Antoine Chappey

Max is a battle-weary veteran of the wedding-planning racket. His latest — and last — gig is a hell of a fête, involving stuffy period costumes for the caterers, a vain, hyper- sensitive singer who thinks he's a Gallic James Brown, and a morose, micromanaging groom determined to make Max's night as miserable as possible. But what makes the affair too bitter to endure is that Max's colleague and ostensible girlfriend, Joisette, seems to have written him off, coolly going about her professional duties while openly flirting with a much younger server. It's going to be a very long night… especially once the groom's aerial serenade gets underway.

When a jaded actor meets a down-on-her-luck waitress in Paris, their unexpected love story begins — but will it survive the glare of the spotlight?

Commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, "To Each His Own Cinema" brought together 33 of the world's pre-eminent filmmakers to produce short pieces exploring the multifarious facets of cinema and their perspective on the state of their chosen artform in the early 21st century.

1943. They have never stepped foot on French soil but because France was at war, Said, Abdelkader, Messaoud and Yassir enlist in the French Army, along with 130,000 other “indigenous” soldiers, to liberate the “fatherland” from the Nazi enemy. Heroes that history has forgotten...

An Indian delegation, headed by Kuldip Badhwar, is going to Cateneau's French power plant to negotiate the purchase of four new generation nuclear reactors. Before signing the contract, the Indian representative requires guarantees on the safety of the installations and requests an emergency shutdown test of the reactor. But a succession of incidents occur and seem to turn to disaster.

Simone Veil's life story through the pivotal events of Twentieth Century. Her childhood, her political battles, her tragedies. An intimate and epic portrait of an extraordinary woman who eminently challenged and transformed her era defending a humanist message still keenly relevant today.

"The choice of each period is intimate, as each period awakens a particular emotion in me. This emotion reflects what is around me, not everyone is able to recognise it -- that is the risk I take. I think that this is good enough reason to make a film that will make visible small yet revealing things in differeent ways. I believe in tropisms and that is what interests me in this film." -- Marie Vermillard [taken from London Film Festival 2006 catalogue]

Beatrice, recently widowed by a far right sympathetic policeman, lives with her son & mother. She doesn’t like migrant and foreigners. When she meets Mokhtar, an Iranian entered illegally in France, her world crumbles. This is the beginning of a passionate love story leading Beatrice to defy her racist entourage and the law so that he can cross the Channel.

The comfortable daily routines of aging Parisian actor Gilbert Valence, 76, are suddenly shaken when he learns that his wife, daughter, and son-in-law have been killed in a car crash. Having to take care of his now-orphaned grandson, he struggles to go on with his lifelong acting career like he's used to. But the roles he is offered -- a flashy TV show and a hectic last-minute replacement in an English-language film of Joyce's Ulysses -- finally convince him that it's time to retire.

On a mission to loosen up, a miser's sets about buying a house in the country for his family.

As young French couple Gilles and Marion officially separate, we see, in reverse order, the milestone moments in their relationship: Gilles revealing his unfaithfulness at a tense dinner party; Marion giving birth to their premature son while Gilles is elsewhere; Gilles and Marion's joyous wedding; and, finally, the fateful moment when they meet as acquaintances at an Italian beach resort, and their love affair begins.

Juste wanders the streets of Paris looking for people only he can see. He collects their last memory before helping them into the afterlife. One day Agathe, a young woman, recognizes him. She belongs to his previous life. She is alive and he is a ghost. How will they manage to love each other and seize this second chance?

Matthieu and Eric are two brothers who work at the same factory as their father in Normandy. When his father is dismissed for smoking on the factory floor, Matthieu is incensed and tries to have him reinstated, in vain. His brother has just got married and, with a child and mortgage on the way, is reluctant to stir up trouble...

Drama about a father and son who set out to find their missing daughter/sister with the help of an American headhunter.

The ambiguous suicide of a local beauty, weathergirl, cheese model, and Marilyn Monroe look-a-like finds an eager sleuth in David Rousseau, best-selling crime novelist. When Rousseau visits a remote Alps village for the reading of his friend's will he unwittingly, but irresistibly, gets caught in the tangled web of murder and small town politics in this off-beat mystery.

When Chloe, a young Parisian, decides to take a long-overdue vacation, she has to find someone to look after Gris-Gris, her beloved cat. Everyone, including her gay male roommate, refuses to help her, but she finally makes an arrangement with the elderly Madame Renée, who often watches over other peoples' cats and dogs. However, when Chloe comes back, Madame Renée tells her that unfortunately the cat has been lost, and the unlucky owner goes on a search for her dear animal friend. While looking for the cat, she meets many colorful characters who populate the neighborhood.

Nicolas Lanson, a young stockbroker, lives a fast life of money and luxury until the day his high-risk initiatives cause the fall of the bank. He flees with a price on his head. On the run, Nicolas meets Charlotte, pregnant for a man who doesn't want her. Although Nicolas isn't her type, Charlotte seduces him once she discovers his identity. Little does Nicolas know, Charlotte is not leading them to see her brother, but an older lover who just happens to be a cop.

It is the moment of the first holiday departures, the weather is nice and warm. Leo, aged nine, is alone with his father, his mother has just died. He does not know what he is going to do, tomorrow, or later.

Michel and Juliette have just broken up over Michel's affair with the much younger Romance. Alice and Nicolas are still together, but maybe this is because Nicolas does not know of Alice's affair with handsome sports photographer Gaspard. This sly sex comedy, the sophomore effort of Belgian filmmaker Lucas Belvaux, follows the covert sexual misadventures of the troubled foursome.

Recently the victim of a car accident, Paul, a teacher, is no longer the same man. He no longer shows any interest in his environment and, even more worryingly, he seems to have become impervious to all feelings, all emotions. His wife, Marianne, and his mistress, Luisa, are of little more interest to him than his students, which is to say very little. Desperate, Luisa meets Marianne to try to understand.

This tale of childhood and adolescence is told through brief sequences that take place in the life of a modest family from the Pas-de-Calais region during the forties, fifties and sixties. Paul, the main character, who we meet when he’s 5, 13 and 18, is the throughline of this tale told in a fragmentary way well adapted to the scattered nature of memories.

A rookie policeman from provincial Le Havre volunteers for the high pressure Parisian homicide bureau and is assigned to a middle-aged woman detective.

After much hesitation, a gigolo decides to take a shot of a radical remedy to save his failing virility.

In the sixties, in a suburb near Paris, Martine wants to lose her virginity.

Murders in... is a collection of French-Belgian police TV movies taking place each time in a different French city and region.

While the world of wine mourns the death of Alexandre Léger, his estranged daughter, Camille, learns his extraordinary collection is now hers. But before she can claim her inheritance, Camille must best Alexandre's protégé, Issei, in a test of their senses.

Paris, 1871. This is a story of the women trapped in a luxury brothel, 'Paradise'. The very young Rose came to Paris in search of her mother, former prostitute. She is trapped and forced to enroll in Paradise. Vera is 35 years. She knows that the end of her career as a prostitute is near. She is betting everything on the Baron Du Plessis, her main client, and the only one able to redeem her debt. Hortense is the owner of Paradise. She must take care of her girls and resist pressure from a suburban thug who is charging her money.

In the middle of the 1970s, in the north of France, an explosion occurs in a mine. Three men and their secrets are buried there. Alma, Solana and Caroline have to fight for the honor of their fathers, take their destinies in hand, and emancipate themselves in a period of great social upheaval.

Denise, a telepath, lives in seclusion at her friend Joy's house to protect herself from people's thoughts. Her life takes a dramatic turn when her father comes knocking at her door.

At the crossroads of journalism and rave parties, two columnists take a look at the topics that have shaken up the news this year, from Ukraine to consumer deals, via yurts or Zidane.