French Videos - last updated 12-10-12

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Director: Louis Malle.

Set during German occupation of France. Two boys become friends in a Catholic boarding school, one a gentile, the other a Jew. Their lives will change forever, when the Jewish boy's identity becomes known to the Gestapo.
LLC Library

1989; Runtime: 135 minutes; Language: French; Subtitles: English

Directors: Bertrand Tavernier
Actors: Philippe Noiret, Sabine Azéma, Pascale Vignal, Maurice Barrier, François Perrot

A year after WWI has ended, cynical Major Dellaplane (Philippe Noiret - Cinema Paradiso, The Postman) has the difficult task of identifying and interring thousands of fallen French soldiers anonymously languishing in field hospitals and littering the vast Verdun battlefield. Dellaplane has also become reluctant shepherd to an ad hoc society grown around the legions of widowed wives and mothers combing the French countryside for word of their loved ones. When a buried hospital train yields a fresh source of possibly recognizable bodies, Irene, a haughty Parisian aristocrat and Alice, a hopeful young schoolteacher, form an unlikely alliance with the Major. As the train's surprising cargo is revealed, the three searches must choose between life in a post-war world stripped of illusions or the seductive self-imprisonment of bitterness and mourning for days, lives and loves gone by.

Two copies, copy one VHS tape; copy two DVD with optional subtitles

1955 run time: 31 minutes color and black & white French with optional English subtitles DVD

Filmmaker: Alain Resnais

Ten years after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, filmmaker Alain Resnais documented the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek. One of the first cinematic reflections on the horrors of the Holocaust, Night and Fog (Nuit et Brouillard) contrasts the stillness of the abandoned camps' quiet, empty buildings with haunting wartime footage. With Night and Fog, Resnais investigates the cyclical nature of man's violence toward man and presents the unsettling suggestion that such horrors could come again.

2005 Run Time: 110 minutes Language: French Subtitles: English DVD

Actors: Daniel Auteuil, José Garcia, Sandrine Kiberlain, Marilyne Canto, Michèle Moretti
Director: Pierre Salvadori

A random act of kindness snowballs into vivid proof that "no good deed goes unpunished" in APRES VOUS, the irresistible French comedy that garnered actor Daniel Auteuil (GIRL ON THE BRIDGE, JEAN DE FLORETTE) a Cesar Award nomination for Best Actor. Antoine (Auteuil), a restaurant headwaiter; takes a shortcut through a park one night and spots Louis (Jose Garcia), a despondent, lovelorn stranger, attempting to kill himself. Antoine intervenes-despite Louis's vehement protests-and hustles him home to his apartment. And it isn't long before Antoine has decided to fix all that is wrong in Louis's life. He artfully intercepts a suicide note mailed to Louis's grandparents…riotously attempts to land Louis a job at his posh restaurant…and boldly attempts to mend the rifts between Louis and his former girlfriend, Blanche (Sandrine Kiberlain). But an unexpected twist of fate upsets Antoine's grandiose plans for Louis's "rehabilitation." Here's a surprising, dazzling comedy treat that sparkles like a bottle of fine wine.

2001 Run Time: 1 hour 59 minutes Language: French Subtitles: English DVD

Actors: Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Devos, Olivier Gourmet, Olivier Perrier, Olivia Bonamy
Directors: Jacques Audiard

As a secretary, Carla Behm is overqualified despite a disability that forces here to wear hearing aids in both ears. Still, her coworkers ridicule her daily for her plain looks, all the while taking credit for her best work. She's on the verge of cracking until she gets permission to hire an assistant.

Enter Paul Angeli. He's a suave, light-fingered ex-con unqualified for the simplest of tasks. However, when it comes time to steal a file a co-worker has pilfered from Carla's desk, Paul has all the skills that Carla requires. Soon he discovers Carla's uncanny ability to read lips, and their relationship becomes a seductive tango as Paul enlists Carla in a revenge plot against a crooked loan shark.

A masterfully crafted romantic thriller in the Hitchcock tradition, READ MY LIPS won Best Screenplay at the 2002 César Awards.

2005 Run Time: 91 minutes Language: French Subtitles: English DVD

Actors: Mathieu Kassovitz, Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde, Julie Mauduech
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz

An interracial trio comes to grips with impending parenthood in Mathieu Kassovitz's audacious comedy inspired by Spike Lee. Lola, a beautiful West Indian woman, brings her two lovers together in a surprise meeting to announce that she is pregnant and doesn't know which one of them is the father. A Jewish bike messenger and a rich African Muslim immediately hate each other in a rivalry fueled by their racial conflict and jealousy. Despite their differences, they share an apartment with Lola as they enthusiastically await the blessed event.

