Monique Mélinand

What does ‘normal’ actually mean? And what is ‘crazy’? Everybody attempts to convince Léa that her mother, Suzanne, is mentally ill. Her father wants to see her returned to the psychiatric clinic, but Léa refuses to see her mother in the same light: Suzanne is happy – even if she doesn’t act like others expect her to. She appears to live a joyfully infantile existence after calmly letting go of life’s pressures. Léa captures her mother’s life on film and focuses her attention on examining the old super-8 films from the family archives. When she is left to drive her mother back to the clinic after a weekend at home, Léa grabs her opportunity: She turns the car around and whisks Suzanne off on a journey; a road trip without the judgements of others. AVANTI follows a mother-daughter relationship with an ease and depth that highlights the complexity of the emotional ties within a family.

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Avril is a novice in a convent of "Baptistine" sisters, a monastic order which was officially dissolved by the end of the nineteenth century but that is kept alive by Mère Marie Joseph, the sadistic superior. While Avril is on retreat, locked in for a fortnight in a chapel prior to taking her vows, Soeur Bernadette, a sympathetic sister, discloses a secret to her: she has a twin brother...

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A clever little girl convinces her grandfather to visit her grandmother, whom she has never met.

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Drama set in the Second World War, focused on Jean Moulin, hero, martyr and symbol of the French resistance and the patriotism during the dark years of Nazi occupation.

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Drama set in the Second World War, focused on Jean Moulin, hero, martyr and symbol of the French resistance and the patriotism during the dark years of Nazi occupation.

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At a wake one night in 1945, a group of aged women recall the life of one of their number. Sixty years before, Thérèse was barely 20 years old when she eloped with her boyfriend, Firmin, a blacksmith, to Châtillon, a town in Provence. Here, she makes the acquaintance of the wealthy Madame Numance, who is known for her good deeds. Realising that Thérèse is pregnant and unemployed, Madame Numance insists that she moves into a house on her estate. Whilst Firmin resents the arrangement, Thérèse soon finds that she can exploit the situation, using her benefactor's naivety and generosity for her own gain..

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In early 1920s France, an author, lying on his deathbed, looks at various photographs and is flooded with memories of the people and events that have shaped his life.

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In this French-Portuguese film -- directed by Jacques Rivette's screenplay collaborator Christine Laurent -- French vocalist Laure Constant (Laurence Cote) goes to Montevideo, Uruguay, to see her old lover Colossus (Jose Olivera), but when he's a no-show, she becomes involved with several other men, while listening to advice from some older French women who are costume designers. Shown at the 1997 Locarno Film Festival.

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An attorney defends a young man on trial for killing his aunt — a psychiatrist who took him in to study possible homicidal tendencies.

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Four intertwining stories of bizarre occurrences in Paris featuring a man who was stolen away by fairies, a professor who becomes a tramp, the lovers who inherit a chateau – and the last tale that connects all that has gone before.

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Jeanne has succeeded in lifting the siege of Orléans and Charles has been crowned King of France. However, she is injured in an attempt to take Paris, weakening her position at court. Captured by the enemy and put on trial, she finds both her life and the sanctity of her body at stake.

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Jacques asks a public writer to compose love letters for a beautiful stranger that he pretends he has just met.

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Soriba Samb is a Senegalese who has just received a much sought after internship to study filmmaking in Paris. Soriba heads to Paris, accompanied by the five-year old son of a friend who he believes to be still living in Paris. On arrival he struggles to find the boy’s father. In addition to coping with his new internship, Soriba has to also spend time tracking down the boy’s father ‘Issa’.

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In French Algeria, after WWII, three daughters of wealthy settlers begin their adult lives. Zon marries an often absent sailor. Malene's husband, Gildas, refuses to work in the farm, so she has to take care of everything. Gritte, the youngest, does not want to marry and is a nurse for the natives. We will follow their three different destinies.

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The story of revolutionary woman Manon Roland.

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The young teacher Marelle goes in search of her husband who mysteriously disappeared while attending the funeral of a childhood friend.

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A woman tries to come to terms with the death of her son, who was killed by a hospital error.

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A troubled young woman who lives alone in a rundown house meanders around and one day reveals a hidden talent when she goes into a bar, plays magnificently at the piano, and leaves as mysteriously as she came. Meanwhile, an unidentified man is on her trail and eventually tracks her down to the bar she had visited. As the dragnet around her closes in, it becomes apparent that the young woman's stepmother is behind the effort to locate her. But questions over why she is hiding out and what she is hiding from begin to take on more importance as the history of the young woman starts to surface.

