Élodie Bouchez
Today is Raphael’s funeral. His young wife Lola doesn’t know what to do with her sadness, or with her 7-year-old son’s, or with anyone’s. Her sister Margaux is here, though they have been estranged for years. On their way to the ceremony, Lola forces Margaux to flee the procession and to take them away from this sad reality. During this improvised trip, the two sisters will rediscover each other and relearn freedom. The freedom of not wanting to bury the man you love.
The death of Roberto, the canary, forces a family to come to terms with their own grief.
Gauthier, a young journalist, learns from his mother that he is the illegitimate son of Guy Jamet, a popular French singer whose heyday stretched unevenly from the 1960’s to the nineties. Guy is currently promoting a new album of old material and heads on tour. Armed with a camera, Gauthier decides to follow Guy, recording his daily routine and his concerts to create a documentary portrait.
Théo is given up for adoption by his biological mother on the very day he is born. After this anonymous birth, the mother has two months to change her mind… Or not. The child welfare services and adoption service spring into action… The former have to take care of the baby and support it during this limbo-like time, this period of uncertainty, while the latter must find a woman to become his adoptive mother. She is called Alice, and she has spent the last ten years fighting to have a child.
When a teenager suddenly disappears without a trace, the case is assigned to an alcoholic police officer who maintains a complicated relationship with his own troubled teenage son, suspected of drug trafficking.
After keeping a careful distance for many years, 25-year-old Gaspard must renew contact with his family when his father remarries. Accompanied by Laura, an eccentric young woman who agrees to pretend she's his girlfriend at the wedding, he finally feels ready to set foot in the zoo owned by his parents, where he is reunited with the monkeys and tigers he grew up with... But with a father who is an out-of-control womanizer, a brother who is far too sensible, and a sister who is far too beautiful, he unknowingly sets himself up to experience the last days of his childhood.
Rocky is a discreet man. He is happy but exists in anyone's eyes. One evening in returning home, he discovered an owl "Grand Duke "on his couch that fixed intently. He understands that he must act. The next day arrived his office, he takes an owl costume without that nobody pays any attention. Until the day he encounters a panda ...
A reflection on love and pleasure experienced by three women, set in France, New York, and Shanghai.
A lesbian couple on the brink of divorce divide their possessions in mediation and through each object, we get a glimpse of their relationship and the sometimes humorous and sexy power that objects can hold on our lives and emotions.
Family man François Nouel (Clovis Cornillac) is the number one fan of the Tour de France – an obsession that costs him his wife and his job. At a loose end, François meets a former sports manager, Rémi (Bouli Lanners) who encourages him to take the plunge and do the Tour himself. With nothing to lose, François sets off, always one day ahead of the race, attracting fellow amateurs, media coverage and cheering crowds. As obstacle after obstacle is thrown his way, and his family comes back on the scene, François discovers what is really most important in his life.
A young artist in Manhattan falls in love with a Mexican.
A bumbling Paris policeman is doggedly determined to capture the master thief that repeatedly eludes him, even when they're the last two men on Earth.
Three couples and a single guy, from different social and career backgrounds, and of various ages, struggle with finding happiness in their lives.
When Camille's son was killed in a car accident, the devastating loss proved too much for emotionally fragile mother to bear. Now desperately clinging to any reminder of the son she held so close to her heart, Camille becomes increasingly fixated on Frank - the young man who was not only her child's best friend, but the one who was responsible for the tragic accident that took his life as well. At first, Frank is receptive to Camille's advances. It's not long, however, before the pair's scandalous relationship prompts many of Camille's friends to distance themselves from the increasingly unstable woman. Later, as Camille's obsession with Frank turns menacing, the relationship between grief-stricken mother and her guilt-ridden lover begins to take on ominous undertones.
Pierre Forêt est drôle et c'est son drame. C'est aussi son métier ; il est chauffeur de salle à la télé. Pierre Forêt est drôle mais il aurait préféré être beau. Ou alors comédien. Ou chanteur. Question de crédibilité. Pierre Forêt n'en peut plus. Ça fait six nuits qu'il ne dort plus. Il a enlevé Clovis Costa, le chanteur, l'idole, et le séquestre dans l'appartement de son enfance. Aucune issue.
