Bernard-Henri Lévy

Directing

Bernard-Henri Lévy

Born 1948-11-05 · Béni Saf, Oran, French Algeria

Bernard-Henri Lévy is French. Often referred to in France simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the "Nouveaux Philosophes" movement in 1976. In 2015.

Acting credits

Our War poster
8.0

Between February and April 2025, filmmakers Bernard-Henri Lévy and Marc Roussel filmed the Pokrovsk and Soumy fronts in eastern Ukraine, following the fighters of the Anne de Kyiv Brigade, armed by France. They filmed the daily lives of the inhabitants, bombarded by Russian forces terrorizing civilians on the eve of possible negotiations. They interview President Zelenskyy, who is reluctant to travel to Washington, and then watch the rebroadcast of the meeting with Ukrainian soldiers in a bunker. For the real heroes are the anonymous fighters and civilians who hold their heads high in the face of adversity and suffering, and who are filmed on a daily basis. The final part of Lévy’s “Ukrainian Quartet”, Our War is a diary, peppered with flashbacks in which the author recalls the high points of this war that began in 2014.

Our War

2025

Going and Coming Back poster
6.5

Salomé Lerner just finished writing an autobiography. She goes to a TV show called "Apostrophes", hosted by French TV showman Bernard Pivot. Pivot then imagines a film that could be created from her gripping story. A film entirely made of music because after seeing the young pianist Erik Berchot, Salomé believes seeing her long lost brother, who was a musician as well. A brother she had lost along with her parents in 1943. However, the Lerners did in fact escape the gestapo and might have based themselves in Paris...

Going and Coming Back

1985

Peshmerga poster
5.7

From July to December 2015, with a camera team in tow, Bernard-Henri Lévy journeyed 1,000 km along the frontline separating Iraqi Kurdistan from Islamic State troops. The journey resulted in an illustrated logbook offering a special insight into an unfinished war with a global impact. Alongside the Peshmergas – Kurdish fighters imbued with a spirit of unfailing determination in their fight against obscurantism and jihadism, the film takes us from the heights of Mosul to the heart of the Sinjar mountains, passing the last Christian monasteries threatened with destruction along the way. A tale peopled by real characters, men and women whose faces are rarely seen...

Peshmerga

2016

Slava Ukraini poster
6.9

One year after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy takes us to the heart of the combat through this war diary made during the second half of 2022. From Kharkiv and Bakhmut to Kherson, in the aftermath of the city’s liberation, this documentary bears witness to the ravages of war through the testimonies of soldiers, chronicles of the front and portraits of civilians, and shares with us the struggle of the Ukrainian people.

Slava Ukraini

2023

Princesse Europe poster
NR

During the 2019 European election campaign, Bernard-Henri Levy sets out to save Europe by travelling across the continent with a play written and performed by him. The film follows the relentless defender of the EU along the roads of some 20 intertwined countries, but also goes out of the theatres to meet situations and faces. The black and white aplomb of the character BHL underlines, in contrast, the colourful dress of Princess Europe, whose frail fabric is woven of unevenly distributed wealth, memories of war and promises of struggle.

Princesse Europe

2020

No artwork available
4.3

The carnage in Sarajevo provides the focus of this French documentary which seeks to call attention to the terrible conflict in the hopes of finally ending it. The film is divided into five parts. Each part covers a time frame ranging from April 4, 1992, the beginning of the war, to the present. The major issues that occur are three-fold. It depicts the systematic genocide of Bosnians, the silence of Western countries, and the determination of the Bosnians to resist. They refuse to be seen as victims, even though the filmmakers portray them so. Also included are the origins and political aspects of the war. It offers interviews with participants. It also reveals how the U.S. State Department censored reports about Serbian death camps.

Bosnia!

1994

Les Glucksmann, une histoire de famille poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Les Glucksmann, une histoire de famille

2026

Franca: Chaos and Creation poster
7.4

Director Francesco Carrozzini creates an intimate portrait of his mother, Franca Sozzani, the legendary editor-in-chief of Italian Vogue. From the ridiculous to the sublime, her astonishing but often controversial magazine covers have not only broken the rules but also set the high bar for fashion, art and commerce over the past 25 years. From the legendary “Black Issue" and the “Plastic Surgery issue" Sozzani remains deeply committed to exploring subject matter off limits to most in order to shake up the status quo and occasionally redefine the concept of beauty.

Franca: Chaos and Creation

2016

Alain Delon, l'ombre au tableau poster
6.7

A childhood in boarding school, volunteered at 17 for the war and dismissed for indiscipline, thug in Marseille turned gigolo in Paris, he became actor thanks to some inspired women. Then flying high, fast and far, thanks to his director masters René Clément, Luchino Visconti & Jean-Pierre Melville.

Alain Delon, l'ombre au tableau

2019

Le président et le dictateur poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Le président et le dictateur

2015

Milan Kundera: From the Joke to Insignificance poster
5.9

The brilliant Czech writer Milan Kundera has not given an interview in thirty years; nor does he appear in public. How did he become a legendary author? What is so unique about his books?

Milan Kundera: From the Joke to Insignificance

2021

Les vendredis d'Apostrophes poster
6.0

Hours and historical meetings, Pierre Assouline has composed an anthology of the best extracts presented in the form of a primer, which he had commented on by a surprised Bernard Pivot.

Les vendredis d'Apostrophes

2015

Autopsie d'un Massacre poster
NR

13 years after the release of BHL's "The Day and the Night", a film recognized as the worst film of all time, two journalists look back on the reception of the film at the time of its release

Autopsie d'un Massacre

2010

Serbia, Year Zero poster
4.7

Documentary that follows events after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, while looking back on the previous fifteen years, tracing his rise to power. Personal testimony alternates with analysis of a disintegrating society.

Serbia, Year Zero

2001

Jean-Paul Sartre - A 20 Year Absence? poster
8.0

This historic documentary highlights the basis of Jean-Paul Sartre's thoughts in all its forms: novel, theater, philosophy, political commitments. Surrounded by Claude Lanzmann, Michel Contat, JB Pontalis, Jean Toussaint Desanti and Bernard Henri Levy, Sartre expresses himself at length in this rare film. Features rare on-camera interview film footage of Sartre giving his thoughts on the following subjects: Sartre on Philosophy Sartre on Intellectualism Sartre on Literature Sartre on the Theater Sartre on Literary Activism Sartre on Discussions Sartre on his novel, "Nausea" Sartre on the Review, "Les Temps Modernes"

Jean-Paul Sartre - A 20 Year Absence?

No artwork available
NR

A mental journey - historical, political, musical and metaphysical - in contemporary times, from the Sixties until nowadays.

Stupor Mundi: Livre 2, Les Hommes qui mangèrent la montagne

2016

Democrazy poster
1.0

Francesco Vezzoli once wrote that "Washington, D.C. is like the Hollywood of worldwide politics." In "Democrazy," a diptych of films that explore presidential public relations with two campaign advertisements, Vezzoli casts actress Sharon Stone and French public intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy as Republican and Democratic candidates named Patricia Hill and Patrick Hill.

Democrazy

2007

Benny Lévy, la révolution impossible poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Benny Lévy, la révolution impossible

2008

Behind the camera

Ma mère poster
4.5

After his father's death, a young man is introduced to a world of hedonism and depravity by his amoral mother.

Ma mère

2004

The Battle of Mosul poster
NR

In October of 2016 the battle for Mosul, the Islamic State's self-proclaimed capital in northern Iraq, began. With unprecedented access, Bernard-Henri Lévy and his team follow the Kurdish units and the Iraqi special Golden Division. From street to street, they fight together to regain this city of two million inhabitants. Though successful, the hopes of the Kurdish fighters might not always align with those of their allies.

The Battle of Mosul

2017

Our War poster
8.0

Between February and April 2025, filmmakers Bernard-Henri Lévy and Marc Roussel filmed the Pokrovsk and Soumy fronts in eastern Ukraine, following the fighters of the Anne de Kyiv Brigade, armed by France. They filmed the daily lives of the inhabitants, bombarded by Russian forces terrorizing civilians on the eve of possible negotiations. They interview President Zelenskyy, who is reluctant to travel to Washington, and then watch the rebroadcast of the meeting with Ukrainian soldiers in a bunker. For the real heroes are the anonymous fighters and civilians who hold their heads high in the face of adversity and suffering, and who are filmed on a daily basis. The final part of Lévy’s “Ukrainian Quartet”, Our War is a diary, peppered with flashbacks in which the author recalls the high points of this war that began in 2014.

Our War

2025

Peshmerga poster
5.7

From July to December 2015, with a camera team in tow, Bernard-Henri Lévy journeyed 1,000 km along the frontline separating Iraqi Kurdistan from Islamic State troops. The journey resulted in an illustrated logbook offering a special insight into an unfinished war with a global impact. Alongside the Peshmergas – Kurdish fighters imbued with a spirit of unfailing determination in their fight against obscurantism and jihadism, the film takes us from the heights of Mosul to the heart of the Sinjar mountains, passing the last Christian monasteries threatened with destruction along the way. A tale peopled by real characters, men and women whose faces are rarely seen...

Peshmerga

2016

Slava Ukraini poster
6.9

One year after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy takes us to the heart of the combat through this war diary made during the second half of 2022. From Kharkiv and Bakhmut to Kherson, in the aftermath of the city’s liberation, this documentary bears witness to the ravages of war through the testimonies of soldiers, chronicles of the front and portraits of civilians, and shares with us the struggle of the Ukrainian people.

