Best Of...
French cinema: Documentary
À propos de Nice (1930)
Jean Vigo
Nice is a town with many faces. The face that visitors to the town see is a sunny Riviera resort. Rich tourists lounge around in luxury hotels on the front and amuse themselves by gambling in the casinos...
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Jean Vigo
A.K. (1985)
Chris Marker
In the autumn of 1984, independent filmmaker Chris Marker joins the cast and crew of Akira Kurosawa's latest epic film Ran on the windy slopes of Mount Fuji in Japan...
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Chris Marker
Ain't Misbehavin (Un voyageur) (2013)
Marcel Ophüls
After an absence of 19 years from our screens, director Marcel Ophüls comes out of retirement to construct a cinematic self-portrait, a substitute for the autobiography he always intended to write but never got round to...
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Marcel Ophüls
Le Bal des actrices (2009)
Maïwenn
An enterprising young film director, Maïwenn, decides to make a documentary about actresses. She meets a number of diverse women who have chosen to make the dramatic art their career and becomes increasingly fascinated by their complex lives and personalities...
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Maïwenn
Le Chagrin et la pitié (1969)
Marcel Ophüls
Life in France at the time of the Nazi Occupation during World War II. Those who actively participated in the drama - politicians, soldiers, aristocrats, spies, collaborators and resistance supporters - recount their personal experiences with lucidity, eloquence and emotion....
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Marcel Ophüls
Chronique d'un été (1961)
Edgar Morin
Paris, 1960. The sociologist Edgar Morin and ethnologist filmmaker Jean Rouch embark on a study to probe the psyche of ordinary Parisians... [More...]
Edgar Morin
Paris, 1960. The sociologist Edgar Morin and ethnologist filmmaker Jean Rouch embark on a study to probe the psyche of ordinary Parisians... [More...]
Comment j'ai détesté les maths (2013)
Olivier Peyon
So you've always hated maths? You're not alone - it is a subject that has brought misery to countless schoolchildren and left irreparable scars... [More...]
Olivier Peyon
So you've always hated maths? You're not alone - it is a subject that has brought misery to countless schoolchildren and left irreparable scars... [More...]
Coup pour coup (1972)
Marin Karmitz
When two of their colleagues are dismissed for unruly behaviour, the mostly female staff of a French textiles factory decide to go on strike to demand better pay and the reinstatement of their sacked co-workers... [More...]
Marin Karmitz
When two of their colleagues are dismissed for unruly behaviour, the mostly female staff of a French textiles factory decide to go on strike to demand better pay and the reinstatement of their sacked co-workers... [More...]
Les Demoiselles ont eu 25 ans (1993)
Agnès Varda
Twenty-five years after the making of Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, Agnès Varda - the wife of the film's director, Jacques Demy - returns to the French town of Rochefort with some of the film's cast and production team... [More...]
Agnès Varda
Twenty-five years after the making of Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, Agnès Varda - the wife of the film's director, Jacques Demy - returns to the French town of Rochefort with some of the film's cast and production team... [More...]
L'Enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot (2009)
Serge Bromberg
It has been referred to as Henri-Georges Clouzot's lost masterpiece. L'Enfer, the film the director was unable to complete in 1964, has long fascinated devotees of French cinema, but to this day few have seen the remarkable footage that Clouzot shot for this mythical work... [More...]
Serge Bromberg
It has been referred to as Henri-Georges Clouzot's lost masterpiece. L'Enfer, the film the director was unable to complete in 1964, has long fascinated devotees of French cinema, but to this day few have seen the remarkable footage that Clouzot shot for this mythical work... [More...]
Être et avoir (2002)
Nicolas Philibert
In the Auvergne region of France, Monsieur Lopez is the sole teacher in a small primary school which caters for 12 pupils aged between four and ten... [More...]
Nicolas Philibert
In the Auvergne region of France, Monsieur Lopez is the sole teacher in a small primary school which caters for 12 pupils aged between four and ten... [More...]
