Best Of...
French cinema: Drama
Un grand amour de Beethoven (1936)
Abel Gance
The composer Ludwig van Beethoven is passionately in love with Juliette Guicciardi, but his love is not requited. She chooses instead to marry the Count Gallenberg, news which, along with his encroaching deafness, propels Beethoven into a state of depression...
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Abel Gance
Un homme et une femme (1966)
Claude Lelouch
Jean-Louis Duroc is a racing car driver. Anne Gauthier is a script-girl. Both are in their mid-thirties, recently widowed and have a small child...
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Claude Lelouch
Un homme marche dans la ville (1950)
Marcello Pagliero
In the late 1940s, Madeleine and André Laurent live in Le Havre, a town that appears as grimly desolate and battle-scarred as their marriage...
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Marcello Pagliero
Un mauvais fils (1980)
Claude Sautet
Having spent five years in an American prison for drugs dealing, Bruno Calgagni returns to France to make a fresh start. He meets up with his father, a foreman on a building site, and learns that his mother died whilst he was in jail...
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Claude Sautet
Un monde à nous (2008)
Frédéric Balekdjian
Marc and his young son Noé arrive in a new town, hoping to begin a new life. Noé starts a new school, where he makes new friends, but his father continues to put him through intensive training in combat sports...
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Frédéric Balekdjian
Un monde sans pitié (1989)
Eric Rochant
Better a dropout than a yuppie, that's the philosophy of Hippo, a young man who has turned his back on the entire capitalist system... [More...]
Eric Rochant
Better a dropout than a yuppie, that's the philosophy of Hippo, a young man who has turned his back on the entire capitalist system... [More...]
Un poison violent (2010)
Katell Quillévéré
This is the summer when everything changed for Anna. On her return from boarding school, she discovers that her father has left home... [More...]
Katell Quillévéré
This is the summer when everything changed for Anna. On her return from boarding school, she discovers that her father has left home... [More...]
Un prophète (2009)
Jacques Audiard
Malik El Djebena is a 19-year-old troublemaker who suddenly finds himself in a concrete Hell that will change his life forever... [More...]
Jacques Audiard
Malik El Djebena is a 19-year-old troublemaker who suddenly finds himself in a concrete Hell that will change his life forever... [More...]
Un revenant (1946)
Christian-Jaque
Impresario Jean-Jacques Sauvage returns to his home town of Lyons, ostensibly to stage a new ballet production, but as he renews old acquaintances it is evident that he has darker motives in mind... [More...]
Christian-Jaque
Impresario Jean-Jacques Sauvage returns to his home town of Lyons, ostensibly to stage a new ballet production, but as he renews old acquaintances it is evident that he has darker motives in mind... [More...]
Un roman policier (2008)
Stéphanie Duvivier
Lieutenant Emilie Carange leads a small police station in a suburban district with a high immigrant population. After one of her officers is killed in a raid, she is assigned a trainee cop, Jamil Messaouden, and she wastes no time in indoctrinating him in her less than orthodox police methods... [More...]
Stéphanie Duvivier
Lieutenant Emilie Carange leads a small police station in a suburban district with a high immigrant population. After one of her officers is killed in a raid, she is assigned a trainee cop, Jamil Messaouden, and she wastes no time in indoctrinating him in her less than orthodox police methods... [More...]
Un sac de billes (1975)
Jacques Doillon
Paris, 1941. Joseph and Maurice are two boys whose father, a Jew, owns a barber's shop. Joseph is 10, his brother is 12, and neither understands why it is a crime to be a Jew... [More...]
Jacques Doillon
Paris, 1941. Joseph and Maurice are two boys whose father, a Jew, owns a barber's shop. Joseph is 10, his brother is 12, and neither understands why it is a crime to be a Jew... [More...]
Un secret (2007)
Claude Miller
In the 1950s, seven year old François feels estranged from his father Maxime and invents for himself a fictitious brother... [More...]
Claude Miller
In the 1950s, seven year old François feels estranged from his father Maxime and invents for himself a fictitious brother... [More...]
Un soir, un train (1968)
André Delvaux
Mathias is professor of linguistics at a Belgian university. Although middle-aged, he is unmarried, but has a mistress, Anne... [More...]
André Delvaux
Mathias is professor of linguistics at a Belgian university. Although middle-aged, he is unmarried, but has a mistress, Anne... [More...]
Un témoin dans la ville (1959)
Edouard Molinaro
In the course of a violent argument, businessman Pierre Verdier pushes his mistress Jeanne out of a moving train. Tried for murder, he is subsequently acquitted through lack of evidence... [More...]
Edouard Molinaro
In the course of a violent argument, businessman Pierre Verdier pushes his mistress Jeanne out of a moving train. Tried for murder, he is subsequently acquitted through lack of evidence... [More...]
Une affaire de femmes (1988)
Claude Chabrol
During the Nazi occupation of France, a young woman, Marie, provides an abortion service for pregnant women who are single or whose husbands are away from home... [More...]
Claude Chabrol
During the Nazi occupation of France, a young woman, Marie, provides an abortion service for pregnant women who are single or whose husbands are away from home... [More...]
Une affaire de goût (2000)
Bernard Rapp
Frédéric Delamont is a rich and powerful industrialist who takes an almost sadistic relish in exerting his power and influence over others... [More...]
Bernard Rapp
Frédéric Delamont is a rich and powerful industrialist who takes an almost sadistic relish in exerting his power and influence over others... [More...]
Une chambre en ville (1982)
Jacques Demy
Nantes, during the workers' strike of 1955. One of the strikers is François Guilbaud, a steel worker who rents a room in the apartment of Margot Langlois, a bourgeois widow who opposes the strike... [More...]