2002 Run Time: 114 minutes Language: French Subtitles: English DVD

Actors: Isabelle Adjani, Gérard Depardieu, Virginie Ledoyen, Yvan Attal, Grégori Derangère

Occupied France the subject of a deft, breezy comedy? Believe it. Bon Voyage gathers a collection of romantics, fools, and survivors, and puts them together in Bordeaux in 1940. Loosely arranged around the ditzy figure of a famous grand-dame actress (Isabelle Adjani), these hapless creatures trip over each other very amusingly during the course of a couple of frantic days. The central character is actually a young writer (the winning Gregori Derangere), who's torn between panting after the actress or aiding the pretty daughter (Virginie Ledoyen, 8 Women) of an important scientist trying to escape to England. It would be hard to say that any of this amounts to anything substantial, but director Jean-Paul Rappeneau whips it together very attractively, and the Bordeaux location offers luscious views of a pre-war city. Rappeneau's delightful 1966 comedy La Vie de Chateau, set in Normandy just before D-Day, treads some of the same turf. --Robert Horton

Two copies; copy one DVD without subtitles; copy two DVD with optional subtitles in English, Portuguese or Spanish

2004 Run Time: 80 minutes Language: French Subtitles: English DVD

Director: Philippe Muyl
Actors: Michel Serrault, Claire Bouanich, Nade Dieu, Jacques Bouanich, Jerry Lucas (II)

Legendary actor Michel Serrault stars as Julien, an ornery butterfly collector. When eight-year-old Elsa and her often-absent mother move into the apartment next to his, the persistent and curious Elsa adopts a reluctant Julien as her surrogate grandpa. But when Julien leaves town for a week-long hiking expedition in the Alps to find the "Isabella," an exotic butterfly as elusive as it is beautiful, he instead discovers an uninvited companion - Elsa!

2005 Run Time: 111 minutes Language: French Subtitles: English and Spanish DVD

Director: Agnès Jaoui
Actors: Marilou Berry, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Agnès Jaoui, Laurent Grévill, Virginie Desarnauts

Celebrity has unexpected consequences for everyone who lives in its shadow, as the family, friends and hangers-on of a famous writer discover in LOOK AT ME, a witty and amusing comedy that won Best Screenplay at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

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.

2002 Run Time: 104 minutes Language: French Optional Subtitles: English DVD

Director: Nicolas Philibert

Best Documentary 2002 - European Film Awards

All over France, there are still examples of what is known as 'single-class schools' that bring together all the children of a village around one teacher, from kindergarten to the last year of primary school.

Between isolation and opening up to the world, these eclectic little groups share everyday life, for better and for worse.

This film was shot in one of them, somewhere in the heart of the Auvergne.

1996 Run Time: 107 minutes Language: French Subtitles: English DVD

Director: Jean-Marie Poiré
Actors: Christian Clavier, Jean Reno, Valérie Lemercier, Marie-Anne Chazel, Christian Bujeau

This outrageous time-travel comedy follows the misadventures of a wacky medieval knight (Jean Reno -- MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, THE PROFESSIONAL) and his faithful servant when they suddenly find themselves zapped into the present day! Mayhem rules as these 12th-century visitors try adapting to the wildly confusing modern world! To avoid being stuck here for good, however, they soon begin an all-out cosmic assault on their former castle -- now a luxury hotel -- in their quest to return to the past. But you can be sure THE VISITORS won't leave without first delivering nonstop laughs and outstanding comedy entertainment!

1995, Run Time: 175 minutes, Language: French, Subtitles: English, VHS

Director: Claude Lelouch
Actors: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Michel Boujenah, Alessandra Martines, Salomé Lelouch, Annie Girardot

It comes like lightning. The Nazis overrun France and for its proud people, it begins the most miserable of times. Yet it's not so miserable that the goodness of one man cannot triumph.

In Les Misérables, two-time Academy Award winner Claude Lelouch fashions a magnificent achievement that won the Golden Globe Award as 1995's Best Foreign Language Film. Legendary Jean-Paul Belmondo stars as Henri Fortin, a true and simple man whose life parallels that of Jean Valjean, the hero of Victor Hugo's great novel. But those parallels do not mean a simple updating of Hugo's tale. Instead, Lelouch uses them to frame a towering cascade of events, traits and emotions: nobility, suffering, persistence, joy, hate, longing, love, greed, betrayal, war, peace and life-affirming joy and hope. "After 34 films, I am dedicated to filming hope," Lelouch states. Here he does it with exquisite power and grace.

2006, Run Time: 123 minutes, Language: English, Subtitles: English and French, DVD

Directors: Sofia Coppola and Callum Greene
Actors: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Judy Davis, Rip Torn, Rose Byrne

Academy Award® winner Sofia Coppola directs an electrifying yet intimate re-telling of the turbulent life of history's favorite villainess, Marie Antoinette. Kirsten Dunst portrays the ill-fated child princess who married France's young and indifferent King Louis XVI Jason Schwartzman. Feeling isolated in a royal court rife with scandal and intrigue, Marie Antoinette defied both royalty and commoner by living like a rock star, which served only to seal her fate.

FR 191 A

Murmur of the Heart

1971; Run Time: 118 minutes; Language: French; subtitles: English (optional); DVD

Director: Louis Malle
Actors: Lea Massari, Benoît Ferreux, Daniel Gélin, Michael Lonsdale, Ave Ninchi

Louis Malle's critically acclaimed Murmur of the Heart gracefully combines elements of comedy, drama, and autobiography in a candid portrait of a precocious adolescent boy's sexual maturation. Both shocking and deeply poignant, this is one of the finest coming-of-age films ever made.