Farrebique ou Les quatre saisons (1946)
Georges Rouquier
The Aveyron district of southern France is noted for its high rocky plateaus which give the countryside a distinctive, almost Neolithic character... [More...]
Georges Rouquier
The Aveyron district of southern France is noted for its high rocky plateaus which give the countryside a distinctive, almost Neolithic character... [More...]
Finis terrae (1929)
Jean Epstein
The Ushant archipelago is a group of small islands situated off the coast of Brittany at the northwest extremity of France... [More...]
Jean Epstein
The Ushant archipelago is a group of small islands situated off the coast of Brittany at the northwest extremity of France... [More...]
Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000)
Agnès Varda
Acclaimed filmmaker Agnès Varda embarks on a new odyssey, inspired by the word 'glaneur' which offers up a multitude of meanings... [More...]
Agnès Varda
Acclaimed filmmaker Agnès Varda embarks on a new odyssey, inspired by the word 'glaneur' which offers up a multitude of meanings... [More...]
La Guerre sans nom (1992)
Bertrand Tavernier
In this documentary, Patrick Rotman interviews around thirty former French combatants of the Algerian War and allows them to tell their own story of a conflict that lasted eight years and ended in a humiliating defeat for France... [More...]
Bertrand Tavernier
In this documentary, Patrick Rotman interviews around thirty former French combatants of the Algerian War and allows them to tell their own story of a conflict that lasted eight years and ended in a humiliating defeat for France... [More...]
Les Invisibles (2012)
Sébastien Lifshitz
They are men and women born between the two wars. The only thing they have in common is that they are homosexuals who chose to live their lives as they wished, at a time when they were censured and rejected by society... [More...]
Sébastien Lifshitz
They are men and women born between the two wars. The only thing they have in common is that they are homosexuals who chose to live their lives as they wished, at a time when they were censured and rejected by society... [More...]
Je veux voir (2008)
Joana Hadjithomas
The world famous actress Catherine Deneuve is in Beirut to attend a charity gala. Before the gala, she insists on making a tour of Lebanon, so that she can see something of the people and the land that have been ravaged by years of bloody conflict... [More...]
Joana Hadjithomas
The world famous actress Catherine Deneuve is in Beirut to attend a charity gala. Before the gala, she insists on making a tour of Lebanon, so that she can see something of the people and the land that have been ravaged by years of bloody conflict... [More...]
Monsieur Fabre (1951)
Henri Diamant-Berger
Avignon, 1861. When he is not fulfilling his duties as a schoolmaster and family man, Jean-Henri Fabre occupies himself in the study of insects, his main passion in life... [More...]
Henri Diamant-Berger
Avignon, 1861. When he is not fulfilling his duties as a schoolmaster and family man, Jean-Henri Fabre occupies himself in the study of insects, his main passion in life... [More...]
Mor vran (1931)
Jean Epstein
For those who eke out an existence on Sein, one of the smaller islands in the Breton archipelago, life is unremittingly hard... [More...]
Jean Epstein
For those who eke out an existence on Sein, one of the smaller islands in the Breton archipelago, life is unremittingly hard... [More...]
Le Mystère Picasso (1956)
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Henri-Georges Clouzot is a renowned French film maker, best known for his pessimistic suspense thrillers. At the age of 75, Pablo Picasso is a legendary artist, one of the most celebrated creative talents of the 20th century... [More...]
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Henri-Georges Clouzot is a renowned French film maker, best known for his pessimistic suspense thrillers. At the age of 75, Pablo Picasso is a legendary artist, one of the most celebrated creative talents of the 20th century... [More...]
Ne me libérez pas, je m'en charge (2009)
Fabienne Godet
Michel Vaujour is one of France's most notorious criminals, although he is more famous for his prison break-outs than his robberies... [More...]
Fabienne Godet
Michel Vaujour is one of France's most notorious criminals, although he is more famous for his prison break-outs than his robberies... [More...]