Jacques Demy
Nantes, during the workers' strike of 1955. One of the strikers is François Guilbaud, a steel worker who rents a room in the apartment of Margot Langlois, a bourgeois widow who opposes the strike... [More...]
L'Une chante, l'autre pas (1977)
Agnès Varda
Paris, 1962. Pauline is a seventeen year old girl whose main preoccupation is singing in the school choir. One day, she meets a photographer, Jérôme, whose girlfriend Suzanne is pregnant with his third child... [More...]
Agnès Varda
Paris, 1962. Pauline is a seventeen year old girl whose main preoccupation is singing in the school choir. One day, she meets a photographer, Jérôme, whose girlfriend Suzanne is pregnant with his third child... [More...]
Une étrange affaire (1981)
Pierre Granier-Deferre
Louis Coline, a man in his early thirties, leads a comfortable but fairly routine life, working as a publicity officer for a large department store in Paris... [More...]
Pierre Granier-Deferre
Louis Coline, a man in his early thirties, leads a comfortable but fairly routine life, working as a publicity officer for a large department store in Paris... [More...]
Une exécution ordinaire (2010)
Marc Dugain
In the autumn of 1952, a young woman doctor is working at a hospital in the suburbs of Moscow. She is desperate to become pregnant by her husband, a disillusioned physicist whose only reason for living is the love he has for his wife... [More...]
Marc Dugain
In the autumn of 1952, a young woman doctor is working at a hospital in the suburbs of Moscow. She is desperate to become pregnant by her husband, a disillusioned physicist whose only reason for living is the love he has for his wife... [More...]
Une femme douce (1969)
Robert Bresson
Shortly after her husband has left their Parisian apartment, a young woman commits suicide by leaping from a balcony. As the smashed body of the dead woman lies before him, the bereaved husband recollects their shared history together in an attempt to understand what drove her to such a drastic act... [More...]
Robert Bresson
Shortly after her husband has left their Parisian apartment, a young woman commits suicide by leaping from a balcony. As the smashed body of the dead woman lies before him, the bereaved husband recollects their shared history together in an attempt to understand what drove her to such a drastic act... [More...]
Une femme mariée (1964)
Jean-Luc Godard
Married to Pierre, an airline pilot, Charlotte leads a settled middle-class existence and couldn't be happier. She has a son she adores, Nicolas, and has plenty to occupy her... [More...]
Jean-Luc Godard
Married to Pierre, an airline pilot, Charlotte leads a settled middle-class existence and couldn't be happier. She has a son she adores, Nicolas, and has plenty to occupy her... [More...]
Une histoire simple (1978)
Claude Sautet
Marie decides to break up with her boyfriend Georges and to abort his unborn child. As she nears forty she seems to have reached a crossroads in her life but doesn't know where she is heading... [More...]
Claude Sautet
Marie decides to break up with her boyfriend Georges and to abort his unborn child. As she nears forty she seems to have reached a crossroads in her life but doesn't know where she is heading... [More...]
Une nuit (2012)
Philippe Lefebvre
Simon Weiss's life as a dedicated cop in Paris's vice squad is mostly routine. Most nights are uneventful, more likely to arouse boredom than excitement... [More...]
Philippe Lefebvre
Simon Weiss's life as a dedicated cop in Paris's vice squad is mostly routine. Most nights are uneventful, more likely to arouse boredom than excitement... [More...]
Une part du ciel (2002)
Bénédicte Liénard
Claudine's days are spent folding pastries on a production line in a food processing factory. A militant trades union leader, she strives to get better pay and working conditions from her employers, but progressively her union's influence is diminishing... [More...]
Bénédicte Liénard
Claudine's days are spent folding pastries on a production line in a food processing factory. A militant trades union leader, she strives to get better pay and working conditions from her employers, but progressively her union's influence is diminishing... [More...]
Une partie de plaisir (1975)
Claude Chabrol
Philippe and Ester appear to be the perfect couple. They have been together for eight years and, although they have never married, they have a six year old daughter who is testament to the solidity of their relationship... [More...]
Claude Chabrol
Philippe and Ester appear to be the perfect couple. They have been together for eight years and, although they have never married, they have a six year old daughter who is testament to the solidity of their relationship... [More...]
Une si jolie petite plage (1949)
Yves Allégret
It is not the most welcoming of places - a barren stretch of coastline in northern France, made more inhospitable by the pounding rain and howling sea breeze... [More...]
Yves Allégret
It is not the most welcoming of places - a barren stretch of coastline in northern France, made more inhospitable by the pounding rain and howling sea breeze... [More...]
Une vie (2016)
Stéphane Brizé
In 1819, a young woman named Jeanne Le Perthuis des Vauds leaves the content where she has been educated since childhood and returns to live with her parents on the family estate in Normandy... [More...]
Stéphane Brizé
In 1819, a young woman named Jeanne Le Perthuis des Vauds leaves the content where she has been educated since childhood and returns to live with her parents on the family estate in Normandy... [More...]
Une vie meilleure (2012)
Cédric Kahn
Yann and Nadia are a couple who are deeply in love. They finally get to realise their dream of running their own business when they open a restaurant on the banks of a lake... [More...]
Cédric Kahn
Yann and Nadia are a couple who are deeply in love. They finally get to realise their dream of running their own business when they open a restaurant on the banks of a lake... [More...]
Une vieille maîtresse (2007)
Catherine Breillat
Paris, 1835. High society awaits with some trepidation the impending marriage of Ryno de Marigny, a notorious libertine, with Hermangarde, the unsullied daughter of the Marquis de Flers... [More...]
Catherine Breillat
Paris, 1835. High society awaits with some trepidation the impending marriage of Ryno de Marigny, a notorious libertine, with Hermangarde, the unsullied daughter of the Marquis de Flers... [More...]