A long-standing member of the Hereford French Circle, when Bill Coward died at the end of last year, he left an impressive collection of French DVDs. If you would like to borrow one, please email me and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Please note that they might not all have English subtitles, so please ask first and I can check.
| 36 Quai des Orfèvres | Olivier Marchal, 2006 | 2 cops are promised by the retiring chief of the Paris police that the one, getting the violent gang robbing armored trucks, will get his job. The 2 will do whatever it takes to get the promotion, even if it means breaking the law. | Action, Crime, Drama |
| 93, rue Lauriston | Denys Granier-Deferre, 2004 | 93, rue Lauriston, in the 16th arrondissement de Paris, is an address of bleak memory. It was indeed the headquarter of the French Gestapo, which was active between 1941 and 1944 and was headed by Henri Lafont and Pierre Loutrel, two wanted criminals. | Crime, Drama, History |
| Artemisia | Agnès Merlet, 1997 | Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) was one of the first well-known female painters. The movie tells the story of her youth, when she was guided and protected by her father, the painter Orazio Gentileschi. | Biography, Drama, History |
| Au Bon Beurre | Edouard Molinaro, 1981 | TV series. Léon Lécuyer, an idealistic history student, manages to escape from the camp where he was imprisoned and comes back to Paris. He hides in his mother’s apartment when the Germans, informed by an anonymous letter, storm their block. He runs away once more and leaves for Lyon. Wishing to serve his country, Léon decides to kill Pierre Laval. | Comedy, Drama |
| Au Revoir les Enfants | Louis Malle, 1987 | A French boarding school run by priests seems to be a haven from World War II until a new student arrives. He becomes the roommate of the top student in his class. Rivals at first, the roommates form a bond and share a secret. | Drama, War |
| Balzac | Josée Dayan, 1999 | A man who created great literature from the adventures of his own life – and the women at the heart of it. Although gruff, unsophisticated, and far from handsome, Balzac exerts an irresistible fascination on women. | Biography, Drama, Romance |
| Beaumarchais l’Insolent | Édouard Molinaro, 1996 | The life story of the titular Beaumarchais (Fabrice Luchini), playwright and adventurer, who gets himself into numerous different scrapes and romantic encounters in 18th Century France. | Adventure, Comedy, History |
| Cyrano de Bergerac | Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1990 | Embarrassed by his large nose, a romantic poet/soldier romances his cousin by proxy. | Comedy, Drama, History |
| D13 Diamant 13 (Diamond 13) | Gilles Béhat, 2009 | A cop goes up against his lifelong friend, who has become one of the city’s biggest drug traffickers. | Action, Crime, Thriller |
| Danton | Andrzej Wajda, 1983 | In 1793, as the Terror begins in France, Georges Danton, a champion-of-the-people, returns to clash against Maximilien Robespierre and his extremist party. | Biography, Drama, History |
| De Nuremberg à Nuremberg | Frédéric Rossif, 1989 | A two-part TV documentary on World War II, made exclusively from archive footage. | Documentary, History, War |
| Été ’44 La Libération | Patrick Rotman, 2004 | Documentary | Documentary, History, War |
| Gervaise | Réné Clément, 1956 | A poor laundrywoman tries to cope with a depressing burden of society. | Drama |
| Hiver 1945 | Steve Duchesne, 2007 | Paris 1945, a young woman waits hopelessly until her fiancee comes from the war. She desperately reads his letters over and over again until he reappears one winter evening. | Romance |
| Jean de Florette | Claude Berri, 1986 | A greedy landowner and his backward nephew conspire to block the only water source for an adjoining property in order to bankrupt the owner and force him to sell. | Drama |
| Jean Moulin | Yves Boisset, 2002 | TV movie about the life and death of the first President of the National Council of the Resistance during World War II. | Biography, History |
| Juin 1940, Le Grand Chaos | Christophe Weber, 2010 | This documentary, rather than being a history or an attempt to understand the reasons behind the chaos caused by the German attack on France beginning in June of 1940, comprises a series of personal illustrations of German inhumanity and barbarism towards the French military and civilians. | Documentary, History, War |
