Croesus

World-renowned animated filmmaker Frédéric Back has devoted his unique talent to a cause that is central to his life and more topical than ever: a profound respect for nature coupled with a keen sense of humanity's responsibility toward the environment. Abracadabra (9 min., 1971). Inon, ou, La conquête du feu (10 min., 1972). La création des oiseaux (10 min., 1973). Illusion? (11 min., 1976) Taratata! (9 min., 1977) Suppléments

A mayor agrees to marry his daughter Zainab to her cousin against her will, so she escapes and her cousin is determined to kill her . She meets a young doctor who takes her in. They agree to marry when he returns from his scholarship in Europe three years later, but she bears a child and joins a band.

The story of one shepherd's single-handed quest to re-forest a desolate valley in the foothills of the French Alps throughout the first half of the 20th century.

A policeman and a serial killer play cat and mouse in an isolated mountain village in Nineteenth century France. The second film directed by the man who played the admirable lead role in Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped is a stylized and intense adaptation of a novel by Jean Giono. This police investigation in a 19th century village combines visual beauty with the rigor of the mise-en-scène—the vertigo of the criminal motivations indivisible from the refined graphics of the images.

In this little Provencal village, a new baker, Aimable, settles down. His wife Aurelie is beautiful and much younger than he. She departs with a shepherd the night after Aimable produces his first breads. Aimable is so afflicted that he can not work anymore. Therefore, the villagers, who initially laughed at his cuckoldry, take the matter very seriously (they want the bread) and organize a plan to find Aurelie and to bring her back to the bakery.

Theatre play broadcast live from the Théâtre André Malraux in France.

In the 30s, a small village in the Provence is losing its inhabitants because young people prefer to go to the city to find easy jobs and escape from being farmers living in relative poverty. Only a few old people and the poacher Panturle remain. Panturle dreams of bringing the village back to life, finding a wife, founding a family and work as a farmer. One day, the village is visited by a traveling knife-grinder, Urbain Gedemus and a young woman, Arsule. Gedemus treats Arsule like a slave, but Arsule accept this because she has nowhere to go and -we guess- her 'work' with Gedemus is the last thing that saves her from being a prostitute. When she meets Panturle and knows about his dreams, she escapes from Gedemus and decides to stay with him. Together, they start a new life, made of hard farming work but mostly of happiness to have each other, fulfilling the earlier dreams of Panturle. Can anything break the happiness of their new life?

Jofroi sells his orchard to Alphonse. Alphonse wants to use the land for crops, so he starts to cut down the trees. Jofroi is furious: how can someone cut down those trees? He threatens to commit suicide so that the small town will blame Alphonse and Alphonse’s life will be miserable. Alphonse, the curate, the teacher, and some of the townsfolk spend the rest of the movie trying to keep Jofroi from committing suicide…

Angèle is a 1934 French drama film directed, produced and written by Marcel Pagnol. It stars Orane Demazis as a naive young woman who is seduced and abandoned. It is based on the novel Un de Baumugnes by Jean Giono.

In a time of war and disease, a young officer gallantly tries to help a young woman find her husband.

The heroine in L'Eau Vive is the unwilling heir to a fortune. Young Hortense (Pascale Audret) has always known that her family was greedy, but until she inherits her father's hidden millions she has no idea how loathsome her relatives could be. Surrounded on all sides by grubby, outstretched hands, Hortense takes some comfort in the fact that her legacy is still missing. When the money is finally recovered, our heroine does the "right thing" with her windfall, leaving her mercenary family empty-handed. Throughout the film, Hortense's dilemma is likened to a government dam project not far from her home; as the bridge grows in size, so too does Hortense's resolve to rise above the nastiness all around her.

At a wake one night in 1945, a group of aged women recall the life of one of their number. Sixty years before, Thérèse was barely 20 years old when she eloped with her boyfriend, Firmin, a blacksmith, to Châtillon, a town in Provence. Here, she makes the acquaintance of the wealthy Madame Numance, who is known for her good deeds. Realising that Thérèse is pregnant and unemployed, Madame Numance insists that she moves into a house on her estate. Whilst Firmin resents the arrangement, Thérèse soon finds that she can exploit the situation, using her benefactor's naivety and generosity for her own gain..

In Haute-Provence, two rival farming clans clash over the four seasons of the year. A young lumberjack, who has gone up to Rebeillard country to fell trees, has not been heard from for several months. Concerned by his long absence, his father sets out to find him. Antonio, known as "Bouche d'or" (Golden Mouth), the man from the river, accompanied him out of friendship; the two of them toiled together for long days, but one night, at the edge of the wood, they discovered a blond woman lying on the ground, giving birth to a child: it was Clara, a young blind woman.

In a small village of Haute-Provence, it is an event. The abandoned bakery comes back to life. Aimable and his wife Aurélie bring out the first batch of bread for the happiness of the inhabitants. Among the first customers, Dominique, a young shepherd, does not leave Aurélie indifferent...

Presentation of Giono's book