When French writer Marguerite Duras (1914-96) published her novel The Sea Wall in 1950, she came very close to winning the prestigious Prix Goncourt. Meanwhile, in Indochina, France was suffering its first military defeats in its war against the Việt Minh, the rebel movement for independence.
In the sixties, Peter Handke was one of the first to show how the business works: the writer as angry young man and pop star of the literary scene. As soon as he was on the bestseller lists, he turned his back on the hype. For many years, he has lived and worked in his house in a Parisian suburb, more quietly and more hospitably. Peter Handke's precise, free gaze becomes perceptible in his texts, his conversations, the cosmos of his notebooks.
Marco Paolini interviews Mario Rigoni Stern about—among other things—his well-known experience as a soldier on the Eastern front during WWII, culminating in the infamous retreat of the Italian troops, the difficult reintegration into civilian life after the war, his relationship with his literary work and with his ancestral land, the Asiago Plateau.
French artist Maurice Chevalier (1888-1972), a legend of stage and screen, was an accomplished singer, actor and entertainer, who embodied the charm of his native Paris throughout a decades-long career that brought him fame in Europe and America and left for show business history a vast repertoire of masterful classic songs and captivating film performances.
A portrait of the Spanish-German actor Daniel Brühl, a versatile performer capable of moving easily from the gentlest to the darkest role.
A film about fireworks, the people who make them and the cultures behind them across the globe.
An account of the life of the Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653), the first female artist to get international acclaim, recognized as a modern icon, due to her personality and her unyielding defense of her professional integrity.
Spanish filmmaker David Trueba travels to New York to interview Woody Allen, who reviews his filmography and his many personal and artistic concerns.
An account of the life and work of American film director Sam Peckinpah (1925-84), a tortured artist whose genius and inner demons changed the Western genre forever.
An account of the life and work of French filmmaker Claude Chabrol (1930-2010), a sybarite Buddha, a furtive anarchist, an insolent lover of life.
An account of the life and work of the Swiss writer Johanna Spyri (1827-1901), the barely known artistic mother of Heidi, her brave alpine heroine, who was first introduced to the world between 1880 and 1881, in a novel published in two parts, and became definitely immortal thanks to an anime series, released in 1974, directed by the Japanese genius Isao Takahata.
A look at the life and work of Christina Lindberg, the most famous Swedish model of the 1970s and star of exploitation cinema.
An unprecedented and intimate look at the life, work and enduring legacy of British actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993).
The gripping story of legendary American actor John Travolta: his rise to stardom in the 1970s; his agonizing fall in disgrace in the 1980s; and his stunning artistic rebirth in the 1990s.
Short documentary on Belgian artist Piet Bekaert.
An account of the life and work of genius Spanish writer Francisco Umbral (1932-2007), author of almost 200 books and more than 1000 articles; as well as an analysis of his both hieratic and strambotic public figure and certain unresolved personal enigmas in order to find an answer to what a real dandy is in this modern and convoluted times.
Spain, April 14, 1931. The Second Republic is born. From the beginning, the writer Miguel de Unamuno is considered one of the ethical pillars of the new regime. Five years later, on December 31, 1936, a few months after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), Unamuno dies at his home in Salamanca, capital of the rebel side, led by General Francisco Franco, and main center of dissemination of its propaganda apparatus.
An account of the personal and artistic life of the Spanish singer Peret (1935-2014), the artist who imaginatively mixed various musical styles, such as mambo, tanguillo and rock, to create the gypsy rumba. An epic adventure, from a humble neighborhood of Barcelona to the biggest stages of the world.
Documentary on Marvin Gaye made during his stay in Belgium, Ostende
In this hybrid political thriller and verité portrait documentary, Sara Nodjoumi, working with co-director and husband, Till Schauder, makes her directorial debut with this personal film, diving into the mystery surrounding the disappearance of more than 100 “treasonous” paintings by her father, seminal Iranian modern artist Nickzad Nodjoumi.