Didier Bénureau

55 years ago, on October 1 1968, the first brand advertising spot appeared on the French television screen. Over the next three decades, thousands of creative little films would seduce and build our collective memory. Kitschy or cult spots, humor, slogans, music, stars, gimmicks, grand spectacle or sex appeal: during its golden age, how did advertising convince? Thierry Ardisson has brought together almost 400 advertising clips to relive the era of the conquest of minds and wallets.

Adapted from the Spanish series "Escenas de Matrimonio", Scènes de Ménages has been making millions of viewers laugh for the past 15 years. Over time, the original couples have been joined by other pairs of lovers. This documentary takes a behind-the-scenes look at the show.

To strengthen family ties, to free his teenagers from their digital addiction, to reconnect with his roots in the region of his childhood; this is why Régis decides to take his wife and children on a surprise vacation in the Vercors. An old ruined house lost in the forest. No water, no electricity, even less network or wifi. Nothing is going to happen as planned

No synopsis available yet.

Malik and his father Mehdi live in a funfair where they work as handymen. Mehdi gives his son five special paintings. Curious Malik is dazzled by the beauty of these works. The next day, the two accidentally find themselves in the middle of a political rally. Mehdi is brutalized in front of Malik by two cops who accuse him of propaganda against the government. Later that night, the police burst into the funfair and arrested Mehdi. Shocked, Malik begins searching for his father with the help of the other showmen, finding answers in the paintings his father left behind.

A 50-year-old who is over-invested in humanitarian work is competing in the social center where she works. She will then embark her students in literacy class, with the help of a pretty foolish monitor, on the dangerous road of the code of the road.

A small, old-fashioned cafe in a suburban square, opposite the cemetery, the Hirondelle. Every day at half past six, the customers dance with their stories and tirades, totally amazing.

Despite his fame, Taillandier has suddenly stopped painting. Deeply depressed, the sixty-year-old decides to go away. He has no clear goal and explains nothing to his close friends. During his travels, he has a strange encounter with Marylou, a wild teenager who was rejected by her mother. The lost girl and the man at the end of his tether will travel together awhile. Finally living like a father and daughter, at peace.

Jacques and Odile Paugnont, a middle-class couple, lead a monotonous existence in the Paris suburbs. One day, a promotional offer at a local supermarket allows them to acquire a couple of friends. This guarantees lively evenings, hearty laughter, and deep discussions that are sure to dispel the boredom of everyday life. Whenever they feel like it, Jacques and Odile take Guy and Juliette out of their closet, two unemployed people who have exhausted their benefits and are forced to sell their friendship to survive. But as the days go by, the Paugnonts become more demanding, even cruel, towards their new "friends"...

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

The author of "Morales" is back with a one-man show, with his humor still as deliciously incorrect as ever. From Fukushima to mosques, from the Roma to grandmothers who want to sleep with their grandsons, no topic is off-limits...

A TV weather girl is torn between an older man, a famous married author whom she loves but who won't leave his wife, and a semi-deranged young heir to an industrial fortune who loves her.

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.

Cesar is a young schoolboy living in Paris with his family. Their life is ordinary, but Cesar wants more excitement (which he creates, in one instance, by claiming to his teachers that his father has been arrested). During the school holidays, Cesar and his friend Sarah decide to help their mutual friend, Morgan, find his father who supposedly lives in London. Each one tells their parents that they're staying with the other two, and together they sneak out to begin their search.

Four prisoners discover a handwritten book of black magic in their cell, and decide to use it to escape.

Fanny, a single woman in her mid-thirties, has had enough of relationships that don't work, so she decides to seduce Paul, a colleague from the office, into a brief one-night sexual encounter. Everything is prepared when Paul arrives, but then, thanks to Fanny's clumsiness, things don't exactly work out as planned...

Not long before World War I, in a French Alpine town near the Italian border, a pack of slaughtered wolves is delivered to local taxidermist Leon (Patrick Chesnais). A surviving black cub comes down from the mountains looking for his family, and is saved from discovery and certain death by Leon’s young daughter Angele, who releases him back into the wild. The Great War comes and goes, making local foundry owners the Garcins rich. Family patriarch Albert Garcin (Michel Galabru), who happens to be Angele’s godfather, has given a free lifetime’s lease of a shack in the hills to a gypsy woman (played in flashbacks by Elisa Tovati in which she’s seen, literally, having dances with wolves on stage). Her son Guiseppe (Stefano Accorsi), who appears to be slightly mentally handicapped, guards the wolves he’s befriended up there, especially the black pack leader he calls Carbone.

No synopsis available yet.

