French Cinema

Black and white in color: A French colony in Africa's Ivory Coast discovers months after the fact that World War I has begun. Spurred on by a capricious patriotism, they figure they'll do their part by attacking the German colony up the river. After all, they have six rifles, and one of them is an automatic. So off to war they march -- or rather, their servants do, carrying the white folk on palanquins. They soon stop for a lovely picnic. When machine gun fire is heard in the distance, they run back to the safety of the colony. All goes well until a young geographer becomes the key strategist for the French, working with the local tribal chief and turning the old colonial social hierarchy on its head.

One of the most influential works in the history of cinema, Alain Renais's Hiroshima Mon Amour gathered international acclaim upon its release in 1959 and was awarded the International Critics' Prize at the Cannes Film festival and the New York Film Critics' Award. Ostensibly the story of a love affair between a Japanese architect and a French actress visiting Japan to make a film on peace, Hiroshima Mon Amour is a stunning exploration of the influence of war on both Japanese and French culture and the conflict between love and humanity.

Set in French Indochina in the 1930s as the Vietnamese begin to rebel against French colonialism. Dramatizes the last years of French rule through the relationship between plantation owner Éliane, French by birth but born and raised in Indochina, and her adopted daughter Camille, an orphaned Annamese princess who becomes a Vietnamese revolutionary and representative at the Geneva Conference after having a child by French officer Jean-Baptiste, Éliane's past lover.

The story of General Romeo Dallaire's frustrated efforts to stop the madness of the Rwandan Genocide, despite the complete indifference of his superiors

A timeless evocation of the loss of innocence, Rene Clement's devastating Forbidden games tells the story of a young orphan and her friend forced to fend for themselves in World War II France.

Loosely based on true episodes, this film tells the story of German, French, and Scottish soldiers in the bloody trenches of World War I and the miraculous Christmas Eve truce they unexpectedly forge. Follows a French lieutenant, a Scottish priest, and a German tenor and his beloved Danish soprano as music and the spirit of Christmas create bonds between enemies.

Dramatizes the harrowing events of 1957, a key year in Algeria's struggle for independence from France. Recreates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, the French torture prisoners for information and the Algerians resort to terrorism in their quest for independence. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafés. The French win the battle, but ultimately lose the war as the Algerian people demonstrate that they will no longer be suppressed.

In this classic tale of adventure, duty and honor conflict in a German prisoner-of-war camp when an aristocratic French officer becomes friends with the German commandant, a fellow aristocrat, while simultaneously cooperating with his French comrades, who are commoners, in a daring escape.

Three young, unemployed Frenchmen living in the ghettos surrounding Paris get embroiled in a violent conflict with the local police.

Sidonie, who serves as reader to Marie Antoinette and displays a singular romantic devotion to the queen, witnesses the final days of the French Revolution from inside the walls of the Palace of Versailles. The film is seen from Sidonie's point of view, and the story takes place over the course of four days.

"Paris, summer 1942. France is under German occupation. Edmond, a butcher whose future son-in-law is an active collaborator, inadvertently takes part in the deportation of his Jewish neighbor's family. When the neighbor's son, Simon, shows up on what used to be his doorstep, he finds that Edmond and his family are now living there. Feeling guilty and seeking to avoid trouble with the German authorities, Edmond hides the boy, who is soon joined by his two little cousins, also orphaned by the war"--Container.

In the midst of France's late 16th century religious wars, Margot is thrown into a political marriage by her ruthlessly power-hungry family. When she finds herself hopelessly drawn into their murderous affairs, she realizes that her only hope of escape lies somewhere between the heroic soldier who loves her and the enemy husband who could save her.

A French Resistance fighter is sent to an infamous prison in Lyon in 1943, where 7,000 of the 12,000 prisoners housed there died either by natural means or by execution. Lt. Fontaine is certain that execution awaits him, and begins planning his escape. For a period of time he goes it alone, but reluctantly takes on a partner. He gets some help from a couple of prisoners allowed to stroll in the exercise yard, but for the most part he is a figure of isolation.