Le Forum

The life of masterful French auteur Jean Vigo was cut tragically short at the age of 29, leaving him with a filmography of only four films. All four of these films are collected here, and together they represent a unique talent the likes of which the world had never seen.

Cutting his teeth on the inventive, satirical À Propos de Nice, Vigo then turned to swimming champion Jean Taris in the experimental Taris, Roi de l'Eau. Vigo's two masterpieces, however, were undoubtedly the comical Zéro de Conduite and the breathatking L'Atalante. Vigo's films were never fully appreciated until well after his death, but now, over seven decades later, Vigo may be celebrated for what he is: a groundbreaking auteur responsible for some of cinema's most beautiful and provocative images.

This collection is a must-have for true cinephiles.

Writer Jean Cocteau and director Jean-Pierre Melville joined forces for this elegant adaptation of Cocteau’s immensely popular, wicked novel about the wholly unholy relationship between a brother and sister.

Elisabeth (a remarkable Nicole Stéphane) and Paul (Edouard Dermithe) close themselves off from the world by playing an increasingly intense series of mind games with the people who dare enter their lair—until romance and jealousy intrude. Melville’s operatic camera movements and Cocteau’s perverse, poetic approach to character merge in Les enfants terribles to create one of French cinema’s greatest, and most surprising, meetings of the minds.

Recently married to the handsome dentist Herve Dandieu, Virginie (Brigitte Bardot) discovers that her husband is incriminated in the murder of a dance school owner. Virginie starts working as a dance instructress in the studio in order to clear her husband by proving his innocence to the police and maybe find the real murder.

Jean Renoir takes a look back at the formation of Paris' iconic Moulin Rouge dance hall in this colourful and light-hearted romp.

French superstar Jean Gabin plays Henri Danglard, a theater producer burdened with a flailing cafe in which the star attraction is his belly-dancing mistress, Lola. Desperate to turn his finances around, Danglard ventures into Montmartre, where the old-fashioned cancan is still danced. Here he happens upon a lovely washerwoman, Nini, in whom he sees a star on the rise...and a conquest. But as Lola's jealousies mount and Nini's emotional dependence becomes almost overbearing, the opening performance of the Moulin Rouge is threatened. Will the show go on?

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Jean Renoir's heralded masterpiece Une Partie de Campagne almost never saw the light of day. Now, Renoir's adaptation of Guy Maupassant's short story is recognised as one of the filmmaker's finest creations.

On an idyllic day in the country, a family, consisting of a father, mother, their daughter Henriette and her fiance Anatole gather for a restful picnic. Against all her best judgement, Henriette finds herself succumbing to an all-too-brief romantic encounter which leaves her subtly yet undeniably changed.

In Une Partie de Campagne, Renoir creates a lyrical and bittersweet hymn to the beauty and majesty of nature.

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Renoir's classic comedy of spectacle and political hijinks stars the gorgeous Ingrid Bergman as Elena, a Polish princess who drives the men wild.

Elena believes she was born to be the guardian angel of great causes and great men who are yet to be discovered. It is only when men need her that she is interested in them, abandoning them when they have accomplished their career goals. After encountering the dashing Henry de Chevincourt, to whom she feels an attraction, Elena is introduced to General François Rollan, who has just been appointed Minister of War. But the General is bait for some conniving politicians who wish to turn the hero into a dictator, and so Elena must put her feelings for Henry aside in order to come to the aid of the General...and France.

Bergman has never been so luminous and charming than in this, Renoir's classic farce of politics, romance and patriotism.

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Jean Renoir explores the complex relationship between theater and life in this highly stylized account of the travels of a commedia dell'arte troupe touring colonial Peru during the 19th century. It stars Anna Magnani (ROME, OPEN CITY) as Camilla, the company's earthy, charismatic leading actress. Of the many men who admire her, three vie for her favors. Felipe (Paul Cambell), an aristocrat, first becomes her business manager, before going off to fight Indians. He finally returns, full of admiration for these "noble savages," and asks her to leave the troupe and live with him among his new friends. Ramon (Riccardo Rioli), a highly regarded bullfighter, is arrogant, egotistical and imperious, courting her with the notion that by combining forces, their glory would be doubled. The local Viceroy, the last of the three, complies with her demand of a proof of his love by offering her a golden coach. But, since the coach has been donated by the people as a symbol of the power of his title, he is required to surrender his political office. All eyes turn to Camilla, who must make the most difficult decision of her life.

Based on a story by the great French writer Émile Zola, Jean Renoir's classic La Bête Humaine is the story of a murderous love triangle set on the Paris-Le Havre mainline.

When station master Roubaud discovers his bride Séverine has been seduced by her godfather, he determines to murder him aboard the train. Strong-arming Séverine to help him, the pair are witnessed in this despicable act by the train's engineer Lantier, played by the illustrious Jean Gabin. Desperate to flee her husband, Séverine turns to Lantier, who is himself gripped by congenital fits of rage. With the roaring steam engines functioning as metaphors for the characters' unstoppable desires, can anyone control "the human beast"?