| L’Accompagnatrice (The Accompanist) | Claude Miller, 1992 | In Nazi-occupied Paris, a young accompanist named Sophie Vasseur gets a job with famed singer Irene Brice. As Irene’s husband Charles, a businessman collaborating with the Nazis, wrestles with his conscience, Sophie becomes obsessed with Irene, taking on the role of maid as well as accompanist, living life vicariously through Irene’s triumphs and affairs. | Drama, Music, Romance |
| L’Aile ou la Cuisse (The Wing or the Thigh) | Claude Zidi, 1976 | A food critic wants to retire and train his son in continuing the family business. But his plans get disrupted with the arrival of a fast food entrepreneur, and his son wanting to become a clown. | Comedy, Family |
| L’Armée des Ombres (Army of Shadows) | Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969 | An account of underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France. | Drama, War |
| L’Assassinat d’Henri IV | Jacques Malaterre, 2009 | A reenactment of the last day of king Henri IV of France before his murder by the fanatical catholic Ravaillac. | History |
| La Balance | Bob Swaim, 1982 | Nicole is a Parisian streetwalker and Dede is her racketeer boyfriend, on the outs with his mob bosses because of a dispute over Nicole. When a police informant (“balance”) is murdered, the cops have to scramble for a replacement. Deciding on Dede, they begin to put a nasty squeeze on him and Nicole. | Crime, Drama, Romance |
| La Bataille du Rail (The Battle of the Rails) | René Clément, 1946 | This movie is a story about French railroad workers who were part of organized resistance during the German WW2 occupation. | Drama, War |
| La Commune | TV series, 2007 | TV series | Drama |
| La Fleur du Mal (The Flower of Evil) | Claude Chabrol, 2003 | Three generations of a wealthy Bordeaux family are caught in the crossfire when Anne decides to run for mayor, thanks to a political pamphlet that revives an old murder scandal. | Drama |
| La Grande Vadrouille | Gérard Oury, 1966 | Several ordinary Frenchmen, helping British pilots avoid Nazi captivity, go on epic voyage through the occupied country to the Swiss border. | Adventure, Comedy, War |
| La Horse | Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1970 | Near the Baie de la Seine swamps, opposite the Port of Le Havre, Auguste Maroilleur, an elderly farmer, exploits 400 hectares of crop land with the help of his family, over which he rules with an iron hand. Things go awry the day he discovers one of his grandsons is involved in drug traffic. | Crime, Thriller |
| La Ligne de Démarcation | Jacques Ertaud, 1973 | TV drama series about the French Resistance | Drama, History, War |
| La Rafle (The Round Up) | Rose Bosch, 2010 | A faithful retelling of the 1942 “Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup” and the events surrounding it. | Drama, History, War |
| La Reine Margot | Patrice Chéreau, 1994 | Young Queen Margot finds herself trapped in an arranged marriage amidst a religious war between Catholics and Protestants. She hopes to escape with a new lover, but finds herself imprisoned by her powerful and ruthless family. | Biography, Drama, History |
| La Resistance | Félix Olivier, 2008 | Documentary/drama about the French Resistance | Documentary, Drama, History |
| La Révolution Française | Robert Enrico, Richard T. Heffron, 1989 | When Louis XVI summoned the Etats-Generaux, he unleashes a revolution that would change his country and cost his life. This is the story of one of the crucial points in the history of France, and Europe, divided into two parts. | Drama, History, Thriller |
| La Tourneuse de pages (The Page Turner) | Denis Dercourt, 2006 | After failing the audition to a prestigious music school because of the rude behavior of one of the testers, a girl takes revenge by gaining the trust of the same woman some years later and becoming indispensable for her. | Drama, Music, Thriller |
| La Zizanie (The Discord) | Claude Zidi, 1978 | When Japanese businessmen order a large quantity of a man’s new invention, the man is forced to produce the machines in his house, which drives his wife crazy. | Comedy |
| Le Beau Mariage (A Good Marriage) | Éric Rohmer, 1982 | Sabine vows to give up married lovers, and is determined to find a good husband. Her best friend Clarisse introduces her to her cousin Edmond, a busy lawyer from Paris. | Comedy, Drama, Romance |
| Le Clan des Siciliens (The Sicilian Clan) | Henri Verneuil, 1969 | A young, ambitious mobster plans an elaborate diamond heist while seducing the daughter of a ruthless mob patriarch as a determined police commissioner closes in on all of them. | Crime, Drama |
| Le Comte de Monte Cristo | Josée Dayan, 1998 | TV series. Edmond Dantes is unjustly sent to prison for 18 years. He escapes to reclaim his fiancée Mercedes and revenge against his nemesis, Mondego. | Adventure, Drama, Romance |
