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THE ARMY OF CRIME (L'ARMEE DU CRIME)
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* Presented at the 2010 Alliance Française French Film festival! *
Rated: MA15+
Actors: Virginie Ledoyen, Simon Abkarian, Robinson Stevenin
Director: Robert Guédiguian
Distributor: Madman
Release Year: 2010
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
Revenge. Liberation. Young Resistance Heroes.
Paris, 1941. The poet Missak Manouchian leads a mixed bag of youngsters and émigrés in a clandestine battle against the Nazi occupation. Twenty-two men and one woman fighting for an ideal and for freedom. News of their daring attacks, including the assassination of an SS General, eventually reaches Berlin. Under the orders of the Gestapo, French police and collaborators hound Manouchian and his Résistants until, to escape torture, one of their associates denounces the whole group. After a show trial, the twenty-three heroes are brought to face a firing squad...

A SECRET (UN SECRET)
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On sale !
Rated: M
Actors: Patrick Bruel, Cecile de France, Ludivine Sagnier, Julie Depardieu, Mathieu Amalric
Director: Claude Miller
Distributor: Icon
Release Year: 2010
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
Adapted by Claude Miller from Philippe Grimbert's autobiographical novel, this is a splendid and moving saga of a Jewish family in post-war Paris, told through the eyes of a frail and intelligent young boy, who senses something is amiss with his beautiful parents Tania and Maxime (C'cile De France... MORE >
Adapted by Claude Miller from Philippe Grimbert's autobiographical novel, this is a splendid and moving saga of a Jewish family in post-war Paris, told through the eyes of a frail and intelligent young boy, who senses something is amiss with his beautiful parents Tania and Maxime (C'cile De France and Patrick Bruel). On his fifteenth birthday a family friend tells Francois a shattering truth ' tying his family's past to the Holocaust ' that may enable him to develop his own sense of self.

THE CONCERT
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Rated: M
Actors: Alexei Guskov, Mélanie Laurent, Dimitri Nazarov, Miou-Miou
Director: Radu Mihaileanu
Distributor: Hopscotch
Release Year: 2010
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
"An intelligent, perfectly mixed blend of comedy and drama that is emotionally satisfying on every level: the music, top-notch performances from a stellar cast and a sharp, incisive script."
Arts and Opinion

"The film effortlessly blends high farce, political satire and family drama into a magnificant piece of gold-plated entertainment. Bound to be one of the most delightful, funny and moving films of 2010."
Jim Schembri, The Age. Saturday April 24.

During the Brezhnev era, Andrei Filipov was a prodigy - the greatest conductor in the Soviet Union and he directed the famous Bolshoi Orchestra. But after refusing to expel his Jewish musicians, including his best friend Sacha, he was fired at the height of his glory. Thirty years later, he is still working at the Bolshoi, but... as a cleaner.
When Andrei intercepts a fax from the Theatre du Chatelet inviting the Bolshoi Orchestra to Paris, he comes up with a crazy idea: he'll gather up his old musician friends (now working rag-tag jobs), head to Paris and pretend to be the famed orchestra to play Tchaikovsky's "Violin Concerto." The long-awaited dream to deliver one final performance!
Opening at #1 at the French cinema box-office, The Concert is pure entertainment - a warm-hearted, joyous story filled with great wit and humanity. The stirring finale set against Tchaikovsky's Concerto is simply magnificent.

BLAME IT ON FIDEL (LA FAUTE A FIDEL!)
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Rated: M
Distributor: Madman
Release Year: 2006
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
9-year-old Anna inhabits a pristine world. Living with her wealthy parents and brother in a lovely Parisian mansion, Anna attends a private Catholic school and excels at religion class. But when her bourgeois parents develop radically left-wing ideology, little Anna is forced to abandon the life she once knew. Filmed primarily through Anna's point-of-view, Blame it on Fidel is a touching, often humorous examination of parenting and politics.

THE BIG BLUE (LE GRAND BLEU)
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Special Price !
Rated: M
Actors: Rosanna Arquette, Jean-Marc Barr, Jean Reno
Director: Luc Besson
Distributor: Madman
Format: PAL
Release Year: 2010
Running Time: 168 minutes
Region 4 - In French - With English subtitles
The Big Blue charts the competition and friendship between Jacques and Enzo first in their youth, and then when they meet again at the World Free Diving Championships in Sicily years later. A dreamy adolescent, Jacques (Jean-Marc Barr, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark) has grown into a solitary man, caught between the solidity of the real world and the spiritual beckoning of "the big blue", and in particular the dolphins swimming below. He possesses a unique connection to the sea, the ability to slow his heartbeat and circulation on deep dives, a phenomenon previously only observed in whales and dolphins. Enzo (Jean Reno, Leon: The Professional, Ronin), however, has become the World Champion at his sport with a very different approach. Their rivalry reignited, the pair spur each other on to deeper and deadlier dives. Besson's first English language production is a story of extremes; of love and solitude, friendship and rivalry, life and death.

SERAPHINE
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*Winner of 7 French Academy Awards (Cesar Awards 2009)*
Rated: PG
Actors: Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur
Director: Martin Provost
Distributor: Rialto
Feature: Original Theatrical Trailer, Image Gallery
Release Year: 2009
Running Time: 125 minutes
Region 4 - In French - With English subtitles

The moving true story of a simple housemaid who painted to appease the voice of heaven. In 1913, German art collector Wilhelm Uhde, the first Picasso buyer and discoverer of acclaimed naïve primitive painter Le Douanier Rousseau, rents a modest apartment in Senlis in order to leave behind the excesses of his Parisian life and concentrate on his writing. Once settled, he hires a cleaning lady, the 48 year old Séraphine de Senlis, a quiet and retiring woman with little regard for life beyond her means. But while visiting the home of a prominent local family, Uhde notices a small painting on wood and is surprised to discover that it was created by the unassuming Séraphine. A poignant and unexpected relationship then develops between the avant-garde art dealer and the visionary cleaning lady. Yolande Moreau delivers a multi-award winning performance as Séraphine de Senlis, a simple housekeeper whose brilliantly colourful canvases, to this day, adorn some of the most famous galleries in the world. Director Martin Provost’s fictionalised and tragic portrait of this forgotten painter is a moving and compelling testament to creativity and the resilience of one woman’s unique vision and spirit.

CHACUN SON CINEMA
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Rated: M
Directors: Theodoros Angelopoulos, Olivier Assayas, Bille August, Jane Campion, David Cronenberg, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Atom Egoyan, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Hsiao-hsien Hou, Takeshi Kitano, Roman Polanski
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Format: PAL
Release Year: 2007
Running Time: 110 minutes
Region 4 DVD - In Mandarin, English, French, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Yiddish - With English subtitles
"Times change. Then they return to their starting point, enriched by their own metamorphoses. When, more than a year go, we asked ourselves how to celebrate the 60th Festival de Cannes, we were sure at least of one thing: no return to the past, deadly commemoration or blissful self-congratulation, nothing which makes the future even more intimidating." GILLES JACOB, Director of the Cannes Film Festival.

Chacun son Cinéma: to each his own cinema. To each his own tale about the most lyrical, emotive and textual of art forms. To celebrate the 60th birthday of Cannes, the world's premier film festival, festival director Gilles Jacob approached 33 of cinema's greatest talents, asking them to make a three-minute short film about the nature of cinema and its place in their lives. 33 individuals—including a pair of brothers—with 32 opinions, stories, characters and visions about the cinema as a whole. At times humourous, sometimes self-referential, often reflective, occasionally sorrowful but all irrefutably significant. A cinephile's dream.

CLEAN SLATE (COUP DE TORCHON)
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Rated: MA15+
Actors: Stéphane Audran, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Eddy Mitchell, Philippe Noiret
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Distributor: Universal Studios Home Video
Format: PAL
Release Year: 1905
Running Time: 128 minutes
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
1938, in a French african colony. Lucien Cordier is the cop of this village, populated with blacks and a few whites (usually racialist and lustful). He is a washout, everyone (including his wife Huguette) humiliates him. He never arrests anyone and looks at elsewhere when a dirty trick occurs. But one day, he turns into a machiavellian exterminating angel.

I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG (IL Y A LONGTEMPS QUE JE T'AIME)
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Rated: M15+
Actors: Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein
Director: Philippe Claudel
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Release Year: 1905
Running Time:115 minutes
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles

Academy Award®-nominee Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient, Gosford Park) gives the performance of her career in the award-winning and critically-acclaimed I've Loved You So Long.

Scott Thomas stars as Juliette, a distant and withdrawn woman with a hard shell. After a long spell away, Juliette returns to live with Lea (Elsa Zylberstein), the sister she has not seen for 15 years, and her busy family. After a cautiously happy reunion, the two siblings slowly start to rebuild their relationship, and Juliette does her best to carry on with the everyday?searching for a job, looking after her gorgeous nieces, swimming with her sister at the local pool. But Juliette has obviously been through an extremely traumatic experience, and her silence makes fitting into her new life difficult for all involved.

Everyone has questions.

Just where has Juliette been all this time, and what has she been doing? As her secrets start to be revealed, the enormity of the events in Juliette's life begin to take hold and threaten to devastate her life all over again.

FEMALE AGENTS (LES FEMMES DE L'OMBRE)
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On sale !
Rated: MA15+
Actors: Moritz Bleibtreu, Julie Depardieu, Deborah Francois, Marie Gillain, Sophie Marceau
Director: Jean-Paul Salome
Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment
Release Year: 2008
Running Time: 117 minutes
Region 4 - In French, with English subtitles
1944: a crucial moment in the Second World War The mission: a five-woman commando unit must eliminate the head of German counter-intelligence in Paris At stake: the Normandy Landings A five-woman commando unit parachutes into occupied France on a daring and dangerous mission to protect the secret of the D-Day Landings and eliminate Colonel Heindrich, the head of German counter-intelligence. Louise is a trained sniper and the widow of a Resistance leader. Jeanne is a tough hooker who won't hesitate to kill. Gaëlle is a young and brilliant explosives expert desperate to see some action. Suzy is a stunning former showgirl and Heindrich's one-time lover. Maria is an Italian contessa undercover with the French Resistance. Female Agents is an action-packed tribute to the real-life espionage operatives whose exploits inspired the film.

THE BEAT MY HEART SKIPPED (DE BATTRE MON COEUR S'EST ARRETE)
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beat_my heart
On sale !
Format: DVD Video (PAL)
Genre: Movie-Foreign
Label: PALACE
Release Date: 19/03/2008
Rated: M15+
Actors: Niels Arestrup, Gilles Cohen, Romain Duris, Jonathan Zaccai
Director: Jacques Audiard
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
A Moody, intense and memorable study of a young man torn between two very different worlds. 

Tom is 28 and destined to follow in his father's footsteps in the sleazy and sometimes brutal world of real estate. But a chance encounter leads him to believe that he can become, like his mother, a concert pianist, In earnest, he starts preparing for the audition with a virtuoso Chinese pianist. She doesn't speak a word of French; music is their only exchange. But pressures fromt he ugly world of his day job soon become more than he can handle.

AN OLD MISTRESS (UNE VIEILLE MAITRESSE)
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an_old_mistress2
Rated R18+
Genre: Movie-Drama
Label: DIRECTORS SUITE
Country Of Origin: FRANCE
Release Date: 3/12/2008
Region 4 - In French, with English subtitles
Set in 1835 - the century in which LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES was penned - AN OLD MISTRESS is a Parisian tale of lust, longing and the torments of passion. Victomte de Prony, a dapper aristocrat, loves nothing more than to observe and comment upon the romances of his similarly aristocratic social circle. One day, de Prony pays his friend Vellini (Asia Argento) a visit, armed with some rather disturbing information: her lover Ryno de Marigny is set to marry another woman. While de Marigny is well-connected, his financial standing is dire, thus leading to his betrothal to the young, wealthy Hermangarde. In spite of her lover's engagement, Vellini is convinced that the decade-long sexual bond she has shared with de Marigny is strong enough to override any marriage and, through a series of flashbacks in which their affair is exposed, director Catherine Breillat whimsically comments upon the age-old divide between love and passion.

PERSEPOLIS
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Special Christmas price! Buy now or miss out!
Rated: M
Actors: Simon Abkarian, Danielle Darrieux, Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni
Directors: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi
Format: PAL
Release Year for the film: 2007
Running Time: 96 minutes
Country Of Origin: FRANCE
Release Date: 5/03/2009
Region 4 DVD - In French with English subtitles

"Persepolis" is the poignant story of a young girl in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is through the eyes of precocious and outspoken nine year old Marjane that we see a people's hopes dashed as fundamentalists take power. As she gets older, Marjane's boldness causes her parents to worry over her continued safety. And so, at age fourteen, they make the difficult decision to send her to school in Austria.
Though it means putting on the veil and living in a tyrannical society, Marjane decides to return to Iran to be close to her family. At age 24, she realizes that while she is deeply Iranian, she cannot live in Iran...

THE LIGHT (L'EQUIPIER)
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Encoding: Region 4 - Suitable for Australia, New Zealand
Rated: M15+
Actors: Sandrine Bonnaire, Emilie Dequenne, Gregori Derangere
Director: Philippe Lioret
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Feature: Original theatrical trailer
Audio: French
Subtitles: English
Release Year: 2004
Running Time: 104 minutes
When Antoine (Gregori Derangere) is wounded in the Algerian war in 1963, he relocates to the petite Breton island of Quessant to rebuild his life. Despite inexperience, he wins a job at the local lighthouse, a romantically lonesome citadel in wild seas. The dour locals of the island are none too glad about the handsome stranger's arrival, even less so that he has secured work in the famous lighthouse. But Antoine is beguilingly laidback despite the antagonism and violence directed at him from all quarters. He eventually warms up his crabby and crusty lighthouse mate, Yvon (Philippe Torreton), but is unable to disguise his attractionto Yvon's wife, Mabe (Sandrine Bonnaire).
As sexual tensions between Antoine and Mabe smoulder deliciously, The Light takes flight.

PARIS (CEDRIC KLAPISCH)
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Release Date: 30/09/2008
Rated:M
Actors: Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris
Director: Cedric Klapisch
Distributor: Icon Films
Release Year: 2008
Running Time: 130 minutes
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
The story begins with Pierre (Romain Duris), a young man unexpectedly confronted with his own mortality. For the next 24 hours, his tour through the city will weave with those of his beloved sister (Juliette Binoche), his neighbours (some known, some not), their friends and workmates, and their interconnected stories of love, familial bonds, loneliness and compassion come together in unexpected ways. This emotional and inspiring ode to Paris will have you entranced.

MONSIEUR BATIGNOLE
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Rated: M15+
Actors: Gerard Jugnot
Director: Gerard Jugnot
Distributor: Madman
Release Year: 2004
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
It can take an ordinary man ....to find extraordinary courage.

Paris, summer 1942. France is under German occupation. Edmond, a butcher whose future son-in-law is an active collaborator, inadvertently takes part in the deportation of his Jewish neighbour's family. When the neighbour's son, Simon, shows up on what used to be his doorstep, he finds that Edmond and his family are now living there. Feeling guilty and seeking to avoid trouble with the German authorities, Edmond hides the boy who is soon joined by his two little cousins, also orphaned by the war. As it becomes increasinghly difficult for him to hide the kids from his family and from his son-in-law's fascist patron, Colonel Spreich, Edmond finds himself getting more and more attached to them. Risking it all, he decides to help make their way to the Swiss border. But that's where his troubles begin.

The deeply moving story of an ordinary man who discovers extraordinary courage in himself.

NEW FRENCH CINEMA - DRAMA
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Format: Triple DVD Video (PAL)
Label: MADMAN
Country Of Origin: FRANCE
Release Date: 3/12/2008
Rated: M15+
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
HUNTING AND GATHERING (Ensemble c'est tout)  - Directed by Claude Berri (JEAN DE FLORETTE, MANON DES SOURCES). Starring: Audrey Tautou (AMÉLIE, PRICELESS, A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT) Guillaume Canet (THE BEACH, TELL NO ONE, NARCO: THE SECRET ADVENTURES OF GUSTAV KLOPP)
 
AFTER HIM (Après lui) - Starring: Catherine Deneuve (BELLE DE JOUR, INDOCHINE, THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG) Guy Marchand (INSIDE PARIS). Written by Christophe Honoré (INSIDE PARIS, MA MERE)

THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN (La graine et le mulet) - Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche (GAMES OF LOVE AND CHANCE, BLAME IT ON VOLTAIRE). Introducing Hafsia Herzi, Winner of multiple Most Promising Actress awards including the Marcello Mastroianni Award, Venice Film Festival 2007.

L'ETOILE DU SOLDAT
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Rating: MA15+
Label: REEL
Actors: Sacha Bourdo, Philippe Caubere, Patrick Chauvel
Director: Christophe De Ponfilly
Running Time: 105 minutes
Release Date: 7/08/2008
Region 4 DVD - In French with English subtitles
September 11, 2001. High up in Afghanistan's mountains, Vergos, a French reporter, finds out about the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. He remembers… 1984. Nikolai, a young Soviet musician, is drafted to fight in the war in Afghanistan. Sick with fear, he's engulfed in a world of violence and death. While on a combat mission he is captured by Commander Massoud’s Mujahideen and taken deep into the mountains where the Afghan rebels are taking cover. Although some Mujahideen want Nikolai dead, others feel compassion for him. There he also meets Vergos, who stays with the rebels to document their fight. Against all odds, the Soviet soldier, the French reporter and the Mujahideen gradually become friends … A year later Massoud’s Mujahideen set Nikolai free. Accompanied by Vergos, he embarks on his journey to Pakistan – but his freedom won’t last long…

THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN (LA GRAINE ET LE MULET)
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Release Date: 12/07/2008
Rated: M15+
Actor: Hafsia Herzi
Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
Distributor: Palace Films
Region 0 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
Lauded at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, and winner of multiple awards at the 2008 Cèsars (the French Oscars®) including Best Film and Best Direction, Abdellatif Kechiche?s The Secret of the Grain is a touching and resoundingly humanistic story set in the rustic port of Sète in southeastern France.
Slimane has worked in the same shipyard job for over 35 years, when his growing dissatisfaction prompts him to try to open his own restaurant. His dream seems unbelievable, but his contagious conviction and persistence work their way into the hearts of his loyal but dispersed family; the four children from his first marriage, his ex-wife, current girlfriend and her bright, outspoken daughter, Rym (played to great acclaim by the stunning newcomer Hafsia Herzi).
A grand film about ordinary people, The Secret of the Grain is a deliciously slow-burning drama about fate, food and family.

THE FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON (LE VOYAGE DU BALLON ROUGE)
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Format: Double DVD Video (PAL)
Genre: Movie-Drama
Label: DIRECTORS SUITE
Directed by: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Country Of Origin: FRANCE
Release Date: 10/09/2008
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
From master Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien comes this beautiful homage to Albert Lamorisse's Oscar®-winning children's short film, The Red Balloon and to Paris itself. Seven-year-old Simon is affectionately followed by a mysterious red balloon. His mother, Suzanne, a puppeteer and children's entertainer, is completely absorbed in her new show. As Suzanne strives to balance work and motherhood, the red balloon appears to Simon and his Taiwanese nanny as they journey around modern-day Paris, offering the boy the love and support his mother can't.