Pierre is involved in a terrible car accident. Fatally injured, he sees his life pass before his eyes. Only now he realizes the importance of all the details of existence, the pleasures and sorrows that together make up life's happiness. Pierre will have to do the cruel choice between his wife and his mistress, two women whom he loves with equal fervor...

Screen goddess Catherine Deneuve is Carole, An isolated and sexually repressed young Belgian girl living in London who descends into a nightmare of violence and schizophrenia.

A clean-cut country boy, Charles, moves to the big city of Paris to study law. He moves in with with his decadent and debonair cousin Paul, a fun-loving playboy who lives a wild life and doesn't care who he drags down with him. Charles falls in love with Florence, an acquaintance of Paul's, but how will Paul react to his cousin's new relationship? One of the first films of the French New Wave movement.

Returning home to his small country town, Sardent, after a long absence, Francois is struck by how little has changed - with the exception, that is, of his long-time friend Serge, who has deteriorated into a depressive alcoholic stuck in an unhappy marriage. As Francois attempts to rescue his friends from a miserable life, the reasons for his sudden return to Sardent become known.

One of the most influential films of all time, Alain Resnais' first feature sees a French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) and a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) engage in a brief, intense affair in postwar Hiroshima, their consuming fascination impelling them to exercise their own scarred memories of love and suffering.

Utilizing an innovative flashback structure and an Academy Award®-nominated screenplay by novelist Marguerite Duras, Resnais delicately weaves past and present, personal pain and public anguish, in this moody masterwork.

Starring Gerard Depardieu (Green Card, Cyrano de Bergerac), the great Alain Resnais recounts the "case history" of 3 tangled lives: René (Gérard Depardieu) has overcome his poor background to become a successful factory manager in France; Jean (Roger Pierre) is a politician who star is on the rise but has started having an affair with Janine (Nicole Garcia), a struggling actress. Their lives are expertly dissected by narrator Henri Laborit, a real-life biologist/philosopher, in a fascinating exploration of the human psyche.

Brigitte Bardot stars as 18-year-old nymphette Juliette, whose sun-kissed hedonism cannot be tamed by her newly-wed husband Michel.

Geneviève, a young girl of good family, saves Renaud, a young, cynical and corrupt rebel, from suicide. When she becomes his mistress, she decides to leave her family. Her friends warn her of the evil and destructive influence Renaud has on those around him...

A totally crazy film anchored by the ultimate role for Serge Gainsbourg as a devil-may-care advertising director who leaves broken hearts in his trail. Or in this instance, a pregnant wife. And he leaves her for a whirlwind romance with Jane Birkin that takes the viewer all over the world. There’s colour and humour throughout and of course, a sensational Gainsbourg soundtrack. In many ways, a French cousin of Get Smart or Austin Powers.

One of Max Ophüls most successful films?and a favourite of Jean-Luc Godard and Stanley Kubrick? Le Plaisir is a portmanteau film adapted from three short stories by the father of modern short-story writing, Guy de Maupassant. Each segment tells a tale of pleasure: the first, a story of an old man who regains his youth with the aid of a magic mask; in the second, a prostitute experiences a romantic encounter; and the third story focuses on the love between an artist and his model.

Using beautifully fluid lensing, Ophüls' camera drinks in the decadent ballrooms, countryside estates and urban structures of the late nineteenth-century France, demonstrating the skill so greatly admired by audience, critics and filmmakers alike. Le Plaisir pinpoints the ironic moments and necessary compromises of life with charm and sophistication. An enchanting tribute to desire and pleasure.

Based on the life of the notorious Lola Montez: a self-constructed celebrity, the real Lola thrived on scandal, creating her own public persona and fueling the fire of her fame through her various romantic dalliances and extraordinary adventures. Through his opulent camerawork and lyrical narrative style, the great Max Ophuls perfectly recaptures the beautiful yet tragic life of his infamous subject.

Max Ophuls' Lola Montes situates Lola (Martine Carol) in an American circus. As an exuberant ringmaster (Academy Award(R)-winner Peter Ustinov) commentates, we are swept back into the scandalous events of Lola's life: her tormented childhood; her thwarted aspirations to be a dancer; her infamous affairs with men such as Franz Liszt and Ludwig I, King of Bavaria.

At once a romantic melodrama, a meditation on society's fascination with celebrity and a unique visual spectacle, Lola Montes is today considered among the greatest films ever made.

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Based on the childhood memoirs of Marcel Pagnol, author of Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources, La Gloire de Mon Père and its companion Le Château de Ma Mère are two of the greatest and most successful French films ever made.

An adult Marcel fondly recalls one idyllic summer spent with his family in the hills of Provence. A love affair with the country began and during those sundrenched, perfect days he found new respect for his school-teacher father as he adapted to life away from the city.

One of cinema's finest celebrations of childhood, My Father's Glory is filled with warmth, humour and nostalgia for the bygone days of a youth spent among the rocky hills of turn-of-the-century Provence.