| Le Dernier Jour (The Last Day) | Rodolphe Marconi, 2004 | A young artist’s return home is offset by his unrequited love for a childhood male friend. | Drama, Romance |
| Le Diner de Cons | Francis Veber, 1998 | A rich publisher meets a stupid but very kind person. Publisher planned to laugh at him, but it so happened that this person was the only one who stay with him when publisher’s life began to crumble. | Comedy |
| Le Petit Baigneur (The Little Bather) | Robert Dhéry, 1968 | When the CEO of a yacht-building firm fires a key employee in a fit of rage, he must track the man down in his rural hometown and beg him to return to the company. | Comedy |
| Le Professionnel | Georges Lautner, 1981 | Victim of a plot which has resulted in his imprisonment in a Central African jail for two years, a French secret agent arrives in Paris to settle accounts. | Action, Crime, Drama |
| Le Rayon Vert (The Green Ray) | Éric Rohmer,1986 | It’s July, and Delphine has nowhere to go for the summer. She feels very bored and “empty”, but this won’t last; one day she accidently meets someone who seems to be totally made for her… | Drama, Romance |
| Le Retour de Martin Guerre (The Return of Martin Guerre) | Daniel Vigne, 1982 | In medieval France, some villagers challenge a man’s claim of identity when he (as he says) returns home from some time in the army. | Biography, Crime, Drama |
| Le Retour du Grand Blond (The Return of the Tall Blond Man) | Yves Robert, 1974 | With ‘little captain’ Cambrai raising serious doubts about the reality of the so-called “super spy”, Colonel Toulouse kidnaps Christine and forces Francois to play again the character of “The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe” in some fake adventures. | Comedy |
| Le Sauvage | Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1975 | Caracas, Venezuela. Just after her engagement to Vittorio, Nelly runs away. As he pursues her, Nelly looks to Martin, a French middle-aged man she met by accident, for help. | Adventure, Comedy, Drama |
| Le Vieux Fusil (The Old Gun) | Robert Enrico, 1975 | In Montauban in 1944, Julien Dandieu in a surgeon in the local hospital. Frightened by the German army entering Montauban, he asks his friend Francois to drive his wife and his daughter in the back country village where Julien has an old castle. One week later, Julien decided to meet then for the week end, but the Germans are already occupying the village. | Drama, Thriller, War |
| Les Combattants de l’Ombre | TV documentary series, 2011 | Documentary series about the French Resistance | Documentary, History |
| Les Femmes de l’Ombre (Female Agents) | Jean-Paul Salomé, 2008 | London, 1944: SOE’s section for French ops parachute 4 women into France, plus a woman there, to free an English geologist and kill SS colonel Heindrich. | Drama, War |
| Les Grandes Vacances (The Exchange Student) | Jean Girault, 1967 | The headmaster (Louis De Funès) of a French boarding school embarks on a madcap journey to find his wayward son, who ran off with an attractive English exchange student. | Adventure, Comedy |
| Les Guichets du Louvre (Black Thursday) | Michel Mitrani, 1974 | A teenage boy (Christian Rist) helps a teenage girl (Christine Pascal) escape to the Left Bank of Paris during a 1942 round-up of Jews. | Drama |
| Les Milles | Sébastien Grall, 1995 | A World War II drama where people, many of whom opposed to Nazism, get on board a train from France that could lead them to freedom. | Drama, War |
| Les Miserables | Josée Dayan, 2000 | French TV series based on Victor Hugo’s novel. | Drama, History |
| Les Miserables | Robert Hossein, 1982 | The story of Jean Valjean, a Frenchman convicted of minor crimes, who is hounded for years by an unforgiving and unrelenting police inspector, Javert. | Drama |
| Les Mystères des Cathédrales | Jean-François Delassus, 2001 | Documentary looking at the history of France’s cathedrals | Documentary, History |
| Les Uns et les Autres (Bolero) | Claude Lelouch, 1981 | Through fabulous music, this movie tracks three generations of musicians and dancers from Russia, Germany, France and the U.S., from before World War II through the war and the Holocaust, to the 1980s. | Drama, Music |
| Maigret se défend and La Patience de Maigret | TV series, 1993 | The pragmatic, reserved and refined Maigret investigates murders in his singular unhurried manner and inevitably discovers the truth. | Crime, Drama, Mystery |
| Manon des Sources | Claude Berri, 1986 | A beautiful but shy shepherdess plots vengeance on the men whose greedy conspiracy to acquire her father’s land caused his death years earlier. | Drama |
