Gérard de Battista

Documentary on director Jean-Denis Bonan

30-year-old Djemila, a single jurist, at last has her own apartment... a few steps away from her parents' place. A French woman of North African extraction, she does everything she can to hide her origins. Emma, her nutty and broke neighbor, struggles to raise her two children alone. Although these two women have nothing in common, a deep friendship forms between them because of their mutual love of music.

The unhappily married woman struggles to break free from social pressures and her boring suburban setting.

A French video artist traverses Canada on a train that takes her from the east to the west through the snow. This journey leads her to encounter the last girlfriend of her ex-husband, an internationally respected showman who is now dead. Each of the two women will try to understand how the "man of their life" loved and lived with the other. See how they dance.

A documentary drama retelling the shift of Mitterand's policy. In May 1981, F.Mitterrand is elected President of the Republic, after more than twenty years in the opposition. He wants to change the life; he believes in the supremacy of politics over economics. He wants it to be fast and executes his programme to realise the socialist transformation. Two years later, Pierre Mauroy and Jacques Delors introduce an unprecedented austerity plan and open the parenthesis of austerity... that would never be closed.

Há dez anos exilada do seu país, desde o assassinato do marido, Judith vive em Marselha com os seus três filhos. Ao longo de anos recusou-se a voltar a ver a família, mas agora Judith, apesar dos seus medos e segredos, deixa-se convencer pelo desejo dos filhos e aceita o convite para irem ao casamento de uma prima. Leva os filhos para passarem o verão no país. Estes irão em busca das raízes e história. Mas o regresso de Judith reanima velhos ódios entre clãs rivais. Inexoravelmente, a engrenagem da violência é desencadeada, o sangue apelando ao sangue.

In 1953, a sensitive French boy finds out from a neighbor that his family's Jewish. François Grimbert becomes a physician, and gradually peels the layers of his buried family history which resulted in his difficult upbringing, raised as Catholic by his "Aryan" appearing parents. His athletic father labored to stamp out stereotypical Jewish characteristics he perceived in his son, to keep the family's many secrets, as most relatives fought in World War II, and later were hauled off to labor and death camps by the Gestapo.

Judith Ralitzer (Fanny Ardant) é uma prestigiada escritora francesa; Pierre Laclos (Dominique Pinon) é um homem que, em viagem por uma estrada francesa, conhece a manicure histérica Huguette (Audrey Dana). Aos poucos, o filme revela suas relações e suas verdadeiras faces numa trama repleta de mistério e farsas.

A picture of humankind in Paris: singers, shows, social gatherings, businessmen, nightclub barmen, bums, shoppers.

This film, loosely inspired by Anton Chekov's The Seagull, weaves a story about sex, family and the business of making films. When the young and overly sensitive filmmaker Julien screens his new DV art-film starring his girlfriend Lili (Swimming Pool's Ludivine Sagnier) --a sexy young local girl--to his famous actress mother Mado, and her lover Brice, an accomplished film director, an unraveling of the delicate peace in their house begins. The graceful beauty Lili, who dreams of becoming a famous actress like Mado, is immediately fascinated by Brice, who gladly falls prey to her charms.

Chantel is happy: her son's away at school playing soccer, she and her husband get along, her neighbor Agnès is her best friend, and her job at a government office is easy. When her husband is laid off and she wonders for how long, her office pal Jackie recommends Alban, a psychic (and compulsive gambler), who promptly tells Chantel of a curse on her that will take three sessions (and 10,000 FF) to dispel. Through happenstance, she meets Alban's half-brother; thinking she is following the psychic predictions, she tries to start an affair with him. She also undergoes Alban's exorcism, and soon, terrible things indeed start to happen. Is there any way out of her misery?

Two middle-aged friends meet a beautiful woman whom they set out to seduce. She invites them but only has eyes for one man: François Mitterrand.

Madam Nadine manages with pride the "Vénus Beauté" Salon which offers relaxation, massage and make-up services. The owner and her three beauticians: Samantha, Marianne and Angèle are pros. Contrary to her friend Marianne, who still dreams of the big day, Angèle no longer believes in love. Marie, the youngest of the three employees, discovers love in the hands of a sixty year-old former pilot, who risks everything...

Anna and her husband Jean-Paul have to face a long and difficult separation since Jean-Paul is a spationaut. Thanks to a video device they can see each other and communicate... But definitely not for the best!

The French computer programmer Laura inherits the task of making a computer game of the Battle of Okinawa in Japan during World War 2. She searches the Internet for information on the battle, and interviews Japanese experts and witnesses. The extraordinary circumstances of the Battle of Okinawa lead Laura to reflect deeply on her own life and humanity in general, particularly the influence of history and memories.

Laurent e Loli formam um casal feliz, que leva uma vida confortável em uma cidade ao sul da França. Entretanto a vida deles é alterada quando em frente à sua casa quebra o trailer de Marijo, uma mulher lésbica que vive viajando. Aos poucos Loli e Marijo se aproximam, iniciando um relacionamento sem que Laurent saiba.

