The Common Man

The Common Man 1975

7.00

Georges Lajoie is a Parisian café owner. As every summer, Georges, his wife Ginette and grown-up son Léon go on holiday to Loulou's campsite, where they meet up with the Schumacher family (whose father is a bailiff) and the Colin family (who sells bras in the markets). This year, their peace is slightly disturbed by the proximity of a construction site where foreign workers are employed. Xenophobic comments are made. One evening at the ball, a fight breaks out between Lajoie, Albert Schumacher and two algerian immigrant workers...

1975

What Did I Ever Do to the Good Lord to Deserve a Wife Who Drinks in Cafes with Men?

What Did I Ever Do to the Good Lord to Deserve a Wife Who Drinks in Cafes with Men? 1980

6.50

Gaby is happy. After eighteen years of work, he is a flourishing mechanist. But one day, the mechanic of his life is out of order. He discovers that his assistant is in love with his wife. This one runs away with her daughter in law. So, Gaby's friends imagine a gambit to find them, at the moment where father and son enjoy pleasures of single life.

1980

The Lovely Month of May

The Lovely Month of May 1963

8.00

Candid interviews of ordinary people on the meaning of happiness, an often amorphous and inarticulable notion that evokes more basic and fundamentally egalitarian ideals of self-betterment, prosperity, tolerance, economic opportunity, and freedom.

1963

The Dangerous Mission

The Dangerous Mission 1975

4.00

1944. A young French soldier is involved, without really wanting it, into American operations for Liberation.

1975

Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay

Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay 1971

5.70

Two French girls get lost in the woods and accidentally enter the realm of sorceress Morgana Le Fay - who gives them the choice of either staying young forever as her lovers, or rot in a dungeon for eternity.

1971

Killing in the Sun

Killing in the Sun 1973

6.00

The murder of a Parisian mobster starts a war within the world of organized crime.

1973

The Purple Taxi

The Purple Taxi 1977

5.80

With his mauve taxi, the old philosopher Dr. Seamus Scully runs around the small green roads of the south of Ireland, becoming confident of his patients, while trying to help them find their way.

1977

The War Is Over

The War Is Over 1966

6.40

Diego is one of the chiefs of the Spanish Communist Party. On his way from Madrid to Paris, he is arrested at the border for an ID check but manages to get free. When he arrives in Paris, he starts searching for one of his comrade to prevent him from going to Madrid where he could be arrested.

1966

Without Warning

Without Warning 1973

5.10

A discredited police inspector is given a second chance, in the form of a dangerous assignment. Chosen because of his uncanny resemblance to a Lt. Revere, the inspector impersonates him in order to penetrate a group of mercenaries with orders to assassinate its leader.

1973

The Princess Academy

The Princess Academy 1987

4.00

Cindy Cathcart is a student out of place at an exclusive Swiss finishing school, Von Pupsin Academy. A poor orphan, Cindy is attending on a scholarship, and is resented by her snobby peers as well as Fraulein Stinkenschmidt. She soon finds allies: her British roommate, an outgoing Texan, Lulu Belle, an Italian Mafiosi's daughter, Isabella, and most crucial, the school's headmistress, Countess Von Pupsin.

1987

The Koumiko Mystery

The Koumiko Mystery 1965

6.70

While filming the Olympics, a filmmaker encounters a Japanese girl. Manchurian born and French educated, she's an intriguing anomaly. He films her around Tokyo, as she speaks of Japan, being Japanese and her unique perspective on life.

1965

Les pyramides bleues

Les pyramides bleues 1988

3.10

Elise is content being the lover of Alex, a wealthy magnate who lavishes her with attention and money. When she gets religious and decides to hide from him in a French convent, Alex hires agents to bring her back.

1988

From a Distant Gaze

From a Distant Gaze 1964

1

Jean Ravel's A Distant Gaze (D'un lointain regard) is a 12-minute observance of people on the streets backed by Michel Legrand music.

1964

Destroy Yourselves

Destroy Yourselves 1969

7.40

Detruisez-vous is a ‘primitive’ film which breaks all the rules of film-making. It’s the first Zanzibar film (and predates the very naming of the movement), an attempt to make a film which defies the rules of production, the production line of commerce

1969

Crystal Nights

Crystal Nights 1992

5.00

In this supernatural-themed romance, a German woman in the between-wars period is being initiated into some kind of esoteric/psychic order and learns at that time that her ideal mate won't even be born for quite a few years. By 1936, she has moved to Greece with her Greek husband, and there she meets Alberto, a very young Greek man, a Jew, who is evidently the man she has been seeking. They are able to read each other's thoughts and do so in the midst of a sexual encounter. Despite the boy's attraction to her, he spurns her due to her age (she is forty). She commits suicide and is born almost immediately as someone able to protect her ideal mate from the Germans. Later, as a young woman, she again has a liaison with Alberto, who again spurns her due to their age differences. Flashbacks indicate that this situation has been part of their lives for many incarnations.

1992

Playtime in Paris

Playtime in Paris 1962

1

Catherine Varlin's 27-minute Playtime in Paris (1962) is almost a practice run for Le joli mai, a sampling that starts in a classroom and then observes various subjects from afar. A woman is compared to a cat, and then we see a little girl on a playground, kissing, hugging and swatting a little boy companion as if he were a doll-plaything. A supermarket is compared to a flea market; an upscale equestrian event is compared to a soccer match, a comic bullfight and other attractions. Marker edited and Lhomme was the cameraman.

1962

Olivier Messiaen and the Birds

Olivier Messiaen and the Birds 1973

1

"A renowned composer and organist, Olivier Messiaen was also a great teacher. Michel Fano, who took his composition class at the Paris Conservatory, films some of the privileged moments of his teaching. This film, co-directed with Denise Tual, also shows Messiaen as a devotee, an ornithologist, and a synaesthete, evoking the fundamental concepts of his inspiration with an often sparkling ease (the musician imitating certain bird songs in a manner reminiscent of Rouch recreating the cries of wizards for certain films). In this way, the film boldly collides sequences with visual or sound correspondences, the directors succeeding in dragging us into the world of mystery and dreams dear to the musician." (François Waledisch)

1973

Nailed Lips

Nailed Lips 1970

1

A young commissioner investigates the murder of a Sicilian criminal with the help of a social worker.

1970

We Won't Go to the Woods Anymore

We Won't Go to the Woods Anymore 1969

1

In the spring of 1944, in the Woëvre forest of Lorraine, a group of young maquisards takes in four German deserters. led by Saint-Brice is based in the Woevre forest. Lise, a nineteen-year-old girl, is their liaison officer. One evening, four German soldiers turn up as deserters. After a period of doubt, the maquisards agree to integrate them into their group. Lise falls in love with one of the newcomers, Werner, and becomes his mistress. One day, she leaves on a mission with Lucien, and comes across an enemy patrol. The SS shoot Lucien and free Lise. In the camp, people begin to think that the maquis has been betrayed.

1969