Descent Into Hell

In the 1960s, orphans from Reunion Island were deported to France to repopulate a department where rural exodus was rampant.

Célimène, a beautiful young widow, chooses to keep her many suitors hoping in order to preserve her freedom, even though she is drawn to one of them, Alceste. An idealist, Alceste refuses to play the social game; he seeks to persuade the young woman to abandon her strategy and give herself over to an exclusive love. Theater play "Le misanthrope" played by the "Comédie française" in 2000. Rather than a simple recording of a live theater performance, this version was explicitly structured as a television movie. It blended cinematic camera work with the theatrical script.

In Paris, Lulu, a passionate policeman, works with the faith of a rookie, despite the sclerotic bureaucracy and the incompetence or negligence of some of his colleagues. In his new position as a narcotics inspector, he tries to keep his sanity as he witnesses the worst of the human condition.

A compilation of 30 French filmmakers, Alain Resnais and Jean Luc Godard among them, who use film to make a plea on behalf of a political prisoner. Jean Luc Godard and Anne Marie Mieville's film concerns the plight of Thomas Wanggai, West Papuan activist who has since died in prison. The short films were commissioned by Amnesty International.

This thoughtful French film tells of the events leading to a young man's attempt at suicide. As Raymond (Richard Bohringer) sits on a ledge of his apartment building, and people try to talk him back inside, he remembers the events of his day and his life before this moment. Things seemed to be going along well enough until something triggered his revulsion at the pettiness and falseness that is the everyday currency of life.

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.

Camille invites some soldiers to spend a Sunday in the country with her. When they arrive, they find that something is amiss.

L'Etat Sauvage is based on the novel by Georges Conchon which won the highly esteemed Prix de Goncourt. The story chronicles the mindless racism of both the departing French colonial overlords and the emergent black Africans in a newly emerging African state. Laurence (Marie-Christine Barrault) suffers the outrage of her white acquaintances, including her former lover Gravenoir (Claude Brasseur) and her ex-husband Avit (Jacques Dutronc), for her affair with Patrice Doumbe (Doura Mane), an official in the new government. He in turn is ridiculed by his fellow cabinet ministers for stepping out with a white woman. The vilification escalates to such a point that Patrice is brutally murdered, and Laurence barely escapes the country alive, with the help of her ex-husband Avit.

This satire concerns three French singing idols and their attempt to stay in the public eye. A press conference, backstage hedonism, psychedelia, manipulative managers and disc jockeys are portrayed as the pop culture is thoroughly and effectively lampooned in this independent feature.

The plot in this story weaves around like a New Year's reveler at four in the morning, heading first in one direction and then in another, with the intention of going home if things would just stop moving. Bernard (Gerard Depardieu) is a doctor whose Hippocratic oath was a hypocritic failure -- the not-so-good doctor kills his wife because she is having an affair, and he kills her lover too. Then he joins the French Foreign Legion. On his way to the former French colonies in Africa, the plane he is in crashes, and Rossi, a "friend" on the plane with some overweight in carry-on money, shoots Bernard and takes off, leaving him for dead. He is nursed back to life and health by friendly villagers and just his luck, he not only manages to make his fortune in Africa, he also nabs a French passport from a dying man who will clearly not need it anymore unless the Pearly Gates have a French guard.

On 9 January 1836, Pierre Lacenaire goes to the guillotine, a murderer and a thief. He gives Allard, a police inspector, his life story, written while awaiting execution. He also asks Allard to care for Hermine, a lass to whom he has been guardian for more than ten years. In flashbacks, from the prison as Lacenaire writes, from Allard's study as he and Hermine read, and from other readers' memory after the book is published, we see Lacenaire's childhood as he stands up to bullies, including priests, his youthful thieving, his first murder, his brief army career, his seduction of a princess, and his affair with Avril, a young man who dies beside him.

Just before taking an irrevocable and tragic step, Caroline talks to Claire, her lycée friend. Later, Claire gathers five other school friends, and tells them Caroline's secret. The six agree to wage a guerrilla war against their philosophy teacher, the sarcastic and belittling M. Terrien, the cause of Caroline's despair. After seeking advice from Mayard, the school's guidance counselor and a leftist with a police record, the six look for evidence that could get Terrien fired. They strike gold, and then raise the stakes. Sarah, one of the six, hatches a deadly plan.

Claire's handbag is stolen. It contained a letter written ten years previously by the man who is now the French President. In the letter, he urges his pregnant mistress to have an abortion. Claire immediately alerts the President's men. From that moment, the machinery of state swings into action.

Commercial director Serge Faberge is having an affair with Evelyne, the 18 year old fiancee of friend Hugh. His own pregnant wife Francoise usually does not mind his dalliances, until he actually walks out on her and their newborn baby to move in with Evelyne. The shoe is on the other foot when dashing stuntman Dado catches Evelyne's eye in Venice.

A banker hires a seedy detective to find his daughter and keep her safe from kidnappers.

Antonin is a young French soldier who returns home from World War I to recover from his wounds. When he falls in love with a young widow, Antonin questions his role in battle and contemplates desertion as he recalls the horrors of war. He is pressured by his patriotic father to honor his military commitment even if it means he will die.