Eugenia is the queen of an imaginary European country. When her husband dies, quite unexpectedly, the country is left without a king. According to the law, the new king needs to be married so that leaves out the eldest son. Her youngest son, Prince Arnaud is married to the lovely Armelle and they have two young children. They become the future rulers of the kingdom.

No synopsis available yet.

Grégoire Moulin, a shy accountant, sets up a blind date with a dance teacher at a bar. What he needed to do was just to cross the road. But it didn't happen to be as easy as it seems especially because of the final game of French soccer championship the very same night!

A woman picks up a stranded motorist on the side of the road. Once inside her vehicle, the two hear a radio report about the recent slayings of the Screwdriver Killer...

After wrecking his car to impress a woman, a young man gets a musical lecture on road safety from his boastful grandfather, Pépé Cadillac.

After his betrayal, Judas did not go hang himself, but instead embarked on a 2000-year wandering, carrying the weight of infamy (his betrayal of Jesus), before reappearing in the midst of the Algerian desert.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

The sequel to The Visitors reunites us with those lovable ruffians from the French Medieval ages who - through magic - are transported into the present, with often drastic consequences. Godefroy de Montmirail travels to today to recover the missing family jewels and a sacred relic, guarantor of his wife-to-be's fertility. The confrontation between Godefroy's repellent servant Jack the Crack and his descendent, the effete Jacquart, present-day owner of the chateau, further complicates the matter.

After a wizard's spell goes awry, 12th-century Gallic knight Godefroy de Papincourt, Count of Montmirail finds himself transported to 1993, along with his dimwitted servant, Jacquouille la Fripouille. Startled and perplexed by modern technology, the duo run amok, destroying cars and causing chaos until they meet Beatrice de Montmirail, an aristocratic descendant of the nobleman, who may be able to help them get back to 1123.

A story is about young teenage girl, with sister and brothers, a pleasant uncle and aunt, an annoying nanny, a young boy interested in kissing her, a close relationship with the imaginary addressee of her daily diary and her parents' disintegrating marriage - all this in a rented house in a summer resort.

Claire Doste is about to reach the age of 35 and has everything one dreams of, such as having four boyfriends and a creative job in a publishing house specialising in crime novels. One day, she invites all of her boyfriends to her birthday dinner so that she can pick out her would-be fiancé. But an accident happens when Claire is getting the dinner ready.

Patrick, a not so successful boxer, meets Nathaniel - and adventures started.

Frédérique's mother has died recently leaving her the family stud farm. She's never met her father, doesn't even know his name. But she finds it on the back of an old photo. She sets off for Paris. She stays with her gay dancer pal Marc. Marc and friends decide to go to their favourite gay bar... but it's men only. So Frédérique becomes Frédéric, an effeminate gay boy... Frédérique follows her father. Pierre Arroux is an art curator - and gay. She introduces herself to him, but as Frédéric. So while Frédéric is quite an awkward young man and an embarrassment to his father, Frédérique is secretly meeting with her old boyfriend now living in Paris..

Horty, a French foundry worker, wins a contest and is sent to see the sailing of the Titanic. In England, Marie, saying she is a chambermaid on the Titanic and cannot get a room, asks to share his room. They do, chastely; when he awakens, she is gone, but he sees her at the sailing and gets a photo of her. When he returns home, he suspects that his wife Zoe has been sleeping with Simeon, the foundry owner. Horty goes to the bar, where his friends get him drunk and he starts telling an erotic fantasy of what happened with him and Marie, drawing a larger audience each night.

Carl Herickson, a big American film star, unwillingly upsets a Parisian trio: a newspaper editor, his theater actress wife, and their fiery journalist best friend.

Camille, a naïve schoolgirl, meets an intriguing influence in Joelle, a slightly older and much more experienced spirit. Camille follows her new friend through the discovery of sex and the darker side of life. As the film progresses, Camille discovers AIDS and the fear that she may have picked up the disease in her early encounters.

Maxime and Gerard are a couple of white-collar criminals condemned to 5 years in prison. Sandrine Athan, an honest and principled young police officer, is assigned the banal task of escorting them to the nearest prison in Melun. Things get complicated when killers try to knock them off. Meanwhile, they must contend with strikes which have paralyzed the country and make travelling a nightmare. Added to this mess are the prisoners' many botch escape attempts. All these complications turn a simple transfer into a hellish adventure.

Franck shows up in a gossip magazine photo behind a brawling TV star at a football match.

The La Chesnays live in a castle threatened with destruction to accommodate a TGV line. While Gilles, the husband, agrees to receive compensation, his wife, Maud, fights with the other villagers so that the project does not materialize.

In the 15th century, in a poor Italian village, the monks of a modest convent take up an abandoned baby. Unfortunately, for all their efforts, they prove unable to trace his parents. So they set up providing tender loving care to the little boy. Marcellino lives a happy life among the men of God but, as he grows up, he misses his mother more and more.