FR 191 B

Lacombe, Lucien

1974; Run Time: 138 minutes; Language: French; Subtitles: English (optional); DVD

Director: Louis Malle
Actors: Pierre Blaise, Aurore Clément, Holger Löwenadler, Therese Giehse, Stéphane Bouy

One of the first French films to address the issue of collaboration during the German Occupation, Louis Malle's brave and controversial Lacombe, Lucien traces a young peasant's journey from potential Resistance member to Gestapo recruit. At once the story of a nation and of one troubled boy, the film is a disquieting portrait of lost innocence and guilt.

FR 191 C

Au Revoir les Enfants

1987; Run Time: 101 minutes; Language: French; Subtitles: English (optional), DVD

Director: Louis Malle
Actors: Gaspard Manesse, Francine Racette, Philippe Morier-Genoud, Stanislas Carre de Malberg

Au revoir les enfants tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss between two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie - until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Louis Malle's own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening.

FR 191 D

The Supplements

Interviews with actor Candice Bergen and biographer Pierre Billard

Excerpts from a French TV program featuring the director on the sets of Murmur of the Heart and Lacombe, Lucien

Audio interviews with Louis Malle from 1974, 1988, and 1990

The Immigrant, Charlie Chaplin's 1917 short comedy, featured in Au revoir les enfants

A profile of the provocative character of Joseph from Au revoir les enfants, crated by filmmaker Guy Magen, in 2005

Louis Malle filmography

2004; Run Time: 97 minutes; Language: French; Optional subtitles in English or French; DVD

Director: Christophe Barratier
Actors: Jean-Paul Bonnaire, Marie Bunel, Jean-Baptiste Maunier

An inspirational story in the rich tradition of Music Of The Heart and Mr. Holland's Opus, The Chorus has moved critics everywhere to declare it one of the year's very best films! When he takes a job teaching music at a school for troubled boys, Clément Mathieu is unprepared for its harsh discipline and depressing atmosphere. But with passion and unconventional teaching methods, he's able to spark his students' interest in music and bring them a newfound joy! It also puts him at odds with the school's overbearing headmaster, however, locking Mathieu in a battle between politics and the determination to change his pupils' lives!

2000; Run Time: 112 minutes; Language: French; Optional subtitles in English; DVD

Director: Agnes Jaoui
Actors: Anne Alvaro, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Alain Chabat, Agnes Jaoui, Gerard Lanvin

Fun, sexy and richly rewarding, The Taste Of Others earned an Academy Award® nomination as Best Foreign Language Film (2000)! The lives and loves of several completely opposite men and women artfully intersect in what becomes a delightfully funny web of romantic entanglements! While negotiating differences in wealth and status, style and taste, this vivid collection of characters mix and match in outrageously volatile combinations! Internationally acclaimed for its sexy comic sophistications- expect the unexpected from this uncommonly entertaining motion picture!

2009; Run Time: 128 minutes; Language: French; Optional subtitles in English or Spanish; DVD

Director: Laurent Cantet
Actors: François Bégaudeau, Agame Malembo-Emene, Angélica Sancio, Arthur Fogel, Boubacar Toure

The Class is a 2008 French drama film directed by Laurent Cantet. Its original French title is Entre les murs, which translates literally to "Between the walls". It is based on the 2006 novel of the same name by François Bégaudeau. The novel is a semi-autobiographical account of Bégaudeau's experiences as a French language and literature teacher in a middle school in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, particularly illuminating his struggles with "problem children" Esmerelda (Esmeralda Ouertani), Khoumba (Rachel Regulier), and Souleymane (Franck Keïta). The film stars Bégaudeau himself in the role of the teacher. The film received the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, making it the first French film to do so since 1987, when Maurice Pialat won the award for Under the Sun of Satan.

2005; Run Time: 97 minutes; Language: French; Optional subtitles in English; DVD

Director: Xavier Beauvois
Actors: Nathalie Baye, Jalil Lespert, Roschdy Zem, Antoine Chappey, Jacques Perrin

A gripping police noir, LE PETIT LIEUTENANT tells the story of Antoine, an ambitious young cop from the provinces who joins a plainclothes crime unit in Paris. Antoine spends his days eagerly awaiting his first assignment, drinking with his fellow detectives and developing an unlikely relationship with his superior, a veteran policewoman with a troubled past. But when the body of a drifter is found murdered along the Seine, a seemingly routine investigation suddenly turns violent and forever changes all their lives.

1986, Run Time: 90 minutes, Language: French, Optional Subtitles: English; DVD

Director: Alain Cavalier
Actors: Catherine Mouchet, Hélène Alexandridis, Aurore Prieto, Clémence Massart-Weit, Sylvie Habault

Winner of eight Cesar Awards including Best Film and Best Director, Alain Cavalier's monumental film depicts the true story of 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 (Catherine Mouchet) enters a cloistered convent of Carmelite nuns at the age of 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. The strength of her faith eventually becomes an inspiration to both her fellow sisters and the millions of admirers who remember her as "The Little Flower of Jesus."