Paradise

Paradise

2014 · 70 min · ★ 5.9 · Documentary

"Since childhood, I've had the good fortune of going through two mini depressions of happiness, and I'm serenely awaiting the third. This alone is enough for me to believe in a certain beauty to life and to have the pleasure of attempting to film it in all its forms (trees, animals, gods, humans...) and to do so when love is intense. The filmmaker has lost a part of innocence. It's so difficult to spot it around you, so difficult not to lose it during a film shoot. I'm grateful to those who you look at on screen. To stand up to time, I've a tactic, which is to dig into my stock of emotions and old images. Not so as to find what will never come back, but to discover the signs of spring in winter. This allows me to begin another day with an easy, light step." (Alain Cavalier)

Directed by Alain Cavalier

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Thanks for Coming

Thanks for Coming · 2026

Thanks for Coming

MovieDocumentary

The final episode of Alain Cavalier’s video diary. “Le Filmeur” traces his life since “Pater”: the approach of death and the beauty of life —both human and animal— intertwine with the filmmaker’s doubts and contradictions as he encounters others.

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"If I get along well with someone, if I am attracted to what that person does, then I have an annoying tendency to desire to film that person. I get rejected or not. It sometimes happens that ones has a change of heart after saying yes. The shoot can last years or simply an afternoon. So I stock a lot of films that I edit, that I abandon or eventually take up again. And then, simple pleasure in the middle of disorder, four films come together merely to form one. Without any of the persons who make up the ensemble ever meeting." (Alain Cavalier)

Elevator to the Gallows

Elevator to the Gallows · 1958

Elevator to the Gallows

MovieCrimeDrama

A self-assured businessman murders his employer, husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

Libera me

Libera me · 1993

"In this film you will see a woman's handkerchief tied around a man's wrist, a well-shaven pig's head, some adolescents who are more inventive than their elders in struggling against oppression... You will not, however, hear any dialog. Words do not prepare, do not accompany, do not comment upon the action. This is not a silent film, but a film in which the only moment of life retained for the cinematographic spectacle are those where people do not speak. The spectator will find, perhaps, a greater freedom of interpretation in it and, we hope, a particular pleasure in this." (Alain Cavalier)

L'Amitié

L'Amitié · 2023

MovieDocumentary

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René

René, a children's theater performer, has a problem : he is a hearty eater and he weighs no less than 155 kilos. After being abandoned by his girlfriend, René decides to go on a diet, notably to reconquer her. It is also an opportunity for him to question his former lifestyle and to define new values...

Le Combat dans l'île

Le Combat dans l'île · 1962

Le Combat dans l'île

MovieDramaRomance

The charismatic, surly son of a wealthy industrialist, Clément, leads a double life as a member of a right-wing extremist organization. When he’s ratted out after a failed assassination attempt on a prominent politician, Clément and his long-suffering wife Anne flee Paris to the idyllic country home of his childhood friend, pacifist print-maker Paul. As affection blossoms between Paul and Anne, the emotional, as well as political tensions, soar and eventually explode.

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MovieDocumentary

From his diary, filmed over ten years, filmmaker Alain Cavalier invites us to a meditation on old age, weakness and death. Made of moments of life, fragments of images, this film composes a mosaic where the spectator is invited to also find his place by himself...

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Fill 'er Up with Super · 1976

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In a film as moving as a confession, the filmmaker portrays a veritable journey into the valley of the shadows to find Irène, his Eurydice.

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MovieDramaRomance

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This Answering Service Takes No Messages

This Answering Service Takes No Messages · 1979

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MovieDramaComedy

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