A king (wealthy thanks to his banker donkey) falls in love with his daughter because he’d promised his dying wife that he would only marry a woman more beautiful than she was…
Thanks to the tricks and ploys of her godmother, the Lilac Fairy, his daughter resists his advances. She demands extraordinary dresses and then hides beneath a donkey’s hide. In the end, she marries a prince.

With: Catherine Deneuve, Jean Marais, Delphine Seyrig, Jacques Perrin, Micheline Presle, Fernand Ledoux, Henri Crémieux, Sacha Pitoeff, Jean Servais.

Short clip from Peau d’âne:

Celebrated filmmaker Agnès Varda (CLEO FROM 5 TO 7) turns the camera on herself for this autobiographical documentary. While roaming the beach, the beatific 80-year-old revisits her past–including memories of fellow Left Bank directors Jacques Demy (later her husband), Alain Resnais, and Chris Marker. Incorporating clips from Varda’s work, animation, and photographs, the film plays like a fond scrapbook of a life well lived.

With: Agnès Varda, André Lubrano, Blaise Fournier, Vincent Fournier, Andrée Vilar, Stéphane Vilar, Christophe Vilar, Rosalie Varda, Mathieu Demy.

Trailer for the movie Les plages d’Agnès:

At the peak of the French New Wave in 1961, one of the most beloved French directors, Jacques Demy, made this film—a prequel to his masterpiece Umbrellas of Cherbourg. The reappearance of a beautiful woman from a young man’s past brings a swirl of nostalgia, regret, romantic hope and melancholy, a rich emotional palette that became trademark for Demy.

With: Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel, Jacques Harden, Alan Scott, Elina Labourdette, Margo Lion, Annie Duperoux, Catherine Lutz.

Opening credits for the movie Lola:

Jeanne lives in a house in the suburbs with her mother Louise. The two women get on well together. Louise earns her living by looking after children. Jeanne is half-heartedly looking for a job.
One day, while checking job offers on the Internet, Louise believes that fate has come knocking at her door.
She harbours the hope of getting her daughter a job with Samuel Bleistein, a famous lawyer whom she knew in her youth.
Jeanne’s and Bleistein’s worlds are light years apart. However, they’ll be set on a collision course because of an incredible lie that Jeanne puts together.
The film is a story of this lie that will become the biggest news and political story of recent times.

With: Émilie Dequenne, Michel Blanc, Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Demy, Ronit Elkabetz, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Jérémie Quaegebeur, Djibril Pavadé, Alain Cauchi.

Trailer for the movie La fille du RER:

Twenty-year-old Manu arrives in Paris looking for work. He settles into his sister’s place. Julie is studying to be an opera singer and makes an effort to keep a distance between herself and her invasive brother. Manu often goes out at night, frequenting singles clubs. He meets Adrien, a gay doctor in his fifties. Extroverted and cultivated, Adrien introduces Manu to a whole new lifestyle. During a boat outing with Adrien, Manu meets a young, married couple, Mehdi and Sarah. Mehdi is a cop, Sarah is a writer. The happiness of this atypical couple seems to be emphasized by the birth of their child. But things aren’t quite what they seem. Manu’s arrival in Paris and his intrusion into the lives of Julie, Adrien, Mehdi, and Sarah will shake up the emotional lay of the land like an earthquake. Without wanting to, without knowing it, Manu causes everyone to reveal their true desires.

With: Michel Blanc, Emmanuelle Béart, Sami Bouajila, Julie Depardieu, Johan Libéreau, Constance Dollé, Lorenzo Balducci, Alain Cauchi.

Trailer for the movie Les témoins:

Antoine, a wealthy construction engineer, arrives in Tangiers to oversee a job, and to find his first love that he’s still in love with after over 30-years. When they meet, he discovers that she is married, to Nathan, a Moroccan doctor, and has a son, Sami. The latter has just flown in from Paris with his girlfriend Nadia and her young son, although he is more preoccupied with looking up his former boyfriend, Bilal. In spite of Cécile’s insistence that their affair is long dead and buried, Antoine is determined to win her back.

With: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Gilbert Melki, Malik Zidi, Lubna Azabal, Tanya Lopert, Nabila Baraka, Idir Elomri, Nadem Rachati.

Trailer for the movie Les temps qui changent:

June 1940. German troops are advancing on Paris. Odile, a widowed teacher, succumbs to the widespread panic and, with her two children, joins the exodus from the city. Philippe is on the cusp of adolescence, Little Cathy knows only that they are going South. After fifty kilometers, a German plane attacks, decimating the helpless refugees. Odile and her children lose everything. A shaven-headed youth appears from nowhere and leads them away from the carnage. His name is Yvan, he’s seventeen years old. Cut off from the rest of the world and living in confined quarters, Odile and Yvan find themselves confronted with their own desires.

With: Emmanuelle Béart, Gaspard Ulliel, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Clémence Meyer, Samuel Labarthe, Jean Fornerod, Eric Kreikenmayer, Nicholas Mead.

Trailer for the movie Les égarés:

Wild Reeds is set in 1962, the year in which the independance of Algeria was confirmed by the Evian Treaty. An intricate web of sexual and political tensions unexpectedly unites four young people as they each struggle for independance and maturity. Among the four is the sensitive, borgeois Francois, who is coming to terms with his sexuality and finds he is attracted to the rather butch, working class Serge.

With: Élodie Bouchez, Gaël Morel, Stéphane Rideau, Frédéric Gorny, Michèle Moretti, Jacques Nolot, Eric Kreikenmayer, Nathalie Vignes.

Trailer for the movie Les roseaux sauvages:

Ma saison préférée is a movie cowritten and directed by André Téchiné in 1993. The picture earned seven nominations for the French Academy Awards and was nominated for the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film concentrates on the obstacles faced by a maturing family over the course of four seasons in Toulouse, France. Emilie’s (Catherine Deneuve) mother has suffered from a stroke and can’t live alone on the family farm anymore. She lives now with Emilie and her family but doesn’t feel comfortable. Emilie decides to contact her own brother Antoine (Daniel Auteuil) with whom she hasn’t had any relations for two years. Familial conflict is brought to the foreground after the mother moves in with Emilie and her family, and her uncomfortable presence draws attention to Emilie’s unhappiness and Antoine’s instability. Emilie and Antoine relive their youthful intimacy as they cling to each other for support.

With: Catherine Deneuve, Daniel Auteuil, Marthe Villalonga, Jean-Pierre Bouvier, Chiara Mastroianni, Carmen Chaplin, Anthony Prada, Michèle Moretti.

Trailer for the movie Ma saison préférée:

J’embrasse pas is a French movie co-written and directed by André Téchiné in 1991. This film earned three nominations for the French Academy awards but only Manuel Blanc won the award in the “Most Promising Actor” actor.

Pierre, 18 years old, leaves his hometown in order to come to Paris and become an actor. A gay TV producer (Noiret) wants to help him as well as Evelyne, a fifty years old woman with whom Pierre spends a few nights. In the end, he has to accept that there is only one way he can make money. Rejecting the friendly support of an ageing gay man, he becomes a male prostitute. But one day, he meets Ingrid (E. Béart), a prostitute working for Christophe Bernard, and they fall in love.

With: Philippe Noiret, Emmanuelle Béart, Manuel Blanc, Hélène Vincent, Ivan Desny, Christophe Bernard, Roschdy Zem, Raphaëline Goupilleau.

Trailer for the movie J’embrasse pas: