Cinétévé

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes.

Catherine Deneuve couldn’t care less about being a celebrity, but fame made her an icon long ago and she occupies a special place in our imagination. The star is not one to let others get too close, but when she gives you her confidence, she keeps her word. If Deneuve’s career covers a half-century of cinema, it also bears witness to the force of a generation that experienced the deepest transformation of mores. This portrait reflects her entirely. The story of a mystery and an adventure.

Creator of absolute freedom, David Lynch constructed his work as an enigma to be deciphered between dream and reality. A cult director from his first films ("Eraserhead", "Elephant Man", "Blue Velvet"), Lynch forever changed the world of television with his series "Twin Peaks", before tackling the lies of Hollywood in "Mulholland Drive". Tracing the life of the most influential filmmaker of his generation, this documentary explores the hidden meaning of a relentlessly consistent filmography and delves beneath the dark, teeming surface of the American Dream.

Exclusively created with period engravings, this animated feature explores the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the ensuing Paris Commune revolution in 1871.

Take a Bollywood film--a good Bolllywood film--with action, emotion, suspense, and laughter. With Indian actors who act, dance, sing and smother themselves with tomato sauce when feigning a bloody head wound. Now, watch the image with the sound turned down! And let Pascal Legitimus and Eric Le Roch re-invent a story, recreate the sounds and the atmosphere, rewrite the lyrics to the songs. They'll give a new meaning to the film, helped in doing so by many well-known actors, who'll lend their voices to the Indian actors on screen. This diversion isn't a danger to your health. You simply risk killing yourself laughing!

A pioneering post-war female film director, an instigator of the New Wave who was honored by Hollywood in her own lifetime, Agnès Varda has become a source of inspiration for a whole new generation of young filmmakers. With movies like Cléo de 5 à 7, Le Bonheur, Sans toit ni loi, Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse, she created a quirky, open to the world, sensitive to the disenfranchised, often silly body of work. Always one finger on the pulse, she shook everything up, including cinema itself which she refused to constrict to pure fiction or long-form films.

In eight films, Jacques Audiard has renewed French cinema, without alienating either the critics or the success. It is only at the age of 42 that he starts directing, after having been an editor and a scriptwriter. In 1994, he directed his first film, "Regarde les hommes tomber", whose conflicting shooting was an ordeal for this misanthropic beginner. It was with "Sur mes lèvres", in 2001, that he forged his cinematographic language: contained lyricism, deliberate imperfection of images, ellipses plunging the audience into a maelstrom of sensations. With each of his films, Jacques Audiard intends to renew himself, at the cost of challenges and doubts always more vivid.

Philip Roth, arguably America’s greatest living novelist, turns 80 on March 19. In 1959, his collection of short stories, Goodbye, Columbus, put him on the map, and 10 years later his hilarious, ribald best-seller, Portnoy’s Complaint, gave rise to the first of many Roth-related controversies in which Judaism, sex, the role of women, and the parent-child relationship would take center stage. In candid interviews, the Pulitzer Prize-winner discusses his distinctly unliterary upbringing in Newark, NJ, his admiration for Saul Bellow and Bernard Malamud, and how Zuckerman may or may not be his alter-ego. Nathan Englander, Mia Farrow, Jonathan Franzen, and Martin Garbus are among those who talk about the man and his writing. Franzen in particular praises Roth for “how brave he must have been to have methodically offended everybody and to have exposed parts of himself no one had ever exposed before.”

In a totalitarian future, in a nightmare metropolis, inhabited only by criminals and police, Erik Lonnrot, a gifted detective, investigates a series of strange murders and disappearances that seem to implicate a insane crime lord. (Re-released in 1996 as a feature film, 86 minutes.)

Benji's father has returned from captivity, and his mother is sick and later dies. Through Benji's eyes we see a changing country and a father who cares less about his deceased wife, making some rather unhappy choices in the process.

Jeanne Poisson, the headstrong, ambitious, witty and erudite, catches the eye and heart of French King Louis XV at a costumed ball. She masters the art of seduction well enough to become accepted even by the Queen, corpulent mother of ten. As a sensibly chosen Royal 'favorite' mistress she is soon ennobled Marquise of Pompadour to facilitate her introduction at court. The immature dauphin (crown prince) proves a bitter and unrelenting enemy, joined by his imposed Saxon bride, and his sister at her deathbed. Although friends at court help Pompadour return, her health gives way.

Hired to oversee the security of a superstore, Pierre soon discovers a dark secret and becomes a threat to the system he helped create.

This was a very human account of the lives and deaths of Marie Antoinette and Louis the XVI focusing primarily on Marie. It is an account of their lives from birth to death and the circumstances leading to the downfall of the French monarchy.

Brigitte and Eric, who work for the same company, have been married for eight years. One morning like any other, the couple arrives at the office. When lunchtime comes, sirens sound. Brigitte learns that a man has just committed suicide by jumping out of a window. It's Eric, her husband...

Today in France, one in five young people suffers from severe depressive symptoms, and the number of minors visiting psychiatric emergency rooms has tripled in the last five years. Despite the political will that has been demonstrated, child psychiatry is nevertheless faced with a severe lack of resources. The interminable waiting times for treatment are causing a surge in prescriptions for psychotropic drugs.

Star at 17 years with the series of Sissi, Romy Schneider leaves Austria and glory for the love of Alain Delon. From Luchino Visconti to Otto Preminger, through Zulawski and Costa Gravas, she turned with the greatest. The directors interview those who knew her, who loved her, go back to the filming locations, make archive images speak for themselves... and try to detect the part of mystery that Romy Schneider conceals for ever.

A old red riding hood, badly crippled after killing a monster many years ago, comes up with a sinister plan to dance again.

Robin lives with his aunt in a small town on the Mediterranean. A strange request from his ex-girlfriend Aurélie turns his life upside down: she wants him to get her some heroin. Robin, willing to do anything to win Aurélie back, throws himself headlong into the task...

A fascinating insight into the role of the intimacy co-ordinator, told through behind-the-scenes access to new queer French TV show Split.