Based on French writer Colette's 1923 novel, Le Blé en herbe focuses on the changing relationship between childhood friends Vinca and Phillipe. Both are on the verge of adulthood and beginning to recognize romantic feelings for one another when Phillipe meets a lascivious, wealthy older woman named Madam Dellaray. He is torn between his innocent but restricting affection for Vinca and satisfaction of his impatient lust for the new and mature world Madam Dellaray offers.

A tow truck driver becomes the impresario, then the singer of a new rock band.

This gently satirical French comedy centers on the resulting brouhaha that erupts when the preadolescent daughter of a very conservative bourgeoisie couple gets the chance to appear in a raucous music video starring a raunchy, aging female rocker. When pipe-puffing patriarch and solid citizen Brice learns that his daughter Clemence has been to selected for the music video with tacky has-been rocker Gloria, he nearly comes unglued. His prim wife, Benedicte, the organist for the local congregation, has a different perspective and understands her daughter's eagerness. She quietly agrees to secretly accompany Clemence during the shoot. Once there, the two are filmed dancing around and having fun. Neither realize that they will become special-effects victims by time production on the film ends and find themselves apparently dancing amongst men who but for the presence of small rubber sea creatures, would be buck naked.

The romanticized life story of lawyer and journalist Jules Ferry, who fought for the freedom of citizens.

In 1960, in a coastal town near to Nantes, Jean Ripoche lives with his wife Liliane, their four children and Liliane’s father Lucien. Jean divides his time between running his plumbing business and making a float for the Nantes carnival. The Ripoche’s ordered lives are thrown into turmoil when Jean’s former friend, Yvon Legualoudec, returns to the town – with his black wife Annabelle and their three children. Before he disappeared twenty years ago, without saying a word, Yvon was Jean’s rival for Liliane’s affections. As bitter memories resurface, the relationship between Jean, Yvon and Liliane become strained.

Joseph and Victor are two motorcyclists of the national police force and inseparable friends. If the first leads a tidy life with wife and child, the second, single, is always in search of a soul mate - And one day he finds her.

Robert Millard has based his industrial kingdom - based on all the noise technologies - thanks to his marriage with the wealthy and cantankerous Irene, he blithely cheat for years. However, his last link with his pretty secretary, Eve, is the straw that broke the camel : Irene has indeed hired a detective-photographer, aptly named M.Colle order to have a maximum of incriminating shots. Threatened to divorce and thus to total ruin by his wife, the unfaithful husband should give up and dismiss Eve.

The misadventures of four friends hired as Santa Claus.

In this comedy, Thomas and Stephane are a couple of gay men who want to raise a baby. When their efforts to adopt one fall through, they hit on the scheme of having Carole, the (gorgeous) young woman they have saved from a bad relationship, bear a child for them. When she insists that only natural reproduction methods be used, they gamely play good sports by going to bed with her, and become the father(s) of twins.

A visitor goes to an administrative service to obtain a domiciliation certificate. It is received by an employee, visibly refractory, who multiplies the requests for forms to put together the file...

In Paris, Anna unfortunately misses the last train to Clermont-Ferrand. Distraught and penniless, she asks a stranger for help. He eventually agrees to let the young woman call her parents from his home, unaware that an incredible evening awaits them...

Authentically painful study of an ill-matched couple's forlorn attempts to revive their relationship after a two-year break.

No synopsis available yet.

A car dealer, well-to-do and with a beautiful wife, finds himself attracted to his rather plain new temporary secretary. Despite her own commitments she feels the same and the two soon embark on an affair. Though it would seem it has happened before his wife finds this particular entanglement of her husband's very difficult to accept.

It is 1943 in Paris. Like so many others, the Bourbelle family's home has been taken over by the Germans and they now live in their cellar. Little do they know that the son, Guy-Hubert Bourdelle, is far from being the cowardly hairdresser he pretends. He is in truth the Germans’ most feared opponent: le super-résistant!

Cesar Cappucino is a French inspector of Italian origin specialized in the fight against drugs in Nice. His best friend have been assassinated by drug injection.

Doctor Valois has invented the "flashage", a cure for depressed people. After having tested it on monkeys, he tries with a first human patient, Alain Durieux. This is great success, everybody's happy except may be Alain's wife, Jeanne, who's worrying about the changes in Alain's personality. Other patients use the treatment with similar successes, and Valois's happy about it. But the monkeys are changing: non-cured ones are made mad by the over-stability and stereotyped behaviour of the cured ones. So are the humans. When Valois realises he can't stop the process, he decides to "flash" himself.