Jean-Philippe Lafont

A French housekeeper with a mysterious past brings quiet revolution in the form of one exquisite meal to a circle of starkly pious villagers in late 19th century Denmark.

Don Quichotte (Don Quixote) is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Caïn. It was first performed on 19 February 1910 at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

Massenet composed his opera about Cenerentola nearly 80 years after Rossini did his. And if you are looking for the outburst of the non-stop hilarity and the musical jokes of Rossini, you won't find it here. Also, while the Cendrillon was highly successful and popular in its time, it does not reach up to the artistic and musical levels offered by Massenet's other operas, like Manon, or Thais or Werther. Nevertheless, this is a delightful opera and it is well presented by The Royal Opera. Laurent Pelly created a ingenious setting with movable walls which are covered [in French] with the story of Cinderella, and which open and close book-like.

Cop's Honor (Parole de Flic) is a 1985 French crime movie directed by José Pinheiro and starring Alain Delon as retired police officer Daniel Pratt. His teenager daughter was killed by a gang of mysterious hooded killers so Pratt began his own investigation to avenge the killers and their backroom leader.

In the early 19th century, in Seville and the surrounding area, Carmen seduces the sergeant Don José, who deserts the army to be with her. But the beautiful gypsy falls in love with the bullfighter Escamillo, much to Don José’s despair.

Between September 1940 and August 1944, luxury hotels are requisitioned by the Germans as staff headquarters, giving the hotels' employees a ringside seat of the enemy's secrets and activities. Such is the case with Royal Palace, run by Maxime and Solange Verdier, in which the Abwerth, the German counter-intelligence service, establishes its HQ.

French contemporary composer Thierry Escaich and French essayist, politician, and now librettist Robert Badinter transform Victor Hugo’s short story Claude Gueux into an operatic call for human dignity in the 21st century.