Claude Berri
Film historian/professor at UCLA Janet Bergstrom and Positif journalist N.T. Bihn discuss To Be or Not to Be and Ernst Lubitsch's career and legacy. The featurette also contains archival footage with Francois Truffaut and Claude Berri.
Nathalie and Jean-Pierre have been together for five years, to celebrate their anniversary, Jean-Pierre prepare a surprise present for his girlfriend: a cute four month english bullgod. Nathalie loves her present and calls the puppy "Tresor"; her relationship with the dog is close and strong since the begining but causes problems in the couple.
Although living a comfortable life in Salon-de-Provence, a charming town in the South of France, Julie has been feeling depressed for a while. To please her, Philippe Abrams, a post office administrator, her husband, tries to obtain a transfer to a seaside town, on the French Riviera, at any cost. The trouble is that he is caught red-handed while trying to scam an inspector. Philippe is immediately banished to the distant unheard of town of Bergues, in the Far North of France...
When Camille falls ill, she is forced to live with Philibert and Franck.
At the port of Sète, Mr. Slimani, a tired 60-year-old, drags himself toward a shipyard job that has become more and more difficult to cope with as the years go by. He is a divorced father who forces himself to stay close to his family despite the schisms and tensions that are easily sparked off and that financial difficulties make even more intense. He is going through a delicate period in his life and, recently, everything seems to make him feel useless: a failure. He wants to escape from it all and set up his own restaurant. However, it appears to be an unreachable dream given his meager, irregular salary that is not anywhere near enough to supply what he needs to realize his ambition. But he can still dream and talk about it with his family in particular. A family that gradually gives its support to this project, which comes to symbolize the means to a better life. Thanks to its ingeniousness and hard work, this dream soon becomes a reality...or almost...
A story about two couples, longtime friends in which both husbands engage in long-term affairs and, as the title says, ultimately one remains with his wife and one makes a new life with another woman.
Is love compatible with coupledom? And what of freedom and fidelity? These are some of the questions facing two married men.
Documentary about Roman Polanski's film adaptation of the 1891 novel TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES by Thomas Hardy
While a terrorist epidemy strikes the world leaders, the commissaire San-Antonio and his partner, the lieutenant Bérurier, have to escort the French ambassador in a British hotel. But after a negligence of Bérurier (one more little sex affair...), San-Antonio witnessed, helpless, to the ambassador's abduction, organized by a gorgeous Italian girl. Back to Paris, San-Antonio is dismissed by the police chief, Achille Hachille. A real godsend for Bérurier, who get promoted... But soon, the situation degenerates, when the president of the Republic mysteriously disappears. Immediate reaction from Police Minister : San-Antonio is the only one who can save the day. He has 48 hours and a secret squad to find the president. At the Elysée, San-Antonio finds Bérurier, the official investigator. But now, it's every man for himself : who will be the first to find the President ?
After his wife leaves him for another man, Jacques hires a housekeeper, Laura, to keep his Paris apartment in order. As he starts increasing her hours and spending more time with her on her days off, Jacques is torn between the pleasure of Laura's company, and the headache that such an intrusion brings to his new domain of singlehood.
The Egyptian Queen Cleopatra bets against the Roman Emperor, Julius Caesar, that her people are still great, even if the times of the Pharaohs has long passed. She vows (against all logic) to build a new palace for Caesar within three months. Since all her architects are either busy otherwise or too conservative in style, this ambivalent honor falls to Edifis. He is to build the palace and be covered in gold or, if not, his fate is to be eaten by crocodiles. Edifis calls upon an old friend to help him out: The fabulous Druid Getafix from Gaul, who brews a fantastic potion that gives supernatural strength. In order to help and protect the old Druid, Asterix and Obelix accompany him on his journey to Egypt. When Julius Caesar gets wind of the project succeeding, he has the building site attacked by his troops in order to win the bet and not lose face. But just like the local pirates, he hasn't counted on Asterix and Obelix.
Quick-witted, well-read cultured types revolve around each other in a delightful potpourri of theatre, romanticism and theft.
A movie about a middle aged french man who after a family crisis travels on the spur of the moment to London only to get caught up in the male prostitution business and eventually drugs.
Set in 50 B.C., Asterix and Obelix are living in a small but well-protected village in Gaul, where a magic potion concocted by Druids turns the townsfolk into mighty soldiers. When Roman troops carve a path through Gaul to reach the English Channel, Caesar and his aide de camp Detritus discover the secret elixir and capture the Druid leader who knows its formula, and Asterix and Obelix are sent off to rescue them.
This French romantic comedy-drama concerns Claude Langmann, a middle-aged auctioneer, who is in a loving marriage with his second wife of 15 years. Though he is deeply in love with his wife and has remained faithful to her, he finds himself unable to perform in bed. His wife says she is satisfied with Claude's love and tenderness, but he visits a sex specialist anyway. There he learns of Viagra, which is not yet approved in France, though it is available in Switzerland over the counter. Soon Claude is on his way to Geneva, and eager to prove his manhood, tries to bed Agnes, his very attractive and very available assistant. His daughter, who also comes along for the trip, interferes with her own problems.
