Menu
© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 41 movies from Ad Vitam Production
In the middle of the 17th century, the Marquise de Sévigné wanted to make her daughter a brilliant and independent woman in her own image. But the more she tries to control the young woman's destiny, the more she alienates her. Mother and daughter then experience the throes of a singular and devastating passion. A major work of French literature is born from this devastation.
Feb 2024
Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For Arthur, the Chimera looks like the woman he lost, Beniamina. In an adventurous journey between the living and the dead, between forests and cities, between celebrations and solitudes, the intertwined destinies of these characters unfold, all in search of the Chimera.
Oct 2023
Isabelle, Parisian artist, divorced mother, is looking for love, true love, at last.
Sep 2017
In present-day Nicaragua, a headstrong American journalist and a mysterious English businessman strike up a romance as they become embroiled in a dangerous labyrinth of lies and conspiracies and are forced to try and escape the country.
Oct 2022
A ballet dancer is late for an audition for a show inspired by Plato's Allegory of the Cave. She arrives with her seven-year-old son, Jay, and begs the director to give her a chance.
Dec 2024
12-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids, and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.
Nov 2024
Palermo, Sicily, 1980. Mafia member Tommaso Buscetta decides to move to Brazil with his family fleeing the constant war between the different clans of the criminal organization. But when, after living several misfortunes, he is forced to return to Italy, he makes a bold decision that will change his life and the destiny of Cosa Nostra forever.
May 2019
A young French-Algerian man lured by a dubious "family" lawyer into making an occult business deal within a similarly marginalized setting: one of Paris's largest and most diverse Kabyle communities. Having been drawn into the family bar business by his estranged father, Samir still agonizes over the memory of his late mother, while falling in love with a beautiful and mysterious single mom.
Jul 2015
The story of Edgardo Mortara, a young Jewish boy living in Bologna, Italy, who in 1858, after being secretly baptized, was forcibly taken from his family to be raised as a Christian. His parents’ struggle to free their son became part of a larger political battle that pitted the papacy against forces of democracy and Italian unification.
May 2023
Purehearted teen Lazzaro is content living as a sharecropper in rural Italy, but an unlikely friendship with the marquise’s son will change his world.
May 2018
In the years between WWI and the rise of Fascism, legendary thespian Eleonora Duse shocks everyone by getting back onstage at over 60 years of age. Struggling with the brutality of historical events unfolding and clinging to the possibility of utopia, she makes her art a revolutionary act, even at the cost of sacrificing health and affection—facing her final journey aware she could give up life itself, but not her own true nature.
Sep 2025
The events of May '68 seen through the eyes of a little girl exiled to the countryside with her mother, who falls in love with her riding instructor. He wears magnificent leather boots that give him a heroic stride...
May 2004
A foster family in South Central a few weeks before the city erupts in violence following the verdict of the Rodney King trial in 1992.
Nov 2017
In a French public hospital, the adolescent psychiatry unit moves to the erratic rhythm of teenagers coming and going - many carrying heavy past baggage - while Etienne and his medical team navigate the relentless cycle of treating, listening, and confronting the raw edges of suffering. Young Lucia knows the ward too well. After being brought back yet again by the police, she reunites with her friend Eloïse and encounters a constellation of young patients, each wrestling with their own storms. At times, there is laughter, small breakthroughs, moments of fragile hope. But the balance is shaky, and the arrival of a new patient will shatter it entirely.
Nov 2026
At the end of the 1980s, Stella, Victor, Adèle and Etienne are 20 years old. They take the entrance exam to the famous acting school created by Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Romans at the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre. Launched at full speed into life, passion, and love, together they will experience the turning point of their lives, but also their first tragedy.
Nov 2022
0
For her latest project, commissioned by Arte and starring members of the Comédie-Française, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (A Castle in Italy, Rendez-Vous 2014) shot an idiosyncratic, half-modernized adaptation of one of Chekhov’s greatest, most expansively melancholy plays.
Sep 2015
Years after her boyfriend left her for the big city and promised to bring her there after he’s settled down, a Chinese woman sets out on a journey to be reunited with him.
Jan 2025
After many years of confrontation, the treasures of Spain and France are empty. In 1721, the regent of France draws up an ambitious plan to inaugurate an era of peace and prosperity that will heal the economies of both nations: his intention is to build a solid network of marriage alliances that will involve four children of very different ages who know nothing of betrayals and power games…
Dec 2017
Turin, 1969. Nine-year-old Massimo’s idyllic childhood is shattered by the mysterious death of his mother. The young boy refuses to accept this brutal loss, even if the priest says she is now in Heaven. Years later in the 90s, adult Massimo has become an accomplished journalist. After reporting on the war in Sarajevo, he begins to suffer from panic attacks. As he prepares to sell his parents’ apartment, Massimo is forced to relive his traumatic past. Compassionate doctor Elisa could help tormented Massimo open up and confront his childhood wounds…
Nov 2016