French Cinema
France is justifiably proud of its film heritage, and as a nation is tremendously supportive of both the production and distribution of films both in France and by French producers within other countries. An example is the online event My French Film Festival.
Film Movement has been acquiring films from French directors, many of them women, for many years. Here is a selection of films from France, from classics (The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe) to recent discoveries (The Sower, directed by Marine Francen); from Oscar-winning directors such as Diane Kurys (For A Woman) to actresses who have transitioned to directing (Maiwenn, Melanie Laurent). Vive la France!
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Burning Ghost
Juste (Thimotée Robart) wanders the streets of Paris looking for people only he can see. He collects their last memory before helping them into the afterlife. One day Agathe (Judith Chemla), a young woman, recognizes him. She belongs to his previous life. She is alive, and he is a ghost. How will...
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A Woman Kills
A series of prostitute murders in Paris has the public living in fear that a serial killer is on the loose. Hélène Picard, a prostitute, is sentenced and executed for the crimes, but shortly thereafter the killings continue. Executioner Louis Guilbot, meanwhile, develops a relationship with the i...
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The Restless
Leïla (Leïla Bekhti) and Damien (Damien Bonnard) are married with a son and deeply in love. Despite suffering from bipolar disorder, Damien tries to pursue a normal life, but his condition makes it increasingly difficult for him to provide the stability that Leila so desperately desires.
An emot...
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Final Set
Once a rising tennis prodigy, Thomas (César-winner Alex Lutz) struggles with disappointment and setbacks over a long and lackluster career. In spite of his declining skills and chronic physical ailments, he is determined to play the French Open at the advanced age of 37. Although his wife Eve (An...
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Curiosa
Paris 1895. Pierre Louÿs, a young poet on the verge of fame, is madly in love with Marie de Heredia (Noémie Merlant, Portrait of a Lady on Fire). Despite her mutual feelings for Pierre, Marie agrees to a marriage of convenience with his friend, Henri de Régnier. Driven by jealousy and regret, she...
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Breathe
Alliance of Women Film Journalists Selection! Read an excerpt from Valerie Kalfrin's AWFJ review: "Based on a novel by French author Anne-Sophie Brasme, director Mélanie Laurent's BREATHE is a story propelled by the mercurial friendships of teenage girls. The drama rises on the rich performances ...
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2 Autumns, 3 Winters
Arman is 33 and ready to make a change, starting with a run in the park. When he literally bumps into Amélie - slightly cynical but nevertheless lovely - on the jogging path, he's dead-set on making a connection with her. As a bit of contrived fate brings them together, Arman's best friend Benjam...
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Farinelli
In the 18th century during Handel's time, no man was more famous or more celebrated than the castrato, Farinelli. The incredible, true story of the world famous opera singer - who was castrated during childhood in order to preserve his voice - comes to life in this Oscar-nominated drama of high n...
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Free Men
In German-occupied Paris, a young unemployed Algerian named Younes (played by break-out star, Tahar Rahim) earns his living as a black marketeer. Arrested by the French police but given a chance to avoid jail, Younes agrees to spy on the Paris Mosque. The police suspect the Mosque authorities, in...
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The Three-Way Wedding
Renowned playwright Auguste (Pascal Greggory) is struggling to complete his latest play. Looking for inspiration, he invites the cast to join him at his country estate. Harriet (Julie Depardieu), his leading lady, is also his ex-wife, and her leading man, Théo (Louis Garrel), is her new lover. Se...
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Three Worlds
Al, a young man from a modest background, is ten days away from marrying the daughter of his boss, along with succeeding him as the head of the car dealership where Al has been working for most of his life. One night, while coming back drunk from his bachelor party, Al commits a hit-and-run when ...
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The Sower
In 1851, France’s autocratic President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte has ordered the arrest of all the men of a remote mountain farming village following a Republican uprising. The women who have been left in isolation take an oath: if a man comes, they will share him as a lover. But when a mysterious...
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Marie's Story
At the turn of the 19th century, a humble artisan and his wife have a daughter, Marie, who is born deaf and blind and unable to communicate with the world around her. Desperate to find a connection to their daughter and avoid sending her to an asylum, the Heurtins send fourteen-year-old Marie to...
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The Grocer's Son
One summer 30-year-old Antoine is forced to leave Paris to return to his family in Provençe. His father, a traveling grocer, has fallen sick, so Antoine must assume the lifestyle he thought he left behind—driving the family grocery cart from hamlet to hamlet, delivering supplies to the few remain...
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Marquise
Sophie Marceau stars as Marquise, the beautiful street dancer who found fame and notoriety among the seventeenth century aristocratic elite under the stage name Mademoiselle Du Parc. Raising herself out of poverty, Marquise joins Molière’s theater company after capturing the heart of his lead act...
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My King
From director & actress Maïwenn (THE FIFTH ELEMENT) comes a gut-wrench tale of falling out of love. Admitted to a rehabilitation center after a serious ski accident, Tony (Emmanuelle Bercot) becomes dependent on the medical staff and pain relievers while looking back on a turbulent relationship s...
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Neither Heaven Nor Earth
A genre-defying debut, NEITHER HEAVEN NOR EARHT is a’ “gripping mash-up of LONE SURVIVOR, THE THING, and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT” (The Hollywood Reporter). French Army Captain Antares Bonassieu and his squad are assigned to monitor a remote valley of Wakhan, Afghanistan on the border of Pakistan....
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The Nun
Born to a bourgeois family in 1760s France, Suzanne is a beautiful young girl with a natural talent for music. Inexplicably, her parents abruptly decide to send young Suzanne off to a convent, where she resists structure at every turn until she discovers that she is an illegitimate child. Left wi...
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Her Name is Sabine
An intelligent, moving and beautiful portrait of Sabine, a 38-year-old autistic woman, filmed by her sister, the famous French actress Sandrine Bonnaire. Through personal footage filmed over a period of 25 years, it is revealed that Sabine's growth and many talents were crushed by improper diagno...
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Never Ever
Benoît Jacquot returns with a dreamlike story of an unraveling romance in NEVER EVER, based on the book “The Body Artist” by Don DeLillo. While attending a museum retrospective of his work, filmmaker Rey (Mathieu Amalric) wanders into an adjoining gallery and becomes entranced by Laura (Julia Roy...
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Nights with Theodore
A romantic connection blossoms between two young Parisians during a succession of dreamlike nocturnal visits to a singular, beguiling park. Anna meets Theodore at a party, and together they impulsively climb the fence and enter a nearby city park, an unusual and striking hillside public garden in...
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You Will Be Mine
Marie Dandin (Judith Davis), a promising young concert pianist, leaves home to study at the prestigious Lyons National Conservatory. Shy and innocent, she moves in with her childhood friend Emma (Isild Le Besco) who has lived alone since the death of her father years earlier. The intimate bond th...
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Sweet Evil
The mysterious fifteen-year-old runaway Céline infiltrates the home of the well-to-do Mr. and Mrs. Van Eyck. Though alarmed at first, they agree to let her stay indefinitely. Céline quickly ingratiates herself with the couple, but slowly her true intentions are revealed.
DIRECTED BY OLIVIER COUS...
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Ulysses & Mona
Ulysses is a 55-year-old contemporary artist who ran away from his family and ended his career four years earlier. Now, he spends his days in seclusion hitting tennis balls or listening to horror movies soundtracks. Mona is a 20-year-old art student. Between nude drawing workshops and boring theo...