A love story or a tale of the resistance, this poignant movie tells both the haunting story of a French resistance cell in Lyon but also the love of Lucie Aubrac for her husband...
After learning of her husband's infidelities, a housewife invites an itinerant lesbian to move in with them. None of their lives will ever be the same again.
The night of August 24, 1572, is known as the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. In France a religious war is raging. In order to impose peace a forced wedding is arranged between Margot de Valois, sister of the immature Catholic King Charles IX, and the Hugenot King Henri of Navarre. Catherine of Medici maintains her behind-the-scenes power by ordering assaults, poisonings, and instigations to incest.
Claude Berri, who usually participates in films by directing them, here returns to the screen as Stan, an over-the-hill lothario, much given to quoting Shakespeare, who occasionally goes around naked under his raincoat and exposes himself to strangers, who are usually not interested in his primitive display of genitalia. It also appears that he is unable to sexually satisfy his much younger lover, and he suspects her of having another boyfriend. He earns his living tutoring students (mostly young girls) in English literature. When, in his frustration, he gropes one of the girls in her home during a tutoring session, she protests, her father (who is at home) beats him up, and he is sentenced to a jail term. There, he is teamed up with a slightly loopy murderer. When he gets out of jail, he finds his girlfriend has left for good, and ends his life.
After World War II, a small French village struggles to put the war behind as the controlling Communist Party tries to flush out Petain loyalists. The local bar owner, a simple man who likes to write poetry, who only wants to be left alone to do his job, becomes a target for Communist harassment as they try and locate a particular loyalist, and he pushes back.
In a charming mixture of fantasy and reality, this film recalls the great musicals of Hollywood's Golden Age. Yves Montand, playing himself, returns to his hometown of Marseilles to appear in an autobiographical musical. Once there, he searches for the barmaid he once loved and also encounters young hopeful Marion, giving her the chance of a lifetime
In this, the sequel to Jean de Florette, Manon (Beart) has grown into a beautiful young shepherdess living in the idyllic Provencal countryside. She plots vengeance on the men who greedily conspired to acquire her father's land years earlier.
In a rural French village, an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers, and are dismayed to hear that the man who has inherited it is moving in. They block up the spring and watch as their new neighbour tries to keep his crops watered from wells far afield through the hot summer. Though they see his desperate efforts are breaking his health and his wife and daughter's hearts, they think only of getting the water.
Story about a doctor in a Libyan military hospital who is mad, but no-one wants to declare him unfit, and he becomes the captain of a fighting unit. Through him the Germans risk losing a truce with the British, and therefore kill him and give him a hero's funeral.
Henri is a lonely, isolated young man who lets no one get close to him. He meets a street hustler and comes out of his shell, going 180 degrees into gay obsession. Though he has yet to physically approach the object of his affection, Henri builds up so much unrequited lust that it explodes with horrible results.
Lambert, a burned-out case, works the night shift at a gas station, rarely speaking, living alone, drinking. Bensoussan, raised in foster homes, now a small-time pusher for a bar owner named Rashid, comes to the station needing a spark plug for a stolen Moped. He and Lambert connect somehow, and a few days later, they go for a drink. The young man is too cavalier, and when he swipes Rashid's fancy motorcycle a couple of times, he's expendable. Lambert decides to avenge the young man and seeks information from Lola, a punk who knew Bensoussan. With surprising perseverance, she pierces Lambert's shell; he starts to feel again, tells Lola his story, and finds new enthusiasm for life.
After a life of emotional and professional upsets, Alex finds himself headwaiter in a chic Parisian restaurant. Well into middle age, divorced but still very much a ladies’ man, he has one great ambition: to open an amusement park by the sea. One day, an old flame, Claire, suddenly re-enters his life. For Alex, the fires of love are easily re-kindled, but Claire has another man in her life…
Michel works there manically solving people's problems over the phone. He is about to tie the knot with his girl friend Isabelle, an airline hostess. She flies all over the world, he hates to leave the office. A series of madcap mishaps involving theft or injury (as you would expect in his line of work) ensues after Michel promises Isabelle nothing will delay their marriage and she promises in turn that she's done flying. Once this unlikely promise is made, it becomes premise and both are forced into escalating white lies to maintain the appearance of keeping their word. Their predicament mounts as Isabelle is forced to do a few more flights, while Michel is compelled to travel to New York, Tunisia, and finally Hong Kong, where they are finally reunited in the throes of a contrived and hilarious drug deal involving a 747, water taxi chases, and martial arts.
Charlotte (Catherine Deneuve) flies to East-Africa in order to build a touristic center near the Lake Williams where the pygmys live. Here she meets her husband Victor (Philippe Noiret), a devoted conservationist who left her three years ago to live in the jungle. Can you imagine his enthusiasm when she arrives at the conclusion that the ideal place to built this holiday resort is his kitchen garden?
