Casts & Crew
Also Directed by Jacques Renard
In this poetic slice-of-life film that reveals the problems and needs of a group of lowlife characters, unwed mother Vivaine (Dominique Labourier) falls in love with working-class youth Francois (Patrick Chesnais) who has a shady past. Albert (Philippe Noiret), a no-good insurance con-artist, poses for many years as Francois' friend, but tragedy ensues when Albert comes between the lovers, and Francois and Albert resort to physical violence to settle their differences.
At a turning point in his life, Thomas Lebey, a famous writer, decides to return to the location of his first love. That was in 1960 in a small coastal resort town in the south of England. Sheila was 17 and he was not yet 20.
This certificate was formerly obtained by pupils at the end of primary school. The teacher of a small village has a dream: he wants his son to get his certificate and to be the best in the district ("Canton"). His younger son is less gifted: he is ashamed of him and treats him like a dunce. His obsession is so strong his marriage (his wife is a schoolteacher too) is soon on the rocks.
Two elderly ladies, Marie and Aminthe, both single and without children, live together in the house of their grandfather. Aminthe lives in the memory of Fabien, her husband to-be, who died in Indo-China more than fifty years ago. Marie, the elder one, likes to remind the happy time of their childhood - before they lost their parents prematurely. As kids, each have their own character flaws but seem to have a pure and simple childhood. Now, they live their pensions - small -, vegetables of the kitchen garden that Marie sells at the market and of the piano courses which Aminthe gives... Not enough to maintain their old residence, badly heated and of which the roof is to be remade... But when Aminthe affirms that it is necessary to sell and buy an apartment, Marie refuses categorically. Soon we learn what secrets these girls have kept all their lives.
(no summary right now)
A story of a big family living in French countryside between First and second world wars.
A little town in the north of France, 1941. Blanche has three children. She worries about her husband Victor, who often goes out at night. Actually, Victor belongs to the Resistance. Soon, Blanche will be a resistant too. In the network, there is also Germinal, the hairdresser. His daughter Marie knows everything and asks to be part of it... Chronicle of the occupation and of the resistance through the eyes of the women.
This documentary, directed by Jacques Renard in 1981, retraces seventy years of life in the mines through the testimonies of miners from the Nord-Pas-de-Calais coalfield. Confronted with numerous archival documents, the protagonists tell their stories and reflect on their past and present history. These four episodes (The Mine, The Memory, The Heart and The Body) shed light on the beginnings of coalmining, its working conditions, social and political struggles, the different technical evolutions of the miners’ work and the decline of the sector. Mémoires de la mine is unique in the history of French television documentaries because of its scope: never before have such life and career stories been recorded. Mémoires de la mine won the Prix de la critique and the Prix de la Société des Gens de Lettres.