Slava Ukraini

2023

No artwork available
4.3

The carnage in Sarajevo provides the focus of this French documentary which seeks to call attention to the terrible conflict in the hopes of finally ending it. The film is divided into five parts. Each part covers a time frame ranging from April 4, 1992, the beginning of the war, to the present. The major issues that occur are three-fold. It depicts the systematic genocide of Bosnians, the silence of Western countries, and the determination of the Bosnians to resist. They refuse to be seen as victims, even though the filmmakers portray them so. Also included are the origins and political aspects of the war. It offers interviews with participants. It also reveals how the U.S. State Department censored reports about Serbian death camps.

Bosnia!

1994

No artwork available
4.3

The carnage in Sarajevo provides the focus of this French documentary which seeks to call attention to the terrible conflict in the hopes of finally ending it. The film is divided into five parts. Each part covers a time frame ranging from April 4, 1992, the beginning of the war, to the present. The major issues that occur are three-fold. It depicts the systematic genocide of Bosnians, the silence of Western countries, and the determination of the Bosnians to resist. They refuse to be seen as victims, even though the filmmakers portray them so. Also included are the origins and political aspects of the war. It offers interviews with participants. It also reveals how the U.S. State Department censored reports about Serbian death camps.

Bosnia!

1994

Glory to the Heroes poster
8.0

An eye-opening documentary capturing Ukrainian soldiers in trenches and civilians facing ongoing destruction by invading Russian military forces.

Glory to the Heroes

2023

Why Ukraine? poster
8.0

Close to the ground, from the front line to the civil resistance, Bernard-Henri Lévy films the war in Ukraine and urges Europe to act. A poignant immersion that sounds like a call for help, in the name of democracy.

Why Ukraine?

2022

The Will to See poster
9.0

An old-time war reporter, philosopher and writer, BernardHenri Lévy is sent by a group of newspapers (Paris Match, La Repubblica, The Wall Street Journal, Der Stern, and others) to bear witness and report from places in the world where suffering and misery is at its peak: where wars are going on under our noses, the world’s fate is being determined, and no one, it seems, is paying attention. An unflinching look at the most urgent humanitarian crises around the globe.

The Will to See

2021

Day and Night poster
2.3

Ten years ago, distinguished French author Alexandre (Alain Delon) exchanged his stressful, hectic life in Paris for a more peaceful existence upon a Mexican hacienda with his wife Ariane (Marianne Denicourt). Lucien (Jean-Pierre Kalfon) also accompanies them. There, Alexandre meets the strange lady-oracle Sonia (Lauren Bacall). As the film opens, the melancholy Alexandre is visited by the sensuous actress Laure (Arielle Dombasle) and her producer Raoul Fillipi (Karl Zero) who is going to make a movie of one of Alexandre's best-loved books. Laure is determined to play the part of the heroine and is willing to resort to seduction to get it. At the same time, Ariane is involved in a passionate affair with French-Mexican seismologist Carlo (Xavier Beauvois). While all of these characters wrangle and tangle with their different agendas, the local residents prepare for a violent revolution. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Day and Night

1997

Day and Night poster
2.3

Ten years ago, distinguished French author Alexandre (Alain Delon) exchanged his stressful, hectic life in Paris for a more peaceful existence upon a Mexican hacienda with his wife Ariane (Marianne Denicourt). Lucien (Jean-Pierre Kalfon) also accompanies them. There, Alexandre meets the strange lady-oracle Sonia (Lauren Bacall). As the film opens, the melancholy Alexandre is visited by the sensuous actress Laure (Arielle Dombasle) and her producer Raoul Fillipi (Karl Zero) who is going to make a movie of one of Alexandre's best-loved books. Laure is determined to play the part of the heroine and is willing to resort to seduction to get it. At the same time, Ariane is involved in a passionate affair with French-Mexican seismologist Carlo (Xavier Beauvois). While all of these characters wrangle and tangle with their different agendas, the local residents prepare for a violent revolution. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Day and Night

1997

The Oath of Tobruk poster
5.5

The war in Libya as seen from the inside: both on the scene and as discussed by world politicians. After thirty years of chasing wars and conflicts, Bernard-Henri Lévy takes us along for a journey reminiscent of Malraux and Hemingway, though retaining a style all his own. Six-months of exceptional dramaturgy. Six months of a war for freedom, resulting in the fall of one of the longest, most relentless dictatorships of modern times. A war with a beginning but perhaps no end. The making of a war.

The Oath of Tobruk

2012

The Oath of Tobruk poster
5.5

The war in Libya as seen from the inside: both on the scene and as discussed by world politicians. After thirty years of chasing wars and conflicts, Bernard-Henri Lévy takes us along for a journey reminiscent of Malraux and Hemingway, though retaining a style all his own. Six-months of exceptional dramaturgy. Six months of a war for freedom, resulting in the fall of one of the longest, most relentless dictatorships of modern times. A war with a beginning but perhaps no end. The making of a war.

The Oath of Tobruk

2012