| Marius/Fanny | Daniel Auteuil, 2013 | Marius and Fanny are the first two parts of Marcel Pagnol’s classic trilogy following the loves and losses of a Marseille port community. | Drama |
| Métronome | Fabrice Hourlier, 2012 | Documentary series in which Lorànt Deutsch – actor and history buff – tells the story of the history of France through the Paris Metro. | Documentary, History |
| Moliere | Laurent Tirard, 2007 | Imprisoned for debt, playwright Molière is rescued by an aristocrat who needs his help in order to seduce a young marquise. | Biography, Comedy |
| Mon Père, il m’a Sauvé la Vie (My Father Saved My Life) | José Giovanni, 2001 | Joe, international poker player, is considered an irresponsible family-chief. His two sons drifted into gangsterism. The older dies from it. The younger, Manu, was sentenced to death. Joe takes on to a terrific battle in order to save his son. Will he succeed in it? For life has more than one trick in its well-worn sleeve. | Drama |
| Monsieur Batignole | Gérard Jugnot, 2002 | The story of an ordinary grocer, Edmond Batignole, who helps the young son of his Jewish neighbour, and the boy’s two cousins, to reach Switzerland safely. | Comedy, Drama, War |
| Moulin Rouge | John Huston, 1952 | Fictional account of French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. | Biography, Drama, Music |
| Napoléon | Yves Simoneau, 2002 | The year is 1816, and Napoleon, held prisoner by the British on the island of St. Helena, is telling the young English girl Betsy his life story. | Adventure, Biography, Drama |
| Nestor Burma episode 1: Pas de Bavards à la Muette | Henri Helman, 1991 | Nestor Burma (Guy Marchand) is a cynical private detective, a serial monogamist and an inveterate saxophone player. Burma investigates murders, missing persons, kidnapping and extortion cases in every arrondissement of The City of Light. It’s a tough job, but Burma’s just the man for it – with more than a little help from his lovelorn secretary, Hélène, and his cat Rifif. | Crime, Mystery, Thriller |
| Nestor Burma episode 2: Les Cadavres de la Plaine Monceau | Claude Grinberg, 1991 | Following the alleged suicide of a woman and her husband, Nestor Burma investigates. On the other hand, he is hired by a movie actress who wants to find a woman who impersonates her. | Crime, Mystery, Thriller |
| On a Retrouvé la 7ème compagnie (The 7th Company has been Found) | Robert Lamoureux, 1975 | French army’s seventh company experiences severe setback during world war 2 when it gets separated from other members of the army.They disguise as army officers to escape death when they are caught by German soldiers. | Comedy, War |
| Pouic-Pouic (Squeak-squeak) | Jean Girault, 1963 | Léonard Monestier has made his fortune trading on the stock exchange. His eccentric wife Cynthia almost bankrupts him by selling some of his shares to buy an oil concession in South America. | Comedy |
| Récits d’Exode | Patrick Jeudy, Michel Winoch, 1990 | Documentary about May-June 1940. | Documentary, History, War |
| San Antonio | Frédéric Auburtin, 2004 | While a terrorist epidemy strikes the world leaders, the commissaire San-Antonio and his partner, the lieutenant Bérurier, have to escort the French ambassador in a British hotel. | Action, Comedy |
| The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall | Nick Morris, Laurence Connor, 2011 | A disfigured musical genius, hidden away in the Paris Opera House, terrorizes the opera company for the unwitting benefit of a young protégée whom he trains and loves. | Drama, Music, Musical |
| Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement) | Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2004 | Tells the story of a young woman’s relentless search for her fiancé, who has disappeared from the trenches of the Somme during World War One. | Drama, Mystery, Romance |
| Un Papillon sur l’Epaule | Jacques Deray, 1978 | A man who finds there is another world to the one we know. | Drama, Thriller |
| Un Village Français (Series 1, 2 and 3) | TV drama series, 2009-2017 | A French village and its inhabitants go through the ups and (mainly) downs of the occupation by the German army from 1940 to 1945. | Drama |
| Uranus | Claude Berri, 1990 | After World War II, a small French village struggles to put the war behind as the controlling Communist Party tries to flush out Petain loyalists. | Comedy, Drama |
| WWII | American TV series, 2009 | Follow the lives of soldiers who lived World War II, through previously unseen color footage. | Documentary, History, War |