Stanislas Merhar

When Internal Affairs officer Stéphanie investigates a young man severely injured during a chaotic Paris demonstration and finds no police misconduct, the routine case hits close to home upon her discovering the victim is from her native town.

Caught in the crosshairs of police corruption and Marseille’s warring gangs, a loyal cop must protect his squad by taking matters into his own hands.

When French painter Pierre Bonnard met Marthe de Méligny, he didn’t know this self-proclaimed aristocrat would become the cornerstone of his life and work. From this moment, she became more than just a muse for the “painter of happiness”, appearing in more than a third of his work. Together, they reached their artistic fulfillment thanks to a colourful love, different from the standards of their time, nurturing the great mystery around their relationship. Based on a true story.

When police officer Ilias is shot and left in a coma, Alma must reconnect with her former identity as Badh, a ruthless intelligence operative and skilled assassin. She brutally eliminates members of the Khoury family one by one, unleashing the fury of their leader Mansour, only to discover that Mansour is working with Joana her former secret service unit officer.

A young, struggling actress lands her dream role in a film by an emerging Italian director, starring alongside an American superstar. What begins as her big breakthrough quickly turns into a living hell.

Frantz Fanon, a French psychiatrist from Martinique, has just been appointed head of department at the psychiatric hospital in Blida, Algeria. His methods contrast with those of the other doctors in a context of colonization. A biopic in the heart of the Algerian war where a fight is waged in the name of Humanity.

"Don Juan woman", according to the expression of Balzac. A princess, a great seductress. Of a diabolical intelligence. This woman, who has had many lovers— almost all the male characters of the "Comédie Humaine“— will finally find love. The real one. The great one.

Alice, a sociology researcher, and Volodymyr, a pianist, are going to have a child! They will call him Ulysses. Except that Ulysses, at one year old, doesn't fit the growth charts. Too small, too thin, and he still isn't walking. The verdict comes down: Ulysses won't be like the others. But how will he be?

A BFI video essay on Chantal Akerman's "La Captive" by writer and critic Cristina Álvarez López.

19-year-old Morgane puts her studies on hold and moves to Amsterdam to work as an Au Pair for a French family. Eager to stretch her wings and experience new things, the young girl throws herself into her new job taking care of two young children. But Morgane's parents are worried about their daughter's delicate health and the unforthcoming nature of her beguiling employers. The young girl is rattled by the uneasiness that reigns over the eerie house where the family lives, and soon discovers that their last Au Pair disappeared in strange circumstances. All alone in a foreign land and unable to speak the language, Morgane finds herself sinking into a trap. She'll have to fit together all the pieces of the puzzle fast, to save her own skin.

This is the story of an actor who trains, a man who remembers, a son who mourns. It is also the story of a book, and of a character who enters into it.

Several interconnected chapters follow a variety of Parisian couples navigating love, desire, and relationships. Isabelle, frustrated by a year of celibacy, rejects her friend Zoé’s offer to "borrow" her husband and instead impersonates their mutual friend Amélie, who cannot bring herself to sleep with her close friend Boris. Meanwhile, the lonely Achille is stunned when his alluring new neighbor appears at his door in a negligee, proposing an affair. Elsewhere, middle-aged Emmanuelle struggles with an overwhelming attraction to every handsome man she encounters, threatening her marriage, while a young couple wrestles with jealousy. Each chapter delves into the unpredictability of love with humor and poignancy.

Anne and Bob, a well-to-do American couple, have just moved to a beautiful manor house in romantic Paris. To impress their sophisticated friends, they decide to host a lavish dinner party, but must disguise their maid as a noblewoman to even out the number of guests. When the maid runs off with a wealthy guest, Anne must chase her around Paris to thwart the joyous and unexpected love affair.

Pierre and Manon are poor. They make documentaries with nothing and they live by doing odd jobs. Pierre meets a young intern, Elisabeth, and she becomes his mistress. But Pierre will not leave Manon for Elisabeth; he wants to keep both.

