Fabienne Babe

Alex, Antoine, Jeff and Manu. Four friends, four years later. Their relationships, friendship, shared secrets, feelings of guilt and their desire to change and improve.

A naive, sixteen-year-old boy named Richard becomes involved with a single mother after babysitting her child.

Sylvie is a hooker whose illegitimate daughter commits a crime. She and her daughter flee to find Sylvie's first love in the countryside. The daughter is trying to get to know her unwilling mother. Along the way, the two meet a male fugitive and bond with each other.

Belgium, 1980. On the banks of the Meuse river, against the background of a steel-producing city, factories close down one after another and lay off workers. One of those made redundant is Fabrice, who, at thirty-five, is proud of his trade, rendered mythical by fire and steel, but feels he has become useless. His wife, Céline, tries to renew his interest in life. Despite a few moments of rediscovered happiness, Fabrice remains trapped in his confusion and one day disappears. Céline, her intense love leading the way, goes looking for him and eventually finds him. Once again, she tries to save him from himself. Can love resuscitate a languishing man? That is Céline's wager.

In a French prison, three men are coming to terms with the emotional and physical torment which their incarceration brings them. Arnaud is serving a six-month sentence for drug smuggling; he protests his innocence and will do anything to secure an early release. Francky is a hardened criminal who has all but lost his wife and family and who seeks comfort in self-inflicted abuse. Kader is in prison for theft; he is the most philosophical of the three men, he is growing accustomed to prison life and seems to prefer it to the world outside.

In the middle of the night, someone brings Ivan's body home to his wife and his young son. Flashbacks reveal the relationships among Ivan and his brother Alex, a cop with a cleanliness fetish; siblings Juliette and Jimmy, Ivan's partners in a seedy nightclub; the love triangle of Alex, Juliette, and Marie, a professor of philosophy; and of Alex and his nephew, Ivan's dour, stoic son. Ivan's death changes every relationship.

The life of four best friends in Paris: Antoine (a gym school teacher), Jeff (director of a monthly journal), Alex (Jeff's associate in the monthly journal and a Don Juan) and Manu (owner of fine food store). Their time is shared between their respective jobs, their relationship with women (their own and others...) and the times they meet together to discuss about life and play sport lottery.

Based on a notorious novel by Louis Calaferte, this erotic drama concerns a man exploring the boundaries of female sexuality through a variety of sexual encounters with beautiful women he barely knows. La Mecanique des Femmes features copious male and female nudity as the nameless leading character discusses sex and sensuality with his predominantly female supporting cast.

Marie leaves home to study the piano at the conservatory in Lyons. Through lack of money, she is obliged to share an apartment with Emma, a friend of the family who has lived alone since the death of her father. The two young women develop a strange fascination for one another, which soon develops into an intense mutual need...

Paul, a former insurer, is struggling to make ends meet. He agrees to meet Sarrebry, a loan shark introduced to him by his friend Daubelle. Paul mortally knocks out the disgusting crook and steals a large sum of money from him.

In this mock documentary, television journalist Christie and her camera crew trace the history and nefarious exploits of the new terrors of the French criminal underworld. The "Old School" Gang are four young men who grew up in the same orphanage; led by Letiole, they affect outlandish mid-'70s fashions and a retro-gangster/neo-blaxploitation persona as they rob, loot, and shoot their way through the seamy underbelly of Paris.

Persona Non Grata in his homeland, protest singer Klaus Drittemann must leave East Berlin, his wife and child and emigrate to West Berlin, where the representatives of an American record company are eagerly waiting for him. They plan to exploit his defection from communism both ideologically and financially. But Klaus, as ill-at-ease in the West as he was in the East, is reluctant to be used as an expendable commodity. Leaving his contract unsigned (or signed in his manner), he leaves for Cambridge to meet his father, a concert player, who -just like him - left East Berlin thirty years ago as Klaus was a little boy. He is accompanied by a young French journalist, Emma, who knows where his father has been living since he disappeared for more than a decade. The young lady is cooperative but might hide things from him...

In this adaptation of Wuthering Heights set in the south of France in the 1930s, Guillaume wars with his sister Catherine over her affections for their farmhand Roch, of whom he is jealous. A romantic choice, destined for tragic results.

Around midnight, a young couple and their transvestite maid prepare for an orgy. Their guests will be The Slut, The Star, The Stud and The Teen.