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Françoise has gone into business seducing men whose wives want to divorce them, and who need incriminating evidence against them. In addition, she has a little blackmail operation going on on the side with politicians who can't afford a scandal. She got started on this business after she was raped, and hasn't looked back since. Now the police are on her trail, and she avails herself of the services of a couple who make a profession of hiding wanted criminals. At the hideout, she meets Simon, a second-generation mobster. As the police close in, Françoise and Simon go on the run together, pulling off occasional heists for operating money. Before long, they have also fallen in love.

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A couple deal with their problems like any other, while actors read Friedrich Engels' "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State", and in interviews, the director discusses the status of women in 1978.

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Family mother and model wife, Agnes hits a vehicle while driving in Paris. She immediately falls in love with the driver of the damaged car.

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Gabriel Axel's penetrating study of the aftermath of a crime. Bernard and Catherine lead a quiet life in retirement, enjoying their occasional sorties to the theatre or the cinema. One night, coming home on the Metro, they are jostled and jeered by a group of young hooligans who follow them out on to the street. Catherine dies. And Bernard, left alone, begins to question all the values he had previously taken for granted.

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Pierre Lentier murders an 8-year-old in horrendous circumstances. This 30-something solitary factory worker who lives on the edge of society is sentenced to death. A damning indictment of the death penalty and the manipulative behaviour of the media.

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15-year old schoolboy Denis and the nun Clotilde fall in love with each other. During the war the two of them take shelter at an abandoned farm and live happily together until the locals start to become suspicious.

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Dr. Brézé and his sons, all surgeons with limited abilities fight any competition on their sector with all means.

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Monique is dying of cancer, lying in bed in the apartment above the store her family owns. Her philandering husband carries on with life, her son remains aloof, and her daughter-in-law wonders if she is witnessing her own decline. They all struggle to express, or feel, their love for one another.

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Julien Dandieu, leader of the socialist political party PRU is asked to be part of the new conservative government as minister of foreign affairs. However his reputation is somewhat tarnished by his adulterous relationship with Creezy, a fashion model seen on every magazine cover. Ready to sacrifice his family for his career, he is eventually faced with the ultimate choice: his career ambitions or a lifetime with his beautiful girlfriend, who has recently mysteriously disappeared.

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Hellé is a young deaf-mute living among the mountains. She’s ignored by everyone except, now and then, the local woodsmen, who use her for their pleasure. She has no education, no knowledge of right or wrong. One summer, a young man comes to spend the holidays in her village.

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Professor Marcilly is a famed brain specialist who, following in-depth and extended research work, is now able to perform brain transplant surgery. One day, he finds himself in the presence of a young car accident victim for whom the only hope of survival would be a brain transplant. Marcilly, who has a heart condition and is terminally ill, decides to become the "donor". The operation is a success. But who is actually the patient discharged from the hospital: a young fellow with the brain of a young man or an old man in the body of a young one?

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Story of a marginal couple, César and Favouille, who set out to find their youngest daughter, who run away from home.

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It starts with the discovery of a woman's corpse, then gradually reveals the past of this woman as well as the police investigation which follows the discovery.

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Alain Revent, a seductive and refined man, derives a peculiar satisfaction from debasing his wives. The first, driven to the brink of despair, throws herself out of a window. Enlisting the help of an equally perverse casual acquaintance, Dino, the "handsome brute" proceeds to emotionally torture his second wife, Nathalie. The sadistic plan is picked up on by Officer Leroy who suspects the truth. Will he be able to snatch the unfortunate woman from the evil Alain's clutches?

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Alfred Mullanet, an unlucky player who lives on his wife's income, becomes in a few moments the object of interest of two thugs, Kruger and Mister K.

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A love story between a teacher, Danièle, 32 years and one of her students Gérard, 17 during the heated atmosphere of May 68. Danièle is a fiery young woman, very involved politically. Gérard's parents accuse Danièle of statutory rape and complain. Danièle is trapped and the drama begins...

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Dany Longo is red-haired, beautiful, disturbed, passionate--and nearsighted. As she speeds through the south of France in a purloined Thunderbird on an errand for her employer and his wife, no one, including Dany herself, knows where she is headed--or why she is going there.

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