Willie Dynamite is a 1973 American blaxploitation film directed by Gilbert Moses and starring Roscoe Orman, Diana Sands, Thalmus Rasulala, Joyce Walker, and was released by Universal Pictures. The eponymous Willie Dynamite is a pimp in New York City, who strives to be number one in the city. As he is trying to do so, a social worker named Cora, is trying to change his ways - as well as those of the women who work for him - for the better. It was the first film produced by the Zanuck-Brown Company.
Charlotte Gray is a 2001 drama film directed by Gillian Armstrong. The screenplay was adapted from Sebastian Faulks' 1999 novel Charlotte Gray. It is set in Vichy France during World War II. The film stars Cate Blanchett, James Fleet, Abigail Cruttenden, Rupert Penry-Jones, Michael Gambon and Billy Crudup.
Pickpocket is a 1959 French film written and directed by Robert Bresson. It stars Martin LaSalle, in his feature film debut, in the title role, and features Marika Green, Pierre Leymarie, and Jean Pélégri in supporting roles. It features a pickpocket who is drawn to crime, despite the intercession of his family, his friends, and even an empathetic policeman.
The Bride Wore Black is a 1968 French drama thriller film directed by François Truffaut and based on the novel of the same name by William Irish, a pseudonym for Cornell Woolrich. It stars Jeanne Moreau, Charles Denner, Alexandra Stewart, Michel Bouquet, Michael Lonsdale, Claude Rich and Jean-Claude Brialy. Hitchcock admirer Truffaut used Bernard Herrmann to score the film. The costumes were by Pierre Cardin.
Chaos is a 2001 French drama film written and directed by Coline Serreau. It was Serreau's ninth film, about a Parisian woman who befriends an Algerian prostitute after witnessing an accident, changing both their lives.
Irène Némirovsky was a novelist of Ukrainian Jewish origin who was born in Kiev, then in the Russian Empire. She lived more than half her life in France and wrote in French, but was denied French nationality. Arrested as a Jew under the racial laws – which did not take into account her conversion to Roman Catholicism – she was murdered in Auschwitz at the age of 39. Némirovsky is best known for the posthumously published Suite française.
The Vel' d'Hiv' Roundup was a mass arrest of Jewish families in Paris on 16–17 July 1942 by French police and gendarmes at the behest of the German authorities. The roundup was one of several aimed at eradicating the Jewish population in France, in both the occupied zone and the free zone, that took place in 1942 as part of Opération Vent printanier. Planned by René Bousquet, Louis Darquier de Pellepoix, Theodor Dannecker and Helmut Knochen, it was the largest deportation of Jews from France.
Love is Colder Than Death is a 1969 West German black-and-white film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, his first feature film. In the original theater presentation in Berlin the title was first Kälter als der Tod; at the beginning of film production, it was Liebe – kälter als der Tod as on some film posters. The cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann and the cast as an ensemble won an award at the German Film Awards in 1970.
This Man Must Die, also titled Killer! in the UK, is a 1969 French–Italian psychological thriller film directed by Claude Chabrol. It is based on the 1938 novel The Beast Must Die by Cecil Day-Lewis, writing as Nicholas Blake. The story follows a widower who, obsessed with revenge after his only son is killed in a hit-and-run incident, tracks down the driver with the intent to kill him.
François "Lydro" Spirito was a French gangster. He was one of the leaders of the French Connection, and inspired the film Borsalino, which featured Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Mesrine is a two-part 2008 French biographical crime film on the life of French gangster Jacques Mesrine, directed by Jean-François Richet and written by Abdel Raouf Dafri and Richet. The first part, Mesrine: Killer Instinct, was based on Mesrine's autobiographical book L'instinct de mort, while