1934. Philippe falls in love with Odile, a beautiful stranger, and decides to marry her, against the will of his parents. They would have preferred a more bourgeois bride, ideally from their own milieu: the paper industry in Angoulême. Isabelle, for instance, whom they have known since she was a child, would have been the perfect match. But Philippe sticks to his choice and marries Odile. At first the newly-weds are passionately in love, and the whole family looks forward to the birth of an heir for the Marcenat family. But in vain. Instead, Odile neglects her marriage and devotes herself to drawing, a gift she inherited from her father. Or is her rekindled interest in art classes more the result of her encounter with the charming but mysterious artist François Crozant? Philippe sense that he's losing his wife and becomes madly jealous of François. Meanwhile Isabelle, who's secretly in love with Philippe, is just waiting for the right moment.

No synopsis available yet.

The story of the adventures, in the twilight of the eighteenth century, of a singular couple formed by a little orphan with mysterious origins and his young Italian nurse of a similarly uncertain birth. They lead us in their wake, from Rome to Paris, from Lisbon to London, from Parma to Venice. Always followed in the shadows, for obscure reasons, by a suspicious-looking Calabrian and a troubling cardinal, they make us explore the dark intrigues of the Vatican, the pangs of a fatal passion, a gruesome duel, banter at the court of Versailles and the convulsions of the French Revolution.

A famous English writer, Lewis Lafoly, forty and languidly elegant, meets Rosennn Auroch, a young and radiant woman on Bourbon Island in the Indian Ocean in 1909...

Two police officers investigate a murder in the middle on an endless winter in a small town.

In 1940s Malaysia, European merchant Kaspar Almayer is obsessed with finding a treasure to secure his daughter's future. His dreams fall victim to the pressure of his own greed, which becomes a torment. Compounding this is the oppressive English domination dominating the country – and that which brings ruin to the remote village where he lives.

In Brittany, a notary is killed with shots to the head. His wife Joséphine is a suspect. Her husband had just sold part of their property to two shady real estate developers who wanted to transform the little fishing village into an ultra-modern marina for wealthy clients.

The loss of youth and innocence can be played for comedy or tragedy. The stunning black-and-white cinematography and hypnotic electric guitar that fill "Left Foot Right Foot", as portentous as they are beautiful, are a pretty clear indication which side of the coin photographer Germinal Roaux intends to focus on in his first feature.

An 18-year-old beauty develops an attraction to an older photographer.

Ariane lives with Simon in his large Paris flat. Simon is obsessed with her: he wants to know everything about her, secretly follows her when she goes out, asks questions all the time, even in the most intimate moments. Ariane seems to take it all in stride, but Simon realises that she's hiding something.

In 1271, the Seventh Crusade has failed. During their retreat, the troops transport the remains of King Louis IX, the Holy King, across the peninsula. A world has ended, and five young people with nothing in common set out to find the location of the Holy Shroud, stolen by traitors at the French court. Their journey will take them from the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines to Thebes, where the sacred relic is hidden.

Three French hipsters and their translator travel through rural Georgia to claim a remote, ruined castle that one of them has inherited. En route, they encounter an old man and his grandchild who are on a journey to carry out a mysterious, morbid ritual designed to end a conflict between warring clans.

A gay young man is recruited into an illicit love triangle to watch a much older man’s sexual liaison, but ends up witnessing what turns out to be his murder. The next day the young man's opera diva mother informs him that his estranged father has been in Paris... until the previous night when he was murdered. Seeking help with a psychiatrist, the young man comes across an eccentric actress who has come totally unhinged by the death of that psychiatrist, the infamous Docteur Rey. At first mistaking her for the doctor, the young man embarks on a madcap mystery, reminiscent of an Agatha Christie novel, with Paris as the backdrop.

Professional pickpocket Franck Spadone and his co-horts rob a beautiful stripper (played by Monica Bellucci). But Spadone becomes infatuated with his victim, and soon finds himself in the midst of a gang war because of his affections for her.

