it freely.
Tartuffe, or, The Imposter: PQ1842.A4 H2 1984
Posing as a holy man, the unctuous, cunning and evil Tartuffe, insinuates himself into the home of Orgon. Tartuffe almost succeeds in driving the son away, marrying the daughter, seducing the wife and depriving Orgon of all his possessions.
Temps qui changent: PN1997 .T447 2006 DVD
Antoine has held a torch for his first love Cecile for 30 years. Traveling to Tangiers, he hopes to rekindle their romance but is discouraged to learn that is now married to a Moroccan doctor several years her junior. Determined to have her fall in love with him again, Antoine ignores her protests and continues his pursuits.
Le Temps qui Reste: PN1997 .T45 2006 DVD
A successful fashion photographer learns that he has a malignant brain tumor. Hiding his diagnosis, he alienates his family and his young boyfriend, but during a short stay with his grandmother, his vulnerability is met with a big heart and sound advice. A chance encounter with a roadside cafe waitress results in an unusual bargain that provides a happy, playful dimension to the proceedings.
Le Temps Retrouve: PQ2631.R63 Z4 2001 DVD
Set in 1922, this film opens with Proust on his deathbed remembering his life. Gradually his own experiences give way to the characters in his novel.
La Terre: PQ2520 .T47 2003 DVD
As Jean is walking across the countryside in search of work, he helps and befriends a young woman, Françoise, who is having trouble controlling the cow that she is leading. Jean finds work at a local farm, but he soon finds himself caught in the middle of the conflicts in Françoise's family. Her uncle Fouan has just decided to divide everything that he has amongst his two sons and his daughter, hoping that he can then spend the rest of his life at ease. But the details of the division only create bitterness, rivalry, and intrigue.
Therese: PN1997 .T48 2002 DVD
St. Therese de Lisieux, a young woman who found personal joy and spiritual liberation within the restrictive traditions of an austere religious order. Wishing to dedicate her life to Christ, Therese enters a cloistered convent of Carmelite nuns at the age 15. But shortly after joining the order, she finds her devotion to the Lord tested by a grim battle against the debilitating effects of tuberculosis, for which she refuses any treatment.
La Tourneuse de Pages: PN1997 .T6791 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
While performing for the musical Conservatory examination board, young pianist Melanie finds her concentration altered when the chairwoman of the jury, Mme. Fouchecourt, herself a famous concert pianist, carelessly signs an autograph for a fan, causing Melanie to fail the exam. Years after her dreams of becoming a professional pianist are ruined, Melanie is still haunted by the past. So she sets up a plan to seek revenge on Mme. Fouchecourt, by becoming the woman's live-in nanny. Soon Melanie gains the trust of Mme. Fouchecourt to the extent that she requests Melanie to sit in on her recitals and become her personal page turner.
Tous les Matins du Monde: PQ2677.U486 T6 2006 DVD
A provocative tale of romance, lust, desire, and intrigue based on the lives of 17th century French composer Sainte Colombe and his protege, Marin Marais.
A Toute Vitesse: PN1997 .T68 2005 DVD
Examines issues of race, art, and romance both gay and straight in modern France through a quartet of very diverse young friends united by a common factor: their unrequited love for one another.
Trois Couleurs. Bleu: PN1997 .T76 2004 disc 1 In French with English subtitles
Three Colors: Blue is the first part of Kieslowski's trilogy on France's national motto: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. Blue is the story of Julie who loses her husband, an acclaimed European composer, and her young daughter in a car accident. The film's theme of liberty is manifested in Julie's attempt to start life anew free of personal commitments, belongings, grief, and love. She intends to spiritually commit suicide by withdrawing from the world and living completely independently, anonymously, and in solitude in the Parisian metropolis. Despite her intentions, people from her former and present life intrude with their own needs. However, the reality created by the people who need and care about her, a surprising discovery and the music around which the film revolves heals Julie and irresistably draws her back to the land of the living.
Trois Couleurs. Rouge: PN1997 .T76 1994
The final installment in the director's trilogy named after the colors of the French flag, Red is the story of a beautiful young woman and her meeting with an unusual stranger- a meeting that leads her down a path of intrigue and secrecy.
