Bending Light
Alice and Horst paints a moving portrait of two siblings from Saarbrücken whose lives were shaped by their family’s antifascist resistance. As children, Alice Hornung and Horst Bernard were forced to flee from the Nazis into exile in France, where, despite constant danger, they also experienced great solidarity. After their return they continued their parents’ political commitment: against fascism, for peace and disarmament. The film combines personal memories with rare archival footage and portrays two individuals who, well into old age, remain unwavering in their commitment to justice and remembrance.
Who has not dreamed of embracing the city of Paris from the sky? Fly and explore the exceptional places that have shaped and are shaping the history of Paris: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame de Paris, the Louvre, the Bastille, Invalides, the Opera ... Far from the clichés of postcards out of marked routes by travel guides, this new film invites viewers to an exceptional private tour of the city of Paris. Travel through the centuries and be witnesses of the birth of the City Lights. This new production reveals one of the most influential capitals in the world as you've never seen.
Published in Paris in 1954, Story of O was an immediate bestseller and literary scandal: an elegantly written S&M fantasy that had all the hallmarks of being an autobiographical account by the pseudonymous Pauline Réage. In 1994 Dominique Aury, a mild-mannered, dowdy editor for France’s prestigious Gallimard press, revealed her authorship. Pola Rapaport explores Aury's inspiration, recreating the world of '50s literary Paris and setting it against dramatic sequences that bring the infamous book to life. The author as well as various French intellectuals expound on the thorny relationship between sexuality and power, submission and freedom, liberation and non-being.
L'Adieu à Solférino
Hannah, Laure, Adrien, and Halima are students at the Regional Institute of Social Work in Paris. Four students among the fifty in the first year of training to become educational support workers. They chose this profession out of commitment and vocation. Between the classroom and their field placements, they will confront their dreams and ideals with the realities on the ground, discover new sides of themselves, and begin to shape the contours of the profession they will practice—each in their own way.
Film student Laïs Decaster trains her camera on her close-knit group of friends to capture daily life in the suburb of Argenteuil, near Paris.
Bora Bora is the most popular destination in French Polynesia, certainly because of its lagoon, considered the most beautiful lagoon in the world. In this context, the islet could have sunk under concrete and pollution, and the reef could have been irreparably impacted. However, thanks to the will of a handful of inhabitants including the mayor of the island, Bora Bora is today a model of sustainable development, with water treatment technologies that are 15 years ahead of France, programs to rebuild corals and protect wildlife, educational actions and the rehabilitation of Polynesian traditions such as “rahui” and the establishment of a monitoring network using new technologies. All of this makes the island a veritable open-air laboratory that shows the way for all tropical coastal environments around the world.
France is at the heart of Madonna's life. She is inspired by French culture and its values and has surrounded herself with French artists for many years. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Queen of Pop's career, this film revisits the close and unique bond between Madonna and France and features testimonials from close collaborators and French friends who have helped create her unique artistic universe: Maripol, Jean Paul Gaultier, Julien d'Ys, Nicolas Huchard, and Marion Motin. Today's artists such as Florence Foresti, Leïla Slimani, Victor Weinsanto and HollySiz talk about the influence of this emancipating figure, which extends far beyond music.
En dehors des clous : le cinéma du système D
This documentary visits the towns and villages of the Alsace region of France at Christmastime. See the charmingly decorated storybook towns and learn of the unique holiday traditions and celebrations. The Alsatian landscape is covered with medieval towns, castle ruins and vineyards, and the communities of the region create a season of enchantment in their celebration of Christmas.
Cyrille, a young gay farmer from Auvergne, has only one friend, a homosexual like him. One day, he goes on vacation to a beach in Charente Maritime. He cannot swim and sees the sea for the first time. It was there that he met the director Rodolphe Marconi who decided to devote this sensitive and gentle portrait to him, plunging us into an agricultural world in crisis and into a life often lonely and made up of hard work rarely pays off.
Through encounters with a hydrologist, a farmer, and citizens mobilized around the Marais Poitevin, the director helps us understand the effects—on biodiversity and the state of rivers—of substitution reservoirs, also known as megabassins. For several years, Anne-Morwenn, David, Patrick, Yann, and others have been fighting for fair water sharing and devising ways to convince as many people as possible that it is time to change the agricultural model.
Diam's, the beloved icon of French rap, gave up everything at the height of her success. The young woman experienced a real descent into hell: depression, loneliness, and disillusionment in the face of suffocating fame. On the brink of disaster, she found refuge in religion. Rare archives, memorable music videos, and previously unseen testimonials reveal the violence of her success and her vital need to disappear in order to rebuild herself, choosing the shadows after the light.
Investigation into the Le Pen family, which has been a prominent presence on the political stage for three generations, with two of its members reaching the second round of the presidential election.
France, le plus beau décor de cinéma
From his childhood in a modest family in the Pyrénées to his unexpected career as a porn actor in the 1970s, the film traces the life of Claude Loir, who set out to fully embrace life. His homosexuality and curiosity guide him through encounters that lead into the shadowy, liberated circles of a pre-AIDS era, caught between conservatism and sexual freedom. Loves and lovers, flamboyance and fragility… the film offers a striking portrait of a fearless, hedonistic man navigating desire, identity, and society’s constraints.
Après la guerre, la guerre continue 1945-1950
The film tells of the radical life-search by the Swiss writer Paul Nizon, born 1929 in Bern, Switzerland, who became what “he was meant to be” in Paris. Now 90-year-old, Paul Nizon grants insights into his life and work in a self-ironic, direct manner. The intimate portrait of a great literary outsider emerges, for whom the risk of life and the risk of writing merge into one and the same work of art.
Suzy vs Gros Loup - Menace sur les rails