Charles Van Damme

We hear the thoughts of Amy, a girl from a rural area of Senegal who works as a domestic for a well-to-do family in Dakar. She complains about her employer, who continuously criticizes her and gets on her case, and she talks about her dream of one day opening her own eatery. In Dakar, some 150,000 young women work as housekeepers for rich families to survive and help their families instead of going to school.

Can madness be described? Is it possible to express the pain that it entails? In 1994, when she was about to fall prey to her illness, Khady Sylla met Aminta Ngom, who exhibited her madness freely, without fear of provocation. During her years of suffering, Aminta was her window to the world.

The poet Jean Sénac is also a radio presenter. A Pied-noir, he opted to stay in Algeria after the country achieved independence in 1962. Ten years later he is monitored by the police of the present regime. His poems have a large public following and his radio show is a great success, especially with the young. The poet allies himself with two students, aspiring playwrights Hamid and Belkacem, to fight for the freedom and culture of Algerian youth.

Once upon a time a carnivorous advertising methodist (Richard Bohringer) finds himself stuck between floors in an old elevator. The owner of the deserted building (Ute Lemper) does not help, but plays with him like a prey trapped. To get out, he threatens, attempts to seduce, to deceive, to be honest. After this confrontation for several days...

Antoine Rivière, a highly-reputed psychoanalyst, is visited by a new patient, Edouard Berg. When Berg claims to have killed his own wife, the doctor suspects he is a compulsive liar. How could he know that he has been caught in a trap and it's already too late for escape?

This European drama, set in Paris, follows a brilliant musician as he suddenly forsakes his career, to live and love amongst the common populace. Armand is the violinist who yearns to experience that life and to share his music with everyone, not just the wealthy and the elite. He leaves the glittering world of classical music without a backward glance and takes up residence in the Paris metro where he is surrounded by beggars and tramps. There he meets and becomes friends with Lydia, a metro employee.

A teenager at a predominantly male boarding school learns lessons in love when he is invited to stay at a remote estate for the holiday season.

Joey Wellman, an American cartoonist from Cleveland now largely forgotten at home, visits France with his partner Lena to attend an exhibition in Paris about the comic strip (bande dessinée) which features his work. He also hopes to be reconciled with his daughter Elsie who has been a student in Paris for two years, in flight from the American culture of which she sees her father as a typical example. Elsie is naively infatuated with French literature, and is trying to secure an introduction to the brilliant university professor Christian Gauthier, an expert on Flaubert but also an enthusiast for comic books. The meeting of father and daughter goes badly, but Elsie is persuaded to join Joey and Lena for the weekend at the country house of Gauthier's mother, Isabelle. During a comic-themed masquerade party, all of the characters are made to reconsider their present and past relationships.

France is a haughty, bourgeoise wife who is abandoned at the side of the road by her husband after a vicious quarrel. She meets Charles, a doctor. The meeting of the two strangers is the focus of the film, along with their encounters with characters at a truck stop.

The Inquisition is in full swing in 16th century Flanders. Wanted for his dissident writings, the alchemist doctor Zeno has been wandering Europe under an assumed name for twenty years. But he remains a non-conformist. He returns to his native Bruges, where he thinks he has been forgotten. In this silent labyrinth where the faces of the past resurface, he rediscovers his identity and thus signs his death warrant.

Molinat is assigned to the case of a man found with a bullet in his ear on the shore of a little Atlantic coast resort he knows well. Indeed, he used to live there before his wife disappeared at sea, never to be found again. As the ocean rejects a new corpse everyday, the mystery thickens and the list of potential suspects grows longer. This slows Molinat's progress as much as the cumbersome Leroyer, sent in to spy on him and hopefully impede his progress. The tension mounts and the ring involving the three young ladies in the grey mansion, the village idiot and the real estate agent starts spinning out of control.

1920년대 파리, 바이올리니스트 마르셀은 오랜 친구의 집에 초청받는다. 친구의 젊은 아내 로멘느는 마르셀에게 추파를 던지고, 세 사람은 복잡한 관계가 되고 만다. 앙리 번스타인의 1920년대 희곡을 영화화한 작품으로, 연극적인 무대장치와 화면구성만으로도 '멜로드라마'의 본질에 접근하는 알랭 레네의 연출력이 경탄을 자아낸다. (2015 영화의 전당 - 알랭 레네 특별전)

A passionate affair set against the intense encounter between a film-maker and a novelist. The story begins with young scriptwriter François tracking down the author of a once-scandalous novel. His aim is to adapt the work for the screen but several elements of the novel he finds difficult to comprehend. The author, Jeanne, is initially cautious of relaying information, insisting the presumably autobiographical book in no way relates to her personal life. However, eventually she takes the man into confidence to tell the background of Benvenuta.

A crusader gets lost with his horse in the desert and stops to die. He ponders over the recent events, the pillaging of villages, and the four women who followed them to rob whatever was left.

1962년에서 77년에 이르기까지 약 15년 간에 걸친 두 여성 수잔과 폴린의 우정은 바로 68년 이후의 여성운동의 발전 과정과 맞물리면서 묘사된다. 우선 영화 속에서 그들은 낙태에 대한 두려움, 부모와의 갈등, 피임과 성교육, 남성과의 사랑, 임신에 대한 욕망, 가족 제도의 억압성 등과 같은 여성들에게 공통적인 경험들을 두루 거치게 된다. 그 과정은 여성에게 어떤 방식으로 종속과 억압이 가해지고, 여성성이라는 것이 얼마나 관습적인 구성물에 불과하며, 가족을 둘러싼 전통적 통념이 얼마나 이데올로기적인 것인가를 폭로하는 결과를 낳게 되고, 두 여성은 점차 여성의 정치적 힘과 상호연대의 필요성을 깨달아간다.

Made at a time when Iran had a seemingly revolving door for incoming European directors and bottomless funding for their projects, Plaisir d'amour en Iran is a short, sort of love story between a handsome Iranian (Ali Raffi) and a visiting French woman (Valérie Mairesse). The film was shot at the Shah Masjed in romantic Esfehan.

A filmed essay about the painter Bouts.

A married, middle-aged professor meets a mysterious woman in the woods and has an affair with her.