Trois Couleurs. Rouge: PN 1997 .T76 2003 disc 3 In French with English subtitles
A seductive story of forbidden love and the unknowable mystery of coincidence. A young model whose chance meeting with an unusual stranger leads her down a path of intrigue and secrecy. As her knowledge of the man deepens, she discovers an astonishing link between his past and her destiny.
Trop Belle Pour Toi: PN1997 .T77 2002 DVD In French with English subtitles
Bernard has an attractive wife, a stable career as a car dealer, and two loving children. But his perfect life spirals out of control when he falls madly in love with his new secretary, Colette, a plain looking middle-aged woman. Seemingly a happily married man, Bernard cannot understand what is happening to him. But his age has suddenly made him more vulnerable, a state of emotion that he eventually realizes Colette is able to connect with.
Vers la Sud: PQ3919.2.L163 V4 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
On the sun drenched island of Haiti in the 70's, foreigners idle away their vacations in the palm-fringed paradise of the beach hotels. Brenda, Ellen and Sue, three foreing women, converge on the island looking for flirtation, relaxation and respite from their colorless jobs and marriages. They find what they are looking for in Legba an enigmatic local adonis whose beauty and passion has them enthralled. It is this passion that will lead them away from the guilded cage of tourism and will open their eyes to the poverty stricken and dangerous world of Haiti at the end of Duvalier's notoriously violent regime.
La Vie en Rose: ML420.P52 V5 2007 DVD In French with English subtitles
Abandoned by her mother, Piaf grew up in her grandmother's brothel and her father's circus. While singing on the streets of Paris as a teen, Piaf is discovered by club owner Louis Leplee, and this chance encounter changes the woman's life. Middleweight boxer, Marcel Cerdan, captures her heart and gives her something to live for, besides her music, at least for a while. Her powerful voice takes her all over the globe, but it can't guard her from the pain and suffering she can't avoid.
Viva Laldjerie: PN1997 .V59 2004 DVD
Three women: a mother, her daughter, and a prostitute have been living in a hotel in the center of town amid creeping fundamentalism. Goucem, the daughter, has chosen a modern, emancipated life, spending steamy weekends in nightclubs. Fifi, her faithful friend, prostitutes herself under the thumb of a local protector. Papicha, the mother, eats pizzas in front of the television, torn between fear and nostalgia.
Voyages: PN1997 .V69 2005 DVD
From Poland to Paris to Tel Aviv, an intimate and personal story of the quests of three contemporary Jewish women whose lives and intertwining destinies create a moving and poignant story of survival.
Va Savoir: PN1997 .V37 2002 DVD
Camille is returning to Paris after leaving her stuffy boyfriend Pierre and residing in Italy. Her Italian theater company has brought her to France, where the show is run by her lover, director, and co-star Ugo. Ugo is concerned with the show's poor attendance, but also busy searching for a long-lost play by an Italian playwright. While on his quest, he discovers the beautiful young Do, a student who offers to help him. Do's mother has a library that may contain the lost play, and Ugo runs into her possessive half-sibling Arthur, a shady man pursuing an affair with Pierre's wife Sonia, who also has a questionable past. After a brooding dinner at Pierre and Sonia's home, tensions mount in everybody's relationships and their romantic journeys are similarly tested.
Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge: PN1997 .V68 2008 DVD In French with English subtitles
Set in modern day Paris, France. Seven-year-old Simon is dealing with the increased strain on his relationship with his loving mother, Suzanne, who is preoccupied with a court case involving a tenant downstairs. When a Taiwanese film student, Song, is hired to help care for Simon, an extended family is formed. The two become completely dependent on each other, yet both are lost in separate dreams mirrored by a delicate, shiny red balloon that follows them around Paris.
The Widow of Saint-Pierre: PN1997 .V48 2001 DVD
Based on a true story about revenge, fear and redemption. In 19th century St. Pierre, a convict sentenced to death strives to better himself in the eyes of the police chief's beautiful wife and that of the town that she has him working in. Since there is no guillotine or executioner, one of each has to be sent for from France.
A Year in Provence: PR6063.A8875 Y1-4 1993
Based on the bestseller by Peter Mayles.