In antique Rome, a simple pepboy for chars becomes involved in a coup against Cesar. Rahatlocum is a North African Roman colony where Julius Caesar came to spend an expensive holiday. The revolt rumbles among the small people who find a leader in the person of Ben-Hur Marcel.
After having lost his job for having saved a child accused of shop lifting, Frédéric Barbier decides to become a school teacher with some funny results.The great comedy actor Coluche is excellent as a simple school teacher.
A detective, fresh out of the academy (lowest mark in class), gets the assignment to bodyguard a spoiled rich girl reporter. She's been interviewed on TV and has questioned the virility of a mobster who kidnaps her later.
A woman invites all four men she loved in her life for the dinner of New Year's Eve at the same time and unites them all in her house...
Pierre, 44, contentedly divorced, takes his teen daughter to the Côte d'Azur along with his friend Jacques and Jacques' own teen daughter, Françoise. On the topless beaches of Saint-Tropez, Jacques and Pierre discuss marriage and being parents. Then, in a wild moment at a nighttime party, Françoise starts playing with Pierre, and one thing leads to another: they become lovers. After a couple of trysts, Pierre wants out, but Françoise declares her love for him and wants to tell her father about it. She does, but leaves out Pierre's name, so Jacques enlists Pierre's help in identifying who seduced his daughter. What will Pierre do?
Deserted by his father, and dislocated by the Second World War, Paul is a boy who wants affection and attention and cannot find it at home. For a while, he becomes the pet of some German soldiers, running errands for them. Later, he helps the Resistance, and when the Americans come to stay, he is really in his element with them.
Claude is in his last year of high-school, but he doesn't care much for school. Instead all his thoughts circle around girls and getting laid. But since he doesn't look very studly, he has a hard time realizing his fantasies. When he's finally got an invitation to a steamy afternoon by Carole, his father intercepts the letter...
The petite waitress Johnny works and lives in a truck-stop, where she's lonely and longs for love. She develops a crush on the garbage truck driver Krassky, although her sleazy boss Boris warns her that he's gay.
The wife of an extremely jealous merchant is held hostage by a bank robber.
Two writers and their girlfriends visit the castle of an actor who specializes in playing vampire roles. As the night progresses, they begin to wonder if the man is an actor playing a vampire, or a vampire playing an actor.
On the advice of a friend, Claude, married to the charming Isabelle and father of two, decided to transform his library, hardly flourishing, into a sex shop. This change of activity proves to be very lucrative and sharpens his desire to spice up his married life through various erotic experiences. Claude asks his wife to share with him the audacity he dreams of. Soon, the household meets a dentist and his wife and is engaged, without much success, to new discoveries. Isabelle, full of good will, tries to follow her husband ...
Claude Berri plays himself as he relates his own experiences through youth and adolescence. His father owns a profitable fur shop. Initially, Claude's father hopes his son will take over the fur shop, but he later gives in to Claude's desire to become involved in filmmaking.
Claude (Guy Bedos) is content with his life. He has a girlfriend Tania (Zorica Lozic) and he aspires to become an actor. When he receives his draft notice, a friend convinces Claude he can get out of military service with his connections in Paris. When the connections fall through, Claude is sent for basic training outside Paris before being shipped off to Algeria. His stops in Morocco and Algeria are uneventful as far as military action goes. He returns home with few bad memories of his army life ...
Claude and Isabella met on a beach one summer and got easily involved. But while he has dreams of settling down with a family, she just wants to have fun. When Isabelle becomes pregnant, Claude is advised by both families to marry but things get more complicated when he meets an English woman.
Handed over to foster care by his mother—who's unwilling to give up permanent custody—the now-adolescent François understands that nothing in life is permanent, and his increasingly erratic actions reflect this knowledge.
Parallel lives of two couples destined to suicide, one, and unhappiness, the other.
A story of the caring friendship formed between a crusty, old anti-Semite and an eight-year-old Jewish boy who goes to live with him during World War II.
A sexy model pretends to have a new boyfriend in a wacky plan to make her ex-lover jealous.
Ginette, Rita, Jacqueline and Jane try to find fulfillment and love in their lives. Rita has a fiancé whose family is obsessed with social distinction; Jane has a boy-friend in the army, but does not hesitate to enjoy herself with chance encounters; Ginette has a mysterious passion that keeps her away from her colleagues at nights. Jacqueline is lonely; but who is that mysterious bike-rider who is
A brash and precocious ten-year-old comes to Paris for a whirlwind weekend with her rakish uncle. He and the viewer get more than they bargained for, however, in this anarchic comedy that rides roughshod over the City of Light. Based on a popular novel by Raymond Queneau that had been considered unadaptable, the audacious Zazie dans le Métro, made with flair on the cusp of the French New Wave, is a bit of stream-of-consciousness slapstick, wall-to-wall with visual gags, editing tricks, and effects.
Joe Grant, a light-skinned African American, heads to a small Southern town to investigate the lynching death of his brother. He draws the attention of a gorgeous heiress whom he learns may have been involved in the killing.
