 Movies from France
|
Amelie (2001)
|
|
|
|
| Amélie is a shy waitress in a Montmartre café. After returning a long-lost childhood treasure to a former occupant of her apartment, and seeing the effect it has on him, she decides to set out on a mission to make others happy and in the meantime pursues a quirky guy who collects discarded photo booth pictures.
|
|
Babel (2006)
|
|
|
|
| Armed with a Winchester rifle, two Morrocan boys set out to look after their family's herd of goats. In the silent echoes of the desert, they decide to test the rifle… but the bullet goes farther than they thought it would. In an instant, the lives of four separate groups of strangers on three different continents collide. Caught up in the rising tide of an accident that escalates beyond anyone's control are a vacationing American couple, a rebellious deaf Japanese teenager and her father, and a Mexican nanny who, without permission, takes two American children across the border. None of these strangers will ever meet; in spite of the sudden, unlikely connection between them, they will all remain isolated due to their own inability to communicate meaningfully with anyone around them.
|
|
Belphegor, Phantom of the Louvre (2001)
|
|
|
|
| After a recent Egyptian expedition, artifacts from the dig are brought back to the Louvre to be dated. As the artifacts are being studied, the ghostly spirit of the Belphegor escapes into the museum. When Lisa (Sophie Marceau) follows her cat into the museum, the spirit takes over Lisa's body. She begins stealing the new Egyptian relics, believing them to be rightfully hers. As the collection begins to shrink, a renowned detective is brought out of retirement to assist in solving the case.
|
|
Bitter Moon (1992)
|
|
|
|
| On a cruise to Istanbul, uptight British couple Nigel (Hugh Grant) and Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas) encounters American expatriate Oscar (Peter Coyote), a wheelchair-bound novelist traveling with his young French wife, Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner). Sensing Nigel's fascination with Mimi, Oscar recounts the sordid tale of their once-passionate love affair, which gradually deteriorated into a series of increasingly sadistic and degrading sex games.
|
|
Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)
|
|
|
|
| In 18th century France, the Chevalier de Fronsac and his native American friend Mani are sent by the King to the Gevaudan province to investigate the killings of hundreds by a mysterious beast.
|
|
Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, The (1989)
|
|
|
|
| Master director Greenaway (THE PILLOW BOOK) outdoes himself with this grisly fairy tale. The thief, Albert Spica, (Gambon) is a gangster, repugnant and boorish, who holds court at the same table in his opulent restaurant every night surrounded by his lackeys (Tim Roth and the late Ian Dury included). When his cultured and repressed wife Georgina (Mirren) becomes magnetically attracted to a solitary diner in the restaurant, the two begin a secret affair under the nose of her dangerous husband. With the help of the restaurant's chef, the time the lovers share is kept secret from the vicious Albert...for a while. Despite the breathtaking production design and artful camera work, this violent, disturbing and very darkly comic work is not for everyone. Those with the stomach for it, however, will reap generous rewards.
|
|
Dobermann (1997)
|
|
|
|
| The charismatic criminal Dobermann (Vincent Cassel), who got his first gun when he was christened, leads a gang of brutal robbers with his beautiful, deaf girlfriend Nat the Gypsy (Monica Bellucci). After a complex and brutal bank robbery, they are being hunted by the Paris police. The hunt is led by the sadistic cop Christini (played by Tchéky Karyo), who only has one goal: to catch Dobermann at any cost.
|
|
Jean de Florette (1986)
|
|
|
|
Yves Montand (The Wages Of Fear) and Gerard Depardieu (The Man In The Iron Mask) star in this timeless tale of greed, survival and fate. Winner of four British Academy Awards including Best Film and nominated for eight French Cesar Awards, Jean de Florette is "richly textured and emotionally powerful, exquisitely and meticulously filmed, with galvanizing performances" (Leonard Maltin).
Set amidst the rugged hills of Provence, this epic saga follows the heroic efforts of Jean Cadoret (Depardieu), who inherits a farm from his mother, Florette, and leaves his city job behind, hoping to create a "new Eden" with his wife and daughter. But, unbeknownst to Jean, his greedy neighbor, Cesar Soubeyran (Montand), is plotting to steal the land out from under him. With the help of a corrupt nephew (Daniel Auteuil), the clannish villagers and the added effects of a severe drought, Cesar hatches a wicked scheme that drives Jean to the brink of madness.
|
|
Jean de Florette II (c) (1986)
|
|
|
|
Director Claude Berri's lush sequel to Jean de Florette is "a brilliantly realized achievement...that will inspire and fascinate" (Boxoffice). Completing the saga based on Marcel Pagnol's novel The Water of the Hills, Manon of the Spring stars Daniel Auteuil (Queen Margot), Yves Montand (The Wages of Fear) and Emmanuelle Beart (Mission: Impossible) who, "with the charm of a young Bardot or Deneuve, gives a startling performance" (The Hollywood Reporter).
It's been ten years since her father's death left Manon (Beart) tending goats in the rugged hills of Provence. Struggling to make her way in the world, Manon has no idea that her neighbor Cesar Soubeyran (Montand) and his nephew, Ugolin (Auteuil), cheated her out of her father's land. But when Manon discovers that the Soubeyrans were directly responsible for her father's tragic death, she goes after the two men with a fierce vengeance worthy of her proud and courageous heritage.
|
|
Jules et Jim (1962)
|
|
|
|
| Hailed as one of the finest films ever made, legendary director Francois Truffaut's early masterpiece Jules and Jim charts the relationship between two friends and the object of their mutual obsession over the course of twenty-five years. French film icon Jeanne Moreau stars as Catherine, the alluring and willful young woman whose enigmatic smile and passionate nature lure Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) into one of cinema's most captivating romantic triangles. An exuberant and poignant meditation on freedom, loyalty and the fortitude of love, Jules and Jim was a worldwide smash upon its release in 1962 and remains an audacious and entrancing today.
|
|
