5.5

Inju, la bête dans l'ombre

2008, France, Japan

• Actors: Benoît Magimel, Lika Minamoto, Shun Sugata, Maurice Bénichou, Yuna Abe, Shinpei Asanuma, Takumi Bando, Guillaume Binggeli, Jun Era, Shiho Fujimura, Yoriko Fujisaki, Toshi Fujiwara, Tomonobu Fukui, Kana Harada, Erika Hirai, Ren Hisa, Shoko Imayoshi, Ryo Ishibashi, Yusuke Iwamoto, Gô Jibiki, Asami Kaneda, Setchin Kawaya, Reika Kirishima, Junichiro Kishi, Yuri Kobayashi, Sawa Masaki, Saeko Matsumi, Hiroaki Matsuzawa, Yume Miyamoto, Eri Murakoshi
• Genre: Mystery, Thriller
• Director(s): Barbet Schroeder
• Available languages:
  • French French.

The writer and college professor, Alexandre Fayard, researches and gives lectures about the gruesome literary work of the mysterious Japanese writer Shundei Oe, considered by him to be the master of manipulation. In his underground detective novels, evil always prevails and Shundei Oe has never allowed anyone to see his face. His only image available is a frightening picture on the back of his best-sellers. Alex travels to Kyoto to promote his successful detective story that follows the same style of the Shundei Oe but with a positive message instead. He meets with his publisher, Ken Honda, from the publishing house Hakubunkan. While in an interview in a TV show, Alex receives a phone call from Shundei Oe that advises him to return to Paris, and Alex believes it is a marketing strategy of Ken. Then Alex and Ken go to a tea house where he meets the Masochist geisha Tamao, and Alex has a crush on her. Tamao discloses to Alex that she knows Shundei Oe and his real name is Hichiro Irata; further they were lovers when she rejected his proposal many years ago. From this moment on, Hichiro Irata loathed her and vanished. When she got pregnant by the wealthy and powerful business man Ryuji Mogi, Shundei Oe returned and stalked her. Alex decides to help Tamao and Ryuji Mogi against the menace of the deranged writer, and his mind is blurred between fiction and reality in dreadful nightmares.

  6.8

Paris

2008, France

• Actors: Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Albert Dupontel, Mélanie Laurent, François Cluzet, Karin Viard, Gilles Lellouche, Zinedine Soualem, Julie Ferrier, Olivia Bonamy, Maurice Bénichou, Annelise Hesme, Audrey Marnay, Xavier Robic, Farida Khelfa, Suzanne Von Aichinger, Kingsley Kum Abang, Judith El Zein, Emmanuel Quatra, Nelly Antignac, Joffrey Platel, Renée Le Calm, Sabrina Ouazani, Hubert Saint-Macary, Jean-Pierre Moulin, Joseph Malerba, Georges Happy, Anne Benoît, Nina Bonherry
• Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
• Director(s): Cédric Klapisch
• Available languages:
  • French French.

Pierre, a professional dancer, suffers from a serious heart disease. While he is waiting for a transplant which may (or may not) save his life, he has nothing better to do than look at the people around him, from the balcony of his Paris apartment. When Elise, his sister with three kids and no husband, moves in to his place to care for him, Pierre does not change his new habits. And instead of dancing himself, it is Paris and the Parisians who dance before his eyes.

  8.5

Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain

2001, France, Germany

• Actors: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Lorella Cravotta, Serge Merlin, Jamel Debbouze, Clotilde Mollet, Claire Maurier, Isabelle Nanty, Dominique Pinon, Artus de Penguern, Yolande Moreau, Urbain Cancelier, Maurice Bénichou, Michel Robin, Andrée Damant, Claude Perron, Armelle, Ticky Holgado, Kevin Fernandes, Flora Guiet, Amaury Babault, André Dussollier, Eugène Berthier, Marion Pressburger, Charles-Roger Bour, Luc Palun, Fabienne Chaudat, Dominique Bettenfeld, Jacques Viala
• Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
• Director(s): Jean-Pierre Jeunet
• Available languages:
  • French French.

Amélie is a story about a girl named Amélie whose childhood was suppressed by her Father's mistaken concerns of a heart defect. With these concerns Amélie gets hardly any real life contact with other people. This leads Amélie to resort to her own fantastical world and dreams of love and beauty. She later on becomes a young woman and moves to the central part of Paris as a waitress. After finding a lost treasure belonging to the former occupant of her apartment, she decides to return it to him. After seeing his reaction and his new found perspective - she decides to devote her life to the people around her. Such as, her father who is obsessed with his garden-gnome, a failed writer, a hypochondriac, a man who stalks his ex girlfriends, the "ghost", a suppressed young soul, the love of her life and a man whose bones are as brittle as glass. But after consuming herself with these escapades - she finds out that she is disregarding her own life and damaging her quest for love. Amélie then discovers she must become more aggressive and take a hold of her life and capture the beauty of love she has always dreamed of.