Un Ballo in Maschera

When a group of African immigrants builds a cardboard village between the pews of a church soon to be closed, an elderly priest must choose between his calling and his orders.

A train travels across Italy toward Rome. On board is a professor who daydreams a conversation with a love that never was, a family of Albanian refugees who switch trains and steal a ticket, three brash Scottish soccer fans en route to a match, and a complaining widow traveling to a memorial service for her late husband who's accompanied by a community-service volunteer who's assisting her. Interactions among these Europeans turn on class and nationalism, courtesy and rudeness, and opportunities for kindness.

Ermanno Olmi has returned to documentary filmmaking and makes a journey through valleys, living rocks and the culture of the Valtellina hillsides.

Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.

Italian maestro Ermanno Olmi tells the tale of the journey of the Magi in this lyrical odyssey. The film focuses on a wise man who interprets his sighting of a comet streaking through the sky as a spiritual message. Joined by two associates, soldiers, villagers and others, the Magi sets out on a journey that tests his beliefs and strength.

A self-assured, middle-aged advertising executive has his life upset by an unforeseen accident.

Based on the diary Pope John XXIII kept between the ages of 14 and 18, his lifelong concern for tolerance, the underprivileged, and world peace is told. Rod Steiger, in the central role, acts as "intermediary" between the Pope and the audience, interpreting John's words, thoughts and actions. Steiger visits the actual places in which John lived, recreating the conditions, environment, and forces that affected his development. Through this unusual technique, we are brought close to an extraordinary man - one who's able to win the love of many people of all faiths.

"Documentary, showing workmen erecting one of the pylons and stringing up three cables which will eventually reach to Milan." - BFI

An accidental interruption of the S. Giacomo Electric Line requires the intervention of a team of specialized technicians. The short movie follows these men to the place of intervention, dwelling on the beautiful snow-capped landscapes and the local inhabitants engaged in their daily activities.

Simon Rattle conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in Stepháne Braunschweig's production of Richard Wagner's Die Walküre. A Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007 production, in coproduction with Osterfestspiele Salzburg. Directed for HDTV and video by Don Kent.

In 1968, young people from Berkeley to Paris and from Prague to Tokyo rose up against the world they were being offered. In this sprawling but riveting two-part documentary, veteran filmmaker Don Kent tracks the development, decline and legacy of this global movement against the fiery backdrop of the Vietnam War, civil rights struggles, dueling ideologies, and international coup d’états. A time capsule full of evocative sights and sounds, narrated by leading historians and political activists, Les années 68 effortlessly connects apparently discrete events to form a blazingly timely analysis of a decade that shaped the way we live now.

Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico (tragic opera) in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti.

Martin Kušej's brilliant 2006 Carmen represents a landmark interpretation of a truly timeless opera. Led by Rolando Villazón as Don José and Marina Domashenko in the title role, the virtuoso cast joins forces with the celebrated Staatskapelle Berlin under the direction of the legendary maestro Daniel Barenboim.

With their faces of sweet lunatics or lighted beaufs, citizens of the ordinary or pochards between two wines, they interpret, in twos or threes, conversations seized on the zincs of the bistros or in the corners of our kitchens. A few minutes of delirium or absurdity. The Deschiens are the actors of Jérôme Deschamps's troupe, who, as usual, with his accomplice Macha Makeieff, track down the little nonsense of everyday life, between humor and ferocity.

Philip Glass's first opera in a 2012-2013 production at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.