The new Saint Denis-Bobigny streetcar picks up and drops off commuters in an all-too-brief transit of their lives. Among the regular riders is a woman who is both spectator and guide – she introduces, comments on, ponders and catalyzes the sometimes vain, sometimes serious preoccupations of her fellow travelers, who, for the moment, are rushing headlong toward their destiny. The commuters and their observer have double lives. Once they step off this streetcar, the real-life dramas begin. Each has his or her style of living or dying…

In this "inside look" at French filmmaking, Marechal - who is a has-been director - a producer, Vito Catene and Camile Dor, a big-name actress, have agreed to make a film about drugs, but don't have a story, financing, or any of the other elements needed to make it. This doesn't stop them; they cobble together the financing and begin shooting anyway. The producer is very fond of the leading actress, and when she gets hooked on drugs for real in the course of shooting what he feels to be a farcical imitation of a film, he gives up his shares in the film and heads off for the back of beyond (Zanzibar) to lick his wounds. To add insult to injury, the film winds up being a critical and commercial success.

When her housemate Sara disappears, leaving behind herself a trail of videotaped diaries, Gloria investigates to find out what happened to her with the help of Sara's would be boyfriend, Vittorio

An old woman who is unaware that she is near death, falls in love with her son’s young American tutor.

Twenty years ago, Robert left his home in the provincial northern town of Boulogne to make it as an actor. His career never amounted to much, as he managed only a couple of acting jobs on TV. Without warning, he returns to his hometown and drops in on his sister who is in the throes of a sordid affair with her married boss. Later, Robert drops in on his younger brother, who lives with his elderly mother. As the film progresses, it quietly, sensitively depicts Robert's disruption of the lives of the members of his family.

A self-centered man (Gérard Depardieu) with many diversions occasionally visits his 4-year-old son (Antoine Pialat) and the boy's mother (Géraldine Pailhas).

Eloi, a paunchy middle-aged man, finds Samuel, a young sad sack, about to kill himself by plunging into the sea. Eloi takes Samuel under his wing, giving him a hot meal and bringing him to a seedy night club to introduce him to Esperança, who is said to be the most beautiful sex worker in Lisbon—and is also Eloi’s daughter.

Arnaud and Guillaume are in their last year of high school. Summer is approaching and like any teenager, they're thinking about cigarettes, alcohol and sex. But boys or girls? Future looks so blurry when you're a teenager!

An allegory of the Golem, a Jewish mythical creature personifying displacement and exile, this film tells the story of a woman (similar to the biblical Ruth) and her sisters, who are forced into exile after the death of their husbands. It is set in 1990s Paris, where the director was living in self-imposed exile following the ban on his 1982 documentary in Israel. The recurring theme of the film is migrations and unrooting, like the legendary Golem.

Chantal is employed one summer to look after Paul, 16. He is suffering from an incurable illness that contributes to his violent, aggressive temperament. With Nelly, the family cook, to help, Chantal tries to befriend the young patient. To escape the oppressive reality of her job, Chantal dreams. She dreams of her favorite singers and other popular idols who reassure her the time it takes to sing a few songs.

This drama depicts the misery of neglected children in big cities. 13 years old Bruno is of a good family, but since the death of his grandmother he spends most of his time alone, in a phantasy world, while his mother is away at work. But then he befriends the violent Jean-Roger, who's from a severely disturbed family, where nobody cares what he's doing. In school Jean-Roger drives their teacher into despair just for fun. To separate the two boys, she starts to stimulate Bruno's interests by giving him extra lessons. When Jean-Roger fears loosing his one and only friend, he becomes even more aggressive.

A reluctant boxer is the focus of this unique French romance. Maurice dreams of becoming a violinist. But his father, a former boxing champion crippled by his bouts, has other dreams for his pudgy but strong 18 year old son. He wants Maurice to become the next Champ. Concerned about his son's lack of machismo, the father arranges a tryst between Maurice and Nora, an aging femme fatale. Unfortunately Nora's jealous husband suddenly interrupts their romantic interlude. Maurice accidently kills the husband in the ensuing scuffle. United by the tragedy, Nora and Maurice eventually fall in love. Maurice is then inspired to become a great fighter.

A young writer in 1939 Warsaw faces the conflict of acting his age or relapsing into childhood during the brink of World War II. Based on the famous novel Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz.

Wahnfried (German: Richard und Cosima, French: Richard et Cosima) is a 1986 West German-French drama film directed by Peter Patzak about the life of Richard Wagner. It was screened out of competition at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.

A young woman is searching, today, in Paris, the collection of paintings stolen from her Jewish family during WWII.

A man leaves everything behind to travel aimlessly through France, letting himself be guided only by the people and landscapes he encounters: four days and four nights of wandering, during which his lover tries to locate him via Grindr, a smartphone dating app.

Every month, women go to a prison on the outskirts of Paris to visit their loved ones: sons, fathers, brothers, partners. They wait in the summer heat. As they move through security checks, relationships are made and broken, tongues loosen, tension mounts… until finally a riot erupts behind bars.

