Frédérique Meininger

The Lover

The Mother

A poor French teenage girl engages in an illicit affair with a wealthy Chinese heir in 1920s Saigon. For the first time in her young life she has control, and she wields it deftly over her besotted lover throughout a series of clandestine meetings and torrid encounters.

Spoiled Children

Successful writer/director Bernard Rougerie is at a creative dead end and decides to isolate himself from his wife in order to complete the script for his next film. Bernard moves into an apartment building whose tenants are in the midst of a revolt against their abusive landlord. Reluctant at first, he joins their cause and then becomes involved in an affair with young, unemployed resident Anne.

'Round Midnight

la mère de Francis

Inside the Blue Note nightclub one night in 1959 Paris, an aged, ailing jazzman coaxes an eloquent wail from his tenor sax. Outside, a young Parisian too broke to buy a glass of wine strains to hear those notes. Soon they will form a friendship that sparks a final burst of genius.

Flic Story

Mado

The film story depicts Emile Buisson, following the death of his wife and child, escaping from a psychiatric institution in 1947 and returning to Paris. Buisson, who three years later would become France's public enemy number one, begins a murderous rampage through the French capital.

A Thousand Billion Dollars

Concierge

A young journalist uncovers an assassination disguised as a suicide, linked to an American multinational seeking to dominate French industries. Determined to expose the truth, he races against time to gather evidence before more lives—and his own—are at stake.

The Madman

Simone

George is a middle-aged man who lives with his disabled wife. He faces dire financial straits after an investment firm wipes out his life savings and forces him into early retirement. Consequently, he becomes increasingly disillusioned and desperate, which ultimately drives him to the brink of insanity.

Bon vent Claude Goretta

Self

Claude Goretta directed “L'invitation” in 1973. For filmmaker Lionel Baier, born in 1975, it is like a “travelling companion”, to adapt Serge Daney’s expression. He feels it is definitive proof that a Swiss can be deeply Chekhovian. The young filmmaker goes to Geneva to ask his elder how he achieved the whoosh of water effect in the film, why attention to detail matters so much, and how to film great actors such as François Simon. This encounter with Claude Goretta – but also with Isabelle Huppert, Nathalie Baye, Michel Robin and Frédérique Meininger – leads one of the greatest of Swiss filmmakers to open up about his work.

The Suspended Vocation

Mère Angélique 2

The film centers on a Dominican monk named Jérôme (played by one actor in colour and another actor in black-and-white) and his interactions with various higher-ups within the French Catholic Church. Ruiz's intention was to reflect the ideological arguments that plagued Latin American left-wing political parties.

Life and Nothing But

Mrs. Lebègue

In 1920, Major Dellaplane, a man of honor and ethics, searches for missing French soldiers. He meets Madame Irène de Courtil, a politically connected Parisian, and their paths cross.

Cocktail Molotov

Doctor

"Cocktail Molotov" is the story of the adventures of this threesome, who reach Venice only to learn of the outbreak of the May 1968 disturbances at home. Once again, Anne, Frederic and Bruno realize that the important things of their time are happening somewhere where they are not. Swindled out of their car and virtually broke, they hitchhike back to Paris, hoping to arrive in time for some of the excitement.

Lettres de Stalingrad

Nurse

This film is based on actual letters German soldiers sent home from the siege of Leningrad during World War II. The litany of trouble these poor grunts endured is lamentable. One complains of returning home an invalid. An SS man has bad dreams about the Russian tank-driver he killed. Another complains when he sits down to hear a piano recital and one of the musicians has frozen fingers. Another soldier swears he will never forgive his father for injuries he suffered in the invasion of Leningrad. Stock footage of wars from World War II to Vietnam are inserted and give an ironic tinge to the feature.

Jean-Luc Persécuté

Christine

Jean-Luc, mountain farmer, married Christine. She accepted this marriage because the man she loved, Augustin, left. Jean-Luc knows this but he hopes that the birth of a child will allow them to live together possible. Unfortunately, daily life between work in the fields and Sunday mass destroys their understanding. After Augustin's return, Christine becomes his mistress and Jean-Luc discovers it. He chases Christine away and remains alone with their child but the latter drowns shortly after in a pond. Refusing to believe in the death of his son, Jean-Luc descends into madness. When a few years later, he sees Christine again with Augustin's child, out of jealousy, he kills the mother and the child, before killing himself.

Blindfold

Monique

No description available

Fou comme l'oiseau

Marie Louvran

No description available

An arrangement

Françoise

Alphonse Dutilleux, a Paris Shoemaker, closes shop and makes his way to the Bois de Boulogne, the male pick-up and prostitution scene. His wife and his son are waiting for him for dinner...