The Channel Tunnel linking Britain with France is one of the seven wonders of the modern world but what did it take to build the longest undersea tunnel ever constructed? We hear from the men and women, who built this engineering marvel. Massive tunnel boring machines gnawed their way through rock and chalk, digging not one tunnel but three; two rail tunnels and a service tunnel. This was a project that would be privately financed; not a penny of public money would be spent on the tunnel. Business would have to put up all the money and take all the risks. This was also a project that was blighted by flood, fire, tragic loss of life and financial bust ups. Today, it stands as an engineering triumph and a testament to what can be achieved when two nations, Britain and France put aside their historic differences and work together.
Charles de Gaulle, the first president (1958-1969) of the Vth Republic, France’s current system of government, left his mark on the country . He was statesman of action and has been compared to a monarch. This film depicts the general’s personality through the great events of his presidential term, at a time when the world was undergoing considerable changes.
In 1415 a small English Army consisting mainly of Yeoman English and Welsh archers defeated and destroyed a much larger French army consisting mainly of the nobility of France at Agincourt. This film follows Henry Vth's campaign from his landing near Harfleur, his costly successful siege and his desperate attempts to cross the River Somme and escape to Calais culminating in the Battle of Agincourt on 25th Oct 1415. The BHTV team of military historians take you through the battle separating myth from fact to tell the true story of one of the most epic episodes of English history. The story is brought to life with re-enactment footage, maps and is shot on location in France.
Le Temps des vautours
A look at the rise of anti-Semitism and assaults against Jews in present-day France.
La Cause et l'usage
A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.
Writer and historian Dr Helen Castor explores the life - and death - of Joan of Arc. Joan was an extraordinary figure - a female warrior in an age that believed women couldn't fight, let alone lead an army. But Joan was driven by faith and today, more than ever, we are acutely aware of the power of faith to drive actions for good or ill. Since her death, Joan has become an icon for almost everyone: the left and the right, Catholics and Protestants, traditionalists and feminists. But where, in all of this, is the real Joan - the experiences of a teenage peasant girl who achieved the seemingly impossible? Through an astonishing manuscript, we can hear Joan's own words at her trial and, as Helen unpicks Joan's story and places her back in the world that she inhabited, the real human Joan emerges.
After avenging the death of his teacher, a Shaolin monk flees China to the American West and helps people while being pursued by bounty hunters.
Police à bout de souffle
A multibillion-pound investment is underway to make our railways bigger, better and faster. Over three years, we go behind the scenes with Wales’s newest rail body as they try to make ambitious promises a reality.
La Ve, une constitution sur mesure ?
Danielle Mitterrand, une certaine idée de la France
De Charles de Gaulle à Emmanuel Macron, les gardiens de l'empire
From infinitely small to super-predator, from the earthworm to the whale, from the blade of grass to the giant tree, Vibrant takes you on a journey to discover the biodiversity one country can host. Through the breathtaking natural environments of France, it is an exploration of the pyramid of life. It is also, and above all, an opportunity to marvel at these species capable of a thousand feats, subtly connected to each other and of which the human being is an integral part. A link that we have too often forgotten and that it is time to reweave.
In the German-occupied Paris, Helene is torn between the love for her boyfriend Jean, working for the resistance and the German administrator Bergmann, who will do anything to gain her affection.
Filmed during a visit to Jerome Hill in Provence, Jonas Mekas sets his Bolex to capture a single day overlooking the port of Cassis. Shot frame by frame from morning to sunset, the film distills shifting light and color into a quiet meditation on time, place, and perception.
Un peu, beaucoup, passionnément... Les Présidents et les Français
Les Mains magnétiques, Ernest Pignon-Ernest
At the close of Jacques Chirac's life, politician Jean-Louis Debré has wished to make a film to celebrate his friend, to tell the story of their friendship and professional understanding, and to make an intimate portrait of the former President of France through the accounts of a few very close friends. Thanks to Jean-Louis Debré's presence, Claude Chirac and some of Jacques Chirac's closest friends, famous or unknown, agreed to talk to the camera, sometimes for the first time, to evoke their untold-before memories and tell about the moments that bonded the two men for a lifetime.