Aime Cesaire: a Voice for History: PQ3949.C44 Z4 1994 pt.1-3
This series introduces the celebrated Martinican author who coined the term "negritude" and launched the movement called the "Great Black Cry." This three part study features many of the most important and artistic intellectual figures of the past six decades.
Algeria's Bloody Years: DT295.5 .A45 2003 DVD In English
Chronicles Algeria's struggle for democracy since independence from France, in 1962, tracing the rise of fundamentalist groups in the 1980s and 90s in response to the country's authoritarian leadership. The film examines Algeria's descent into a morass of massacres among the Islamic guerrillas, the military and civilians. Algeria's first democratic election since independence went to the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), but when they initiated Islamic reforms, protests erupted. With the FIS positioned to win the 1991 elections, the military circumvented the democratic process and canceled the vote, which brought about a massive revolt with many sent to prison camps that became breeding grounds for terrorism. This film provides an overview of these events through interviews with former Algerian generals, French government officials, Algerian journalists, and Islamic leaders.
Arlit, deuxième Paris: TD195.U7 A7 2005 DVD In French with English subtitles
Arlit, Deuxieme Paris is a case study in migration and environmental racism set in an uranium mining town in the Sahara desert of Niger. Here European corporations extracted nuclear power and profits, leaving behind illness due to radiation, contamination and unemployment. Arlit flourished during the oil crunch of the early 70s when its uranium mines employed 25,000 workers from around the world in high paying jobs. It has now become a ghost town, a place of transit.
Double Vie de Veronique: PN1997 .D68 1991
Born on the same day, a young Polish singer and a French music teacher and aspiring singer share the same talents and the same sense that somewhere there exists another person with whom her life is intertwined.
Haiti, Land of Tragedy: Haiti, Land of Hope: F1921 .H35 2004 DVD
The numbers alone are stunning: 8 millions inhabitants, 70 percent of who live below poverty line; a life expectancy of 50 years; a 65 percent illiteracy rate; and a 70 percent unemployment rate. Such is the recent population in Haiti, which ironically had its origins cast in optimism: the Haitians were the first people to abolish slavery in 1797 and establish a black republic. Yet the following years have brought the island a succession of violence, chaotic politics, and the railroading of national sovereignty for the benefit of few.
Hop: PN1997 .H665 2003 DVD In French with English subtitles
Justin is a boy living in Brussels with his father, Dieudonne, who, like Justin, is an illegal alien from Burundi. While an attentive student, Justin also has a mischievous streak, and after tapping into a neighbor's cable-television line in order to watch a football match, an angry neighbor threatens to report him to the police. Dieudonne takes the threat seriously enough to clear out of their apartment and go underground, with Justin in tow. Dieudonne is soon captured by the authorities, but Justin finds refuge with Frans and Gerda, a pair of radical leftists sympathetic to the plight of the illegal immigrants. When they learn that Dieudonne has been deported to the Congo. Frans and Gerda hire a lawyer to fight the matter in court, but Justin considers more direct action when he finds a cache of explosives hidden at Frans' place.
Rue Cases-Negres: PQ3949.Z6 R9 2004 DVD
The teenage life and adventures of young Jose, who lives in a shanty-town on Martinique in the mid-1930s, comprises the body of this film. Jose lives with his grandmother and is well aware of the French colonial presence. He gets into mischief, learns valuable lessons on living from an old former slave, drinks too much one time, and even sets fire to one of the run-down shanties. Regardless of his pranks, Jose never neglects his education.
La Vie Est Belle: PN1997 .V535 2000 DVD In French with English subtitles
La Vie est belle tells the rags to riches story of Kourou, a poor rural musician who realizes that to succeed in today's music world he must go to the city and break into radio and television. In Kinshasa he uses his wit and talent to win a beautiful wife, trick his greedy boss and succeed in singing his "theme song" on national television. Although the film is primarily entertainment, it reveals much about class divisions, male-female relations, the desires of the urban poor, and the economic and social problems confronting rural immigrants to the cities of Zaire.
Compiled by
Cindy Badilla-Melendez
Media Resources Librarian