Nous resterons sur Terre (2009)
Pierre Barougier
In the face of dramatic climate change and dwindling natural resources, we have almost reached the point at which the survival of our species is threatened unless we change our behaviour... [More...]
Pierre Barougier
In the face of dramatic climate change and dwindling natural resources, we have almost reached the point at which the survival of our species is threatened unless we change our behaviour... [More...]
Nuit et brouillard (1955)
Alain Resnais
The Holocaust - two words forever etched on the consciousness of mankind. They resound in our minds like an implacable condemnation from a Celestial power, for a crime which rips the heart and soul out of man's moral purpose... [More...]
Alain Resnais
The Holocaust - two words forever etched on the consciousness of mankind. They resound in our minds like an implacable condemnation from a Celestial power, for a crime which rips the heart and soul out of man's moral purpose... [More...]
L'Oeil de Vichy (1993)
Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol assembles a montage of newsreel clips from the time of the Nazi Occupation to show France not how he saw it, but how the Vichy government wanted it to be seen... [More...]
Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol assembles a montage of newsreel clips from the time of the Nazi Occupation to show France not how he saw it, but how the Vichy government wanted it to be seen... [More...]
L'Or des mers (1932)
Jean Epstein
Hoëdic is one of the poorer islands in the Breton archipelago off the coast of northwestern France. It is a desolate expanse of rock inhabited by a hundred fishing families who, unable to work for half of the year, live in extreme poverty, dependent on alms supplied by their kindly rector... [More...]
Jean Epstein
Hoëdic is one of the poorer islands in the Breton archipelago off the coast of northwestern France. It is a desolate expanse of rock inhabited by a hundred fishing families who, unable to work for half of the year, live in extreme poverty, dependent on alms supplied by their kindly rector... [More...]
Paris 1900 (1947)
Nicole Védrès
A vibrant montage of moving image depicting life in Paris in the dying days of the Belle Époque, from the turn of the 20th century to the start of the First World War... [More...]
Nicole Védrès
A vibrant montage of moving image depicting life in Paris in the dying days of the Belle Époque, from the turn of the 20th century to the start of the First World War... [More...]
Pasteur (1923)
Jean Benoît-Lévy
For a man who was destined to change the world more than any other human being Louis Pasteur came from the humblest of origins... [More...]
Jean Benoît-Lévy
For a man who was destined to change the world more than any other human being Louis Pasteur came from the humblest of origins... [More...]
Le Point du jour (1949)
Louis Daquin
A mining community in the north of France... A young engineer Larzac begins work at the mine and soon takes objection to the management's authoritarian treatment of the miners... [More...]
Louis Daquin
A mining community in the north of France... A young engineer Larzac begins work at the mine and soon takes objection to the management's authoritarian treatment of the miners... [More...]
Présumé coupable (2011)
Vincent Garenq
This film recounts the harrowing exploits of Alain Marécaux, who, along with his wife and twelve other people, was arrested in 2001 for grotesque paedophilic acts of which he was entirely blameless... [More...]
Vincent Garenq
This film recounts the harrowing exploits of Alain Marécaux, who, along with his wife and twelve other people, was arrested in 2001 for grotesque paedophilic acts of which he was entirely blameless... [More...]
Profils paysans: l'approche (2001)
Raymond Depardon
In the year 2000, the journalist-filmmaker Raymond Depardon returns to the rural France of his happy childhood. Having gained the confidence of several smallscale farmers, many of whom are at or beyond the age of retirement, he gets them to talk about their concerns, be it their mistrust of those they trade with or their anxiety about the future... [More...]
Raymond Depardon
In the year 2000, the journalist-filmmaker Raymond Depardon returns to the rural France of his happy childhood. Having gained the confidence of several smallscale farmers, many of whom are at or beyond the age of retirement, he gets them to talk about their concerns, be it their mistrust of those they trade with or their anxiety about the future... [More...]