A 30 ans, Bruno, rock-star has been, vit toujours aux crochets de sa petite amie. Les temps sont durs... surtout quand une ex ressurgit de nulle part pour lui apprendre qu'il est le père de Nancy, 13 ans, dont il n'a jamais soupçonné l'existence.
A coming-of-age drama that centers on a young quarterback from West Texas, a priest in New York, and the two women in their lives.
A wannabe surfer parties on the French Riviera while awaiting the perfect wave.
Everyone has a secret. Twins Sarah and Gaëlle near 25; for ten years, Sarah has been a fundamentalist Carmelite in a Brazilian convent, and Gaëlle has been in prison for a heinous crime. Sarah comes to the attention of Fr. Joachim, a priest and physician; he can find no cause for her debilitating abdominal pain. When Sarah and he are transferred to Paris, Joachim looks for Gaëlle, now on probation and finding no respite from society's approbation. An enterprising reporter is digging into Gaëlle's life, the mother superior of Sarah's convent hovers over her, and Joachim investigates the phenomenon of twin's symmetry. Is there any release from the past?
The psychiatry department of a young doctor Cora has just admitted a young lady who refuses to speak and whose identity remains unknown. Cora becomes fond of her patient and establishes a relationship which goes beyond the usual course of treatment. She feels a kind of "call" from this woman as a strange and strong tie grows between them. One day, Cora learns that the identity of her patient has been discovered. Her name is Loa, she is a stranger, she has been sent back home…to Iceland. Cora, who had no idea of this woman's life outside their relationship, is deeply moved : she decides to meet up with her in order to finish the treatment.
The Beat Nicks are musician Nick Nero and poet Nick Beat, a pair of self-styled truth-seekers who'd better find a gig or they'll be out on the street. Their luck begins to change when they find a box on the beach, a treasure chest of infinite beats that will set the stage for the ultimate success, a gig at the Monkey Club. But when Nick Nero falls in love with Nica, the club owners captive bride, he learns that they are some truths better left unsought. Hard knocks and a trip to rock bottom reunites the Nicks to preform the gig of a lifetime, and return the box to its source
Poucet is a kid from a family of numerous children. The parents, too poor to feed them, decide to abandon them in the forest. Their, the brothers try to find their way out making fantastic encounters. This film is based on the French fairy tale "Le petit poucet" by Charles Perrault.
In an Illinois farming community, Lyle lives quietly with his wife Amy. But their life is set spinning when Lyle's friend Vernon visits with his girlfriend Juliette. Soon Lyle and Juliette have embarked on a passionate affair which has the town talking and the religious community frowning.
Like a Candide dreaming of Eldorado, Jallel lands in France, hoping to try his luck. From encounter to encounter, hostel to social welfare group, Jallel will make his way through a Paris of outcasts. Although failing to achieve his hopes, he discovers and shares in the solidarity felt by the destitute. –uniFrance
The central role of Louise is portrayed by Elodie Bouchez, who won a 1998 Cannes "Best Actress" award for The Dreamlife of Angels. When Louise has an encounter with homeless Remi (Roschdy Zem), they have a magnetic attraction, but she is already attached to illiterate shoplifter and pickpocket punk Yaya (Gerald Thomassin). Although allied with Yaya in petty crimes, Louise lives with her widowed father (Lou Castel), a devoted writer of fiction. After a Metro bum (Bruce Myers) tells her of his desire to see his young son, she plucks the kid, Gaby (Antoine de Merle), right out of school, making him the newest rookie recruited into their subway gang. Shoplifting in a department store, the young toughs escape the store's security guards by hiding in the ballet rehearsal rooms of the nearby opera. But does Louise really belong with the subway toughs, or is she just pretending? When she's arrested, Louise is forced to reexamine her lifestyle.
Ben works in a morgue. Ben's wife left him and he is into various kinds of alternative sexuality. Teresa dies of an ecstasy overdose on the dance floor. When she is brought to the morgue, she is resurrected -how shall I say?- in Ben's arms (that part based on a true story). From this starting point, the film revolves around the interactions between them and Boris (orgy fan), Abdel (no sentimental life), Ducon (wants to kill himself), Nico (dying of AIDS), etc... A social study of the 90s with heavy references to sex and deat
In a French prison, three men are coming to terms with the emotional and physical torment which their incarceration brings them. Arnaud is serving a six-month sentence for drug smuggling; he protests his innocence and will do anything to secure an early release. Francky is a hardened criminal who has all but lost his wife and family and who seeks comfort in self-inflicted abuse. Kader is in prison for theft; he is the most philosophical of the three men, he is growing accustomed to prison life and seems to prefer it to the world outside.
In Lille, two penniless young women with few prospects become friends. Isa moves in with Marie, who's flat-sitting for a mother and child in hospital in comas following a car crash. Isa is out-going, unskilled, with hopes of moving south to warmer climes. Marie usually is either angry or detached. Then, while Isa begins to visit the child in whose flat they live, going to hospital to read to her, Marie slowly falls for a rich youth. At first Marie keeps him at bay, then she not only pursues him, she begins to dream he is her life's love. When Isa tries to warn Marie, their friendship flounders. How will Marie handle the inevitable? And once they lose the flat, where will they go?
Ulysse, a gun-toting hood, gets together a team of four people, including himself, to carry out what he thinks will be a fail-safe heist...
A priceless statuette "Dancing God" is transfered from Africa to France. Scoundrels of all stripes are dreaming of steeling it. The most clever of them are trying to replace the original with the copy. Chases, adventures, breathtaking stunts, shootouts - life is not worth a penny, when the priceless treasure is on stake.
On her honeymoon on a ship the daughter of a rich plant owner realizes that she's not happy with her marriage. She meets a poor woman on the way to meet her future husband, a missionary in India. The women decide to swap roles...
A young woman visiting Paris, misses the last bus home, finds herself stranded on the outskirts of Paris. Entering a local club, she meets a troubled drug addict.
A brief extract of four kids' lives somewhere in France. Quentin, who won a writers contest and now pays more attention to his career as an author than to his friends, beautiful Julie, his girl-friend, much more mature than she looks, falling in love with Quentin's very best friend Jimmy, who is kind of stuck in his unability of self-expression and grown up under bad social circumstances. And there is the shy boy Samir, exiled from Algeria, who lost his "brother" and only friend some time ago. Samir heavily falls in love with Quentin, but he can't handle it...
The grueling, emotionally torturous world of French preparatory schools provides the framework for this mystery. The deliberately rigorous courses are designed to prepare students to take the brutal examinations for entry into the elite Grand Ecoles, where a select few will gain the skills and education needed to insure a bright, prosperous future for themselves. The story centers on Delphine, a girl from the lower classes, and the upper class Claude. Both young women aspire to attend the Ecole Normale Superieure on the Rue d'Ulm. Delphine lives in humble public housing with her dull mother and two young brothers while Claude, who considers herself a Communist, lives in luxury with her own servant; she is sexually involved with fellow- student, Axel, who thinks himself a fascist.
Ten years after their Upper Sixth, Bruno, Momo, Leon and Alain meet together in the waiting room of a maternity hospital. The father of the awaited baby is Tomasi, their best friend at that time, who died one month before due to an overdose. They remember their teenage, their laughs, their dreams, their stupid pranks... a description of the French youth in the middle of the seventies.
As the Algerian War draws to a close, a teenager with a girlfriend starts feeling homosexual urges for two of his classmates: a country boy, and a French-Algerian intellectual.
Somewhere in the Drôme Valley, there is a farm where old shepherd Fernand lives with his two sons. A young woman arrives at the farm to learn the farm-work and disturbs the calm.
A young woman in a lesbian relationship keeps a diary that is stolen by a young man who loves her.
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.
It’s summer and France is hit by a polar cold. Ten lone and lost souls find each other, a profound meeting as a last chance to hope and fear, to love and dream. Ten tales as tribute to Monet’s Water Lilies, ten tales portraying an impressionist painting of today’s France.