Angelo and two of his buddies set out to rob a Swiss bank, and from the start things don't go well. The man driving the getaway car packed up and left before anyone could connect him with the crime, and Angelo's other partner got shot and killed. The best he can do is grab someone's cash-filled briefcase and take a car and its driver hostage. It turns out that the driver is the daughter of the bank director, so he figures that she's good for ransom money and begins negotiations for that. Meanwhile, the briefcase he took at the bank turns out to have belonged to a man who is willing to hire killers to get it back for him. The situation grows increasingly perilous for him, and he decides to flee the scene but not before he has won the heart of his lovely hostage.

A woman discovers curious erotic messages on a lost cell phone in the train. When she meets the owner of the phone, a liberated young woman, the two of them embark on an erotic journey.

Veteran film director Matty Bonkers, a Hollywood legend, arrives in Berlin for an honorary retrospective tribute. While introducing his film Mockery, he receives a phone call from his producer lying in intensive care at a hospital. Blau needs a favor for old times' sake. Could Matty finish a porn movie before his legs get broken by Tokyo Tony? Matty reluctantly agrees. On the set he meets movie star and ex-cello-player Inga - and the experience is bizarre spirited uplifting a comédie humaine.

A survey of various gay cruising sites around France.

17-year-old Claire spends her vacation in South Africa with her family, when a tragic accident takes the lives of her parents and younger brother. By a stroke of luck, Claire survives, but finds herself alone, far from home in a country where everything is unfamiliar and intense. Distraught and consumed by guilt in the belief that she is somehow responsible for the death of her family, she runs away and decides to let fate, which saved her from death, guide her from now on.

At his grand-mother's death, Jean, a fourteen-year old teenager inherits the file of a mysterious court case from 1895. Fascinated by this archive, both real and fictitious, Jean becomes the judge of a criminal case completed more than a century ago.

La vie est dure, nous aussi is a sentimental comedy with a protagonist who is extremely discreet, extremely solitary and extremely egotistical. Charles, a native of Marseilles, is now living in Paris, and he has to take care of the dog of a girlfriend. He is also an insomniac and a hypochondriac. But he has one virtue: he loves to listen to people. Walking the dog opens up new territories for Charles who is discovering something new each day. One day a girl crosses his path, and he immediately recognizes her as the love of his life. There is one problem. How is he going to find her?

Alice loves those who make her dream. Saleswoman in a video shop where she is bored, she longs for another life. Fortunately, she meets the beautiful Mickey whom she falls in love with. Mickey disappears and leaves Alice without news. Separation acts as a revelation. Finally they meet again. Alice decides to tackle everything and go on an adventure with him.

After 30 years of exile in Paris, Jana travels back to Vilnius. She wants to see again the lake that Paulius, her first love, called “Walden”.

A theater actress leaves her show to retire with her sick son to her childhood city.

Quarante

Can a loving relationship of eight years go down the drain because of a single moment of carelessness? Virginie and Laurent have always treasured fidelity, but Laurent's opinions and appetites are starting to shift with the times.

French independent director Paul Vecchiali playfully bites the hand that periodically feeds him (and many of the nation's other creative filmmakers) in this dark comedy. Writer and director Vecchiali stars as a moviemaker named Paul Vecchiali, who is trying to complete his latest project, a dramatic love story about a young couple whose relationship is complicated by the man's addiction to drugs. Short on funds, Vecchiali approaches the National Cinema Center, who offer loans and grants to independent filmmakers whom they believe are deserving. The NCC is less than impressed with Vecchiali's latest script, and they turn him down, just as they have done a number of times in the past. Angry and determined that the NCC will never break the spirit of another director, Vecchiali and his crew block out a plan to assassinate the nine members of the funding board, though the press and public seem more bemused than outraged by the sudden rash of killings.

Le Ramage et le Plumage

Eighteen-year-old Victor loses his parents in a car accident three months before his baccalauréat. He is taken in by his godfather Michel, an enigmatic man who lives in the outbuilding of a chateau with his daughter Caroline, a young woman in her twenties.

A female journalist becomes re-acquainted with an Algerian ex- colleague when she visits Beirut, and begins an affair with him.

A famous rock singer is being overtaken. Vox, the album and live producer of the singer, prepares a real revolution with the help of a scientist. With holography, they would like to create the perfect copy of the star.

Le Locataire

A masterful soldier, tactician and statesmen, Napoleon Bonaparte's courage and love for his country sees him rise from an unpaid general consumed with ambition to the most powerful man in Europe, then his fall, and exile.

Spécial cinéma