Whirlpool of Fate
Jean Renoir’s directional debut and first silent film stars his wife, Catherine Hessling, as a young girl who manages to turn her tragic family life into one of joy and…
Life Is Ours
A propaganda film of the communist party of France, showing how the comrades help the proletariat against the capitalists.
The Lower Depths
Inhabitants of a flophouse struggle to survive under the harsh treatment imposed by the landlord, Kostyleva. One resident, young thief Wasska Pepel, ends his affair with the landlord’s wife, Vassilissa,…
The Little Match Girl
An impoverished girl tries to sell matches on NYE. Shivering with cold and unable to sell her wares, she sits in a sheltered nook. Striking a match to keep warm,…
The Doctor’s Horrible Experiment
Dr. Cordelier, living in a suburb of Paris, withdraws from society to pursue research into the functioning of the human brain. His lifelong friend, Maître Joly, becomes concerned when Cordelier…
Boudu Saved from Drowning
Michel Simon gives one of the most memorable performances in screen history as Boudu, a Parisian tramp who takes a suicidal plunge into the Seine and is rescued by a…
Elena and Her Men
Set amid the military maneuvers and Quatorze Juillet carnivals of turn-of-the-century France, Jean Renoir’s delirious romantic comedy Elena and her Men stars a radiant Ingrid Bergman as a beautiful, but…
The Elusive Corporal
The story serves as a companion piece to Renoir’s 1937 film, Grand Illusion, once more bringing together men from across the broad social spectrum of French society to depict one…
Nana
A government official, Count Muffat, falls under the spell of Nana, a young actress. She becomes his mistress, living in the sumptuous apartment which he provides for her. Instead of…
Toni
In the 1920s, the Provence is a magnet for immigrants seeking work in the quarries or in the agriculture. Many mingle with locals and settle down permanently – like Toni,…
La Chienne
Cashier Maurice Legrand is married to Adele, a terror. By chance, he meets Lucienne, “Lulu”, and make her his mistress. He thinks he finally met love, but Lulu is nothing…
Picnic on the Grass
Etienne Alexis, a candidate for president of the new Europe, is a scientist promoting artificial insemination for social betterment and therapy to eliminate passion. To celebrate his engagement to a…
The Golden Coach
A viceroy, a nobleman and a bullfighter court a comedy-troupe actress in 16th-century Peru.
The Rules of the Game
A weekend at a marquis’ country château lays bare some ugly truths about a group of haut bourgeois acquaintances.
The Crime of Monsieur Lange
A man and a woman arrive in a cafe-hotel near the belgian frontier. The customers recognize the man from the police’s description. His name is Amedee Lange, he murdered Batala…
Grand Illusion
A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World…
On purge bébé
A little boy won’t go to the bathroom, which leads to all sorts of complications for his parents and their friends.
The Woman on the Beach
A Coast Guardsman suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress becomes involved with a beautiful and enigmatic seductress married to a blind painter.
This Land Is Mine
Somewhere in Europe, in a city occupied by the Nazis, a gentle school teacher finds himself torn between collaboration and resistance, cowardice and courage.
The Diary of a Chambermaid
Celestine, the chamber-maid, has a new job in the country, at the Lanlaires. She has decided to use her beauty to seduce a wealthy man, but Mr. Lanlaire is not…
The Southerner
Sam Tucker, a cotton picker, in search of a better future for his family, decides to grow his own cotton crop. In the first year, the Tuckers battle disease, a…
The River
Director Jean Renoir’s entrancing first color feature—shot entirely on location in India—is a visual tour de force. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden, the film eloquently contrasts the growing…
La Marseillaise
A film about the early part of the French Revolution, shown from the eyes of the citizens of Marseille, counts in German exile and, of course, the king Louis XVI,…
French Cancan
Nineteenth-century Paris comes vibrantly alive in Jean Renoir’s exhilarating tale of the opening of the world-renowned Moulin Rouge. Jean Gabin plays the wily impresario Danglard, who makes the cancan all…