Paris, 1960s. Momo, a resolute and independent Jewish teenager who lives with his father, a sullen and depressed man, in a working-class neighborhood, develops a close friendship with Monsieur Ibrahim, an elderly Muslim who owns a small grocery store.
In 1928, as the talkies threw the film industry and film language into turmoil, Chaplin decided that his Tramp character would not be heard. City Lights would not be a talking picture, but it would have a soundtrack. Chaplin personally composed a musical score and sound effects for the picture. With Peter Lord, the famous co-creator of Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit, we see how Chaplin became the king of slapstick comedy and the superstar of the movies.
July 1, 2004, Hollywood lost one of its biggest stars - Marlon Brando. He succumbs to pulmonary fibrosis at the age of 80. Even during his lifetime, the versatile actor was a legend. Surrounded by a unique aura and blessed with great talent, he advanced to become a celebrated star. But his private life resembles a Greek tragedy.
A barefoot contessa, a screwed-up princess, an exquisite drunk, a bawdy aristocrat, a nightmare for puritanical America and the moguls of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Ava Gardner never stopped loving those she loved. She turned women green and made men sweat. And rejected with all her force the bulwark of normality.
A documentary on Louis de Funès based on unseen archives and film extracts, interviews from close friends and comedy specialists.
An inquiry into two of the most influencial French filmakers friendship and feud.
A top glamour girl in the 1940's, and the ultimate femme fatale, the"Love Goddess" Rita Hayworth went from a dancer in Brooklyn to Columbia Pictures' biggest star, sharing the screen with Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, and Fred Astaire. As she tragically lost her memory to Alzheimer's disease, she could not escape the systematic manipulation she was forced to endure from the Hollywood elite.
Ydessa Hendeles' exhibition entitled "The living and the Artificial" (consisting of works of art all comprising a photograph of living persons in the company of one or several teddy bears) had puzzled Agnès Varda so much that she decided to go to Toronto where the artist lives and interview her. In front of Agnes Varda's DV camera, Ydessa tells about the singularity of her artistic approach. She also expresses herself about the Holocaust, which both her parents survived.
A short documentary in the Chaplin Today series about Chaplin's "Monsieur Verdoux." Includes an interview with Claude Chabrol, whose 1963 film "Landru" concerns the same serial killer that inspired Chaplin's film.
"A Woman of Paris" (1923) was the first film Chaplin made for United Artists Film Corporation, which he founded with his friends Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith. Chaplin had long considered making a dramatic feature. For the first time, he decided to direct. Actress and filmmaker Liv Ullmann analyses the film. She talks about the acting, the originality of the characterizations, as well as the "feminine" viewpoint Chaplin adopted for the first time in his films.
Documentary about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 1946 film "Notorious."
In a series of long interviews, 12 prime ministers talk about their experience in the upper echelons of power. The function of prime minister, torn between the president and the parliament, appointed without necessarily being elected but responsible for everything, is at the center of debate. With the exception of Jacques Chirac (1974-1976 and 1986-1988), deliberately left out because of his image as French President, those who governed France for the past 35 years agreed to discuss the exercise of power, as seen through archive footage, but also how they experienced it personally. Filmed in the same studio and sitting in the same chair, 12 French prime ministers talk freely about their time in office, from their appointment until their resignation.
A short documentary about the making of "The Great Dictator."
Feature film.
Portrait of Panama Al Brown, a great boxer in the 30's, and its story with France, with a focus on its relationship with Jean Cocteau, surrealist, poet, director, artist.
African filmmaker Idrissa Ouedraogo (YAABA) discusses the influence that Charlie Chaplin has been on his work, along with archival footage of interviews with several of Chaplin's co-stars.