Winegrower Patrick Ponsac comes close to ruining his marriage when he has an affair with another woman. By way of atonement, he takes his wife back to the Mediterranean island where, 13 years earlier, they spent their honeymoon. Not such a good move, as it turns out. The peacemaking holiday coincides with the outbreak of a bloody civil war. Having failed to leave the country, Patrick, his wife and their eccentric entourage are taken hostage by merciless guerrillas…

A provocative, seemingly absurd patchwork movie which sends a worthwhile message about hope against all odds, love, children and human understanding. Schoolgirl Victorine has an insane mother and an alcoholic father who can never find his way home in their maze of slum apartment blocks. Aggressive, sexually threatening boys of all ages are everywhere, and while the teacher eventually relents to a gang of adolescent rapists, Victorine gives herself to a rowdy gang of older layabouts, eventually winning the heart of burglar Paul.

Three young female prisoners become friends while stranded in a provincial train station.

Michel Berthier, cadre supérieur d'une entreprise de matelasserie, vient d'être licencié. Comme il n'ose pas avouer la vérité à Juliette, sa compagne, il s'endette pour maintenir le niveau de la famille qu'il couvre de cadeaux. Mais il ne peut bientôt plus mentir et il décide alors de quitter la maison. Après avoir perdu son argent, sa voiture et ses chaussures, il rencontre Toubib, Mimosa et Crayon, trois «Sans Domicile Fixe» qui font leur toilette dans les lavabos de la gare de l'Est. Ils le prennent sous leur aile et l'entraînent à aller cambrioler son ancienne entreprise afin de se munir de duvets et de lits

Postwar France was slow to recover from the after-effects of the World War Two. The economy was doing poorly, and many people were poor and homeless, sleeping under bridges, etc. The winter of 1953-54 proved particularly difficult for these people, as it was one of the coldest on record. Father Pierre (Lambert Wilson), a parish priest, on seeing the suffering of these people (and their frequent death from the cold), was moved to write the French government seeking help for them. When his letter, which was published in the newspapers, succeeded in rousing overwhelming popular support for helping the homeless, he was able to form a charitable group (still active today) titled "Les Chiffoniers d'Emmaus," or "The Ragpickers of Emmaus" to channel help to them. This biographical film tells the true story of Abbe Pierre's successful efforts in those years.

Baudin (Michel Serrault) and Tayar (Wadeck Stanczak) become trapped in a movie theater while trying to fend off a gang of marauding juvenile thugs. The two agree to settle their personal differences in their fight over a pretty female in order to halt the violent siege.

A diverse group of guests gather in a small hotel in Paris to contemplate the state of their lives in this pretentious drama. Joseph Goldman (Fernando Rey) is a washed-up Hollywood actor making a living in the dinner-theater circuit. Accompanied by his wife Sarah (Carole Regnier), Goldman meets Frederique (Berangere Bonvoisin), who is hiding from her former lover. French financier Arthur (Fabrice Luchini) hopes to get into the film industry and bends the ear of a British director (Michael Medwin). The talkative film has little action, and none of the characters evoke much interest or resolve their dilemma.

A little town in the north of France, 1941. Blanche has three children. She worries about her husband Victor, who often goes out at night. Actually, Victor belongs to the Resistance. Soon, Blanche will be a resistant too. In the network, there is also Germinal, the hairdresser. His daughter Marie knows everything and asks to be part of it... Chronicle of the occupation and of the resistance through the eyes of the women.

The film narrates a utopian abandonment, consensual and festive of the market economy and high productivity. The population decides on a number of resolutions beginning with "We stop everything" and the second "After a total downtime will be revived-reluctantly-that the services and products including lack will prove intolerable. Probably: water to drink, electricity for reading at night, the TSF to say "This is not the end of the world, this is an 01, and now a page of Celestial Mechanics". The implementation of these resolutions is the first day of a new era, Year 01. The Year 01 is emblematic of the challenge of the 1970s and covers such diverse topics as ecology, negation of authority, free love, communal living, rejection of private property and labor.

Married with two kids, beautiful Claire has everything to be happy. But her husband, a businesman, is often absent. When her kids go on a ski holiday Claire finds herself alone. Distraught, she goes out one evening with her friend Gisèle and meets a fashion designer, named Michel. Spark fly and Claire winds up getting seduced by him. Fallen in the trap of adultery: will the young woman be able to accept all her lover's fantasies?

Paris, in the 1960s. A series of crimes troubles the public tranquility. On March, 22, 1968, Hélène Picard, a prostitute sentenced to death two years before for several murders, is killed by executioner Louis Guilbeau. Immediately, the violent crimes, similar to Hélène’s ones, go on again. In parallel, Louis is having an affair with the police woman in charge of the investigation… What are the obscure relations hidden behind the executioner and the mysterious killer? Who is this dark man in reality?

Initially a made-to-order documentary on Spain, the film becomes an open-ended work-in-the-making about the creative process. “Settling in the Spanish capital to make a documentary, Hanoun sketches out for us the different steps involved in making a film. The author turns his hesitations, his doubts and difficult working conditions into the constituents of his work”. (Raphaël Bassan)

A couple is lost in a town where everyone speaks some strange language, and they can't find their way out.