Costa-Gavras

Two bumbling government employees think they are U.S. spies, only to discover that they are actually decoys for nuclear war.

Two 19th-century opportunists become serial killers so that they can maintain their profitable business supplying cadavers to an anatomist.

18 years after his last film, (The Troubles We've Seen), Marcel Ophuls emerges from retirement as one of our last masters, the most corrosive, the funniest as well. And the most forceful. The director of The Sorrow and the Pity shares with us stories of his exceptionally rich life in this light-hearted yet bitter escapade though the century and the movies. Son of the great Max Ophuls, he is generous in his admiration. We also meet Jeanne Moreau, Bertolt Brecht, Ernst Lubitsch, Otto Preminger, Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick and of course François Truffaut. There are no great filmmakers without a memory, so here is the memory shop of Marcel Ophuls.

We thought we'd seen, read, and heard everything there was to see about the Cannes Film Festival, from the glitz and gossip to the scandals and censorship. And yet, Emmanuel Barnault's "Morceaux de Cannes" (Pieces of Cannes), by this leading expert on Italian and French cinema, convinces us otherwise. The third largest event in the world (after the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup) reveals its secrets only sparingly, as this film attests. The result of passionate research in the INA archives, these 52 minutes, without interviews or voice-over narration, string together rare and sometimes previously unseen footage. Taken together, they tell a surprising, original, and heartwarming story of the Festival. On the beach, on a street corner, in a restaurant, or in the privacy of a hotel room, these forgotten archives summon the greatest filmmakers, actors, and actresses of the last seventy years, from Jean Cocteau to David Lynch, for an anthology of the Festival's history.

Thirteen filmmakers share personal reflections on Henri Langlois—the visionary founder of the Cinémathèque Française—recounting his influence on their lives, his role in preserving film history, and his enduring impact on world cinema.

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An incredibly dull-witted family unknowingly stumble upon an illegal weapons deal while on the trail of their "stolen" garbage.

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An account of the extraordinary life of film pioneer Georges Méliès (1861-1938) and the amazing story of the copy in color of his masterpiece A Trip to the Moon (1902), unexpectedly found in Spain and restored thanks to the heroic efforts of a group of true cinema lovers.

Jacqueline Gozlan - who left Algeria with her parents in 1961 - nostalgically retraces the history of the Algiers Cinematheque, inseparable from that of the country's Independence, through film extracts and numerous testimonies; notably that of one of its creators, Jean-Michel Arnold, but also of filmmakers such as Merzak Allouache and critics such as Jean Douchet. A place of life for Algerians, the Cinémathèque was the hub of African cinemas. Created in 1965 by Ahmed Hocine, Mahieddine Moussaoui and Jean-Michel Arnold, the Cinémathèque benefited from the excitement of Independence. The Cinematheque becomes a meeting place for Algiers society, future filmmakers find their best school there. In 1969, the Algiers Pan-African Festival brought together all African filmmakers, and from 1970, Boudjemâa Kareche developed a collection of Arab and African films.

In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot's production of L'Enfer came to a halt. Despite huge expectations, major studio backing and an unlimited budget, after three weeks the production collapsed. This documentary presents Inferno's incredible expressionistic original rushes, screen tests, and on-location footage, whilst also reconstructing Clouzot's original vision, and shedding light on the ill-fated endeavor through interviews, dramatizations of unfilmed scenes, and Clouzot's own notes.

Madame Rosa lives in a sixth-floor walkup in the Pigalle; she's a retired prostitute, Jewish and an Auschwitz survivor, a foster mom to children of other prostitutes. Momo is the oldest and her favorite, an Algerian lad whom she raises as a Muslim. He asks about his parents; she answers evasively. As she ages and takes fewer children, Momo must do more for her; as money is tight, he tries to earn pennies on the street with a puppet. He's a beautiful man-child, and Madame Rosa makes him promise never to sell himself or become a pimp. A film editor, Nadine, befriends him, and his father appears as well. Madame Rosa reaches her last days in fear of hospitals, and Momo must act.

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A documentary on Soviet filmmaker Aleksandr Medvedkin, examining his tumultuous career, the rediscovery of his masterpiece Happiness, and Russia's struggles over the course of the 20th Century.

Director Hüseyin Tabak explores the legacy of Yilmaz Güney — political dissident, convicted murderer, and visionary Kurdish filmmaker — who directed the 1982 Palme d'Or–winning Yol from inside prison and died in exile just two years later.

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Ten years after the first documentary, the legend of the Palme d’Or… continues. Some new laureates of the Cannes trophy relive, for us, the very special moments surrounding the awarding of the Palme d’Or.

Why are we still able, today, to view images that were captured over 125 years ago? As we enter the digital age, audiovisual heritage seems to be a sure and obvious fact. However, much of cinema and our filmed history has been lost forever. Archivists, technicians and filmmakers from different parts of the world explain what audiovisual preservation is and why it is necessary. The documentary is a tribute to all these professionals and their important work.

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The extraordinary life of Orson Welles (1915-85), an enigma of Hollywood, an irreducible independent creator: a musical prodigy, an excellent painter, a master of theater and radio, a modern Shakespeare, a magician who was always searching for a new trick to surprise his audience, a romantic and legendary figure who lived only for cinema.

Austrian actress Romy Schneider (1938) and French actor Alain Delon (1935), once fervent lovers in the early sixties, maintained a close friendship and a certain working relationship after their breakup until her death in 1984: a universal and eternal love.

Star at 17 years with the series of Sissi, Romy Schneider leaves Austria and glory for the love of Alain Delon. From Luchino Visconti to Otto Preminger, through Zulawski and Costa Gravas, she turned with the greatest. The directors interview those who knew her, who loved her, go back to the filming locations, make archive images speak for themselves... and try to detect the part of mystery that Romy Schneider conceals for ever.

An immersion into the diverse filmography of René Clément, a rare popular filmmaker also loved by critics, famous in particular for "Purple Noon".

The incredible adventure of what was supposed to be a three-month inventory project turned into a vast undertaking lasting more than fourteen years, an extraordinary reconstruction and restoration with unexpected twists and turns of one of the masterpieces of world cinema: Napoleon as seen by Abel Gance (1927).

Armin Mueller-Stahl was one of the few Germans to become a celebrated Hollywood actor. He had to start all over again several times: after the Second World War, after his break with the GDR and finally in Hollywood. He often decided to take the risk of possible failure. The documentary also shows his life as a musician and painter and, above all, as a person.

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Using the words and ideas of great filmmakers, from archival interviews with Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Bresson to new interviews with Mike Leigh, David Lynch, and Jonas Mekas, Oscar-winning filmmaker Chuck Workman shows what these filmmakers and others do that can't be expressed in words - but only in cinema.

Seventy critics and filmmakers discuss cinema around the conflict between the artist and the observer, the creator and the critic. Between 1998 and 2007, Kléber Mendonça Filho recorded testimonies about this relationship in Brazil, the United States and Europe, based on his experience as a critic.

A wonderful documentary that sheds additional light on the fascinating project ‘Inferno’ was, as well as how those who were involved with it reacted to it during the shooting process. A riveting adjunct to the main feature, offering a glut of interviews with various people associated with the production, and presenting quite a bit more production data, as well as some unseen footage from Clouzot's shoot.

The Two Memories, “an investigation into Republican and Francoist memories”, in the words of Jorge Semprún, is based on interviews conducted in 1972 in France and Spain, archival footage of the Civil War and newsreels from the Franco period.

A document of Perestroika, to be viewed as (nearly) unedited rushes of a voyage to Moscow, preserved by compatriot Costa-Gavras. Says Émilie Cauquy of the French Cinémathèque, "Astonishing unpublished travel diary, shot by Chris Marker in analog video on the occasion of a screening of L'Aveu in Moscow in 1990 [...] Armed with his camcorder, Marker films and records the comments, takes on the role of contemporary capital according to this unique ethnographic method that he has perfected".

With testimonials from Mathias Moncorgé, Costa-Gavras, Marc Lemonier, Michel Wyn, Yannick Yéhée, Ginette Vincendeau, Brigitte Hernandez, Patrice Gélinet, and Bernard Stora. The kid from the suburbs, unloved by his parents, little Jean Moncorgé, moved to Montmartre in 1914. A rowdy street urchin, he ended up working as an usher in a music hall. In 1927, he met Mistinguett at the Moulin Rouge. She was 52, he was 25, and they fell madly in love. Many others would follow. The most famous were Marlène Dietrich and Michèle Morgan. A man of the people who became a landowner in Normandy, an anarchist, and a horse breeder, Gabin had several lives. Before the war, he was the star who celebrated the rebellious working class. During the war, he left Hollywood, reverted to Moncorgé, and enlisted in the navy.

Fatou Cissé accompanies her father, malien director Souleymane Cissé, through a trip down his film career, painting an intimate and poetic picture of one of Africa’s most celebrated actors.

To honour the 40th anniversary of her death, multiple personalities share their feelings and thoughts about the life and career of the fabulous and bold actress Romy Schneider. Among them, Alain Delon, icon of French cinema and Romy's first great love, reads her the love letter which he wrote her forty years ago, the day after she passed away.

Illustrated by numerous archives and unpublished testimonies in France, this documentary traces the progress of the aborted edition of the Cannes Festival in 1968.

A documentary that details the process of restoring 270 of the 520 lost films of pioneering director Georges Méliès, all orchestrated by a Franco-American collaboration between Lobster Films, the National Film Center, and the Library of Congress.

A short documentary about the making of "The Great Dictator."

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Artur London was arrested in 1951 in a Stalinist purge, imprisoned and tortured for two years and forced to confess in the Slansky Trial, one of the last Stalinist "show trials" in Eastern Europe. The documentary explores some of the reasons for the controversy aroused by Costa-Gavras' The Confession, which had been accused of being anti-communist, and it highlights the political importance of filmmaking which, by its nature, is a fiction intended for the general public.

On February 22, 1986, Bette Davis received an honorary César award – and presented one to the Cinémathèque française, which was then celebrating its 50th anniversary. Two days later, Costa-Gavras, president of the Cinémathèque, in turn welcomed the actress for a press conference at which she vividly recounted the heyday of old Hollywood.

With Italian roots and growing up in the working class milieu of Marseille, he is one of the most famous French chansonniers and actors: Yves Montand (1921-1991). The documentary paints a multifaceted portrait of the star and man Montand through unpublished archive footage and conversations with companions.

The narrative wanders through Rosi’s films, not in the order they were shot but following the chronology of the historical facts they deal with. The documentary therefore not only narrates Rosi’s work, but also portrays half a century of Italian history.

Pierre Schoendoerffer revisits his life and career, with a strong focus on the impact that his experience as a war cinematographer for the French army during the Indochina War had on him.

A documentary about cinema censorship during the dictatorship in Greece (1967- 1974), based on never-before-seen state archives. The film includes clips of films which were either censored or banned, newsreels of that era, interviews with famous directors and also secret documents from the reports of the Censorship Committee that are made public for the first time, portraying a revealing picture of the system’s control mechanisms and providing a fresco of that time.

Documentary that celebrates 100 years of cinema in Latin America and talks about the origins and the development of cinema in this subcontinent. Its structure is based in 12 short films directed by various Latin American directors. These are: 1) "Los inicios", Iván Trujillo 2) "Cuando comenzamos a hablar", María Novaro 3) "Jugando en serio", Jacobo Morales 4) "De cuerpo presente [Las espirales perpetuas del placer y el poder] Cine Mexicano [1931- 1997]", Marcela Fernández Violante 5) "Cuando quisimos ser adultos", Edmundo Aray and David Rodríguez 6) "Cinema Novo", Orlando Senna 7) "Memorias de una isla, Juan Carlos Tabío 8) "Un grito, 24 cuadros por segundo", Julio García-Espinosa 9) "El día de la independencia", Federico García 10) "¿Sólo las formas permanecen?", Fernando Birri and Pablo Rodríguez Gauregui 11) "Todo final es un principio", Andrés Marriquín.

The feature documentary Searching for Mr. Rugoff is the story of Donald Rugoff, who was the crazy genius behind Cinema 5, the mid-century theater chain and film distribution company. Rugoff was a difficult (some would say impossible) person but was also the man who kicked art films into the mainstream with outrageous marketing schemes and pure bluster. Rugoff's impact on cinema culture in the United States is inestimable, and his influence on the art film business-from the studio classics divisions to the independent film movement to the rise of the Weinsteins-is undeniable. Yet, mysteriously, Rugoff has become a virtually forgotten figure. The story is told through the eyes of former employee Ira Deutchman, who sets out to find the truth about the man who had such a major impact on his life, and to understand how such an important figure could have disappeared so completely.

By approaching the financial system and its contradictions, the film raises questions about one of the main discourses of the financial authorities: that we can not spend more than we collect. Through several interviews, it gives an overview of how capital can influence politics and governments.