French Cinema

Directed by Yamina Benguigui.
98 minutes; released 2001.
A mother of three leaves North Africa to join her husband in France, where she struggles to adapt to the strange cultural climate. In French and Arabic with English subtitles.

Directed by Rachid Bouchareb.
125 minutes; released 2006.
A unit of Algerian soldiers fights prejudice in the Free French army in the middle of World War II. In French with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.
115 minutes; released 2003.
Three young students in Paris, two French and one American, are brought together by their passion for movies - and each other. Starring Michael Pitt, Eva Green and Louis Garrel. In English, Spanish or French with optional English or Spanish subtitles.

Directed by Denys Arcand.
119 minutes; released 1989.
When some Montreal actors put on an unorthodox Passion Play, they incite the opposition of the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, their lives begin to mirror the Passion itself. Starring Lothaire Bluteau.

Directed by Chris Marker.
130 minutes; released 1962.
Chris Marker's contribution to the science-fiction genre. A film about time travel told in still images. In French or English with optional English subtitles.

Directed by René Clément.
85 minutes; released 1952.
Orphaned by an air raid in 1940s France, a young girl befriends a peasant boy in the family that takes her in. Based on the novel by François Boyer. In French or English (dubbed) with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard.
107 minutes; released 1985.
In this retelling of the Virgin Mary story, an innocent teenage virgin who plays basketball and works at her father's gas station becomes pregnant. Then the girl, her fiancee Joseph, her family, and her friends struggle to cope. In French with English subtitles.

Directed by Robert Bresson.
115 minutes; released 1951.
When a young man stricken with cancer becomes the new priest in a French village, the locals refuse to accept him in spite of his attempts to help them and his efforts to cope with his own illness. Based on the novel by Georges Bernanos. In French with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Luis Buñuel.
98 minutes; released 1964.
A Parisian domestic goes to work on a provincial estate in the 1930s, where she encounters a womanizer, his frigid wife, a fascist and a shoe-fetishist. Then she decides one is guilty of murder. Based on the novel by Octave Mirbeau. Starring Jeanne Moreau. In French with optional English subtitles.

Directed by François Truffaut.
105 minutes; released 1962.
Set in France and Germany just before and after World War I, this film tells the story of two friends, Jules and Jim, and their love for the same woman. Based on the novel by Henri-Pierre Roch. Starring Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner and Henri Serre.

Directed by Louis Malle.
138 minutes; released 1974.
Having failed to join the French resistance during the Nazi occupation of France in the 1940s, a young man decides instead to work for the German police. Then he meets a young Jewish woman. In French with English subtitles.

Directed by Roger Vadim.
102 minutes; released 1959.
An updating of the Laclos novel. Two spouses find sport in each other's extramarital conquests. But while staying at a ski resort, their games of passion come to a tragic end when one of them falls in love. In French with English subtitles.

Directed by Stephen Frears.
120 minutes; released 1988.
A French nobleman bets that he can seduce a virtuous woman. Based on a 1782 novel by Choderlos de Laclos. In English or French, with optional English, French, or Spanish subtitles.

Directed by William Dieterle.
116 minutes; released 1937.
Based on the book by Matthew Josephson, this film explores the career of Zola, who championed the cause of France's oppressed and waged a vigorous campaign to free the wrongly convicted Captain Alfred Dreyfus.

Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
133 minutes; released 2004.
A young woman at the end of the First World War, convinced her lover is still alive, follows clue after clue in her search for him. Starring Audrey Tautou.