Lucette and Edouard: Two lovers passionate about sex, money and life. He is a spoiled but penniless child who wants it all while she is a celebrated figure of la vie parisienne who knows what she wants and what she is worth. Edouard is marrying a young, pretty and rich heiress. He comes to confess this to Lucette and to make their parting official, but he doesn’t want to leave her. He struggles with all his might to hide his betrayal but her opportunities to learn of it are countless and unpredictable.

For months a strange phrase has been found scrawled on Paris sidewalks next to chalk circles containing odd objects. Policeman Adamsberg gets involved when a dead woman is found in one of the circles.

Set during the largely unexplored period immediately following World War II, the film follows a group of mostly Jewish Parisians who attempt to restart their lives and rekindle their capacity for happiness in the shadow of unspeakable horrors. Variety called it "thoroughly charming. Sad, gentle, and funny in the best French tradition of high quality cinema." A film by Marcelo Gomes

Milady De Winter, a beautiful femme fatale without scruples, plays with the feelings of her suitors. And sometimes very dangerously.

Stephane is a young urbanite. Though he originally hails from a rural environment, he much prefers his current metropolitan surroundings to the thought of returning to his family home. Fate comes knocking, however, when Stephane receives the news of his grandmother, Muetter's, impending death - and travels out to the country to be with her at her bedside. Once there, he encounters a sweet, pretty young lady named Marguerite, who is expecting a child but devotes the majority of her time to caring altruistically for Muetter. Upon discovering that the elderly woman's doctor has simply prescribed and administered morphine for her, Stephane is visibly upset, and devotes himself to doing as much as he can - everything from preparing a feast in celebration of Muetter to summoning another physician. Meanwhile, Stephane's cousin, Mathieu arrives and struggles with various feelings about Stephane's presence.

This is the story of writer Alberto's long journey to Stockholm, where the Nobel Prize awaits him, in a blazing Maserati. He is accompanied by Alessandro, a young journalist whose job is to interview him along the way. Personal and generational dynamics arise between the two men, leading to misunderstandings, jealousies, quarrels, separations, love quarrels and so on, but also to growth for both of them. A story full of twists and turns and always played on the edge of irony.

Twenty-year old Adolphe finds himself drawn irresistibly to Ellénore, a married woman who is ten years his senior. Although she initially repels her young suitor’s unwanted advances, Ellénore soon yields to his charms and the two embark on a passionate love affair.

After his wife leaves him, Fred goes on a cross-country crime spree in this dark but dreamy French comedy.

Haunted by the mysterious death of her son, found drowned, Anna returns to the town where he lived.

A bored couple takes in a young man who turns their lives inside out.

A well-bred, lovely, spiritual, sad young woman marries an attentive physician who loves her. She feels affection but no love. Soon after, without design, she falls in love with Pedro Abrunhosa, a poet and performance artist. He also loves her. She keeps her distance from him, confessing her love to a friend who is a nun and, later, to her husband. Hunger for her love and jealousy consume him; she attends him as he wastes away. With his death, she can marry and express her passion, but what she does and how she explains herself, particularly to her cloistered friend, is at the heart of the film. Glimpses of convent life and of Abrunhosa on stage give contrast and mute comment.

In a desert town, sometime in the future, a repressive government regime restricts all forms of artistic expression. At night, Theo breaks the law, risking torture and death, to paint his work on public spaces. But when his lover Elia is arrested for committing the same crime, Theo allows himself to be captured hoping to somehow be reunited with her.

Carmela is almost sixteen. She has just lost her mother and is suddenly sent to a boarding high school in Montpellier, the city of her paternal grandparents, after having spent her entire life in Spain. When the holidays arrive, she travels to Seville to see Luis again—an elderly Romani cantaor, her mother’s former partner and her lifelong accomplice. These reunions, the screening of a film they were never able to finish eight years earlier, and the upheavals of a minority which, in the age of technology, longs to integrate, abruptly sacrificing all the specific traits that had tirelessly shaped it until then, will entail—beyond the mourning of childhood—the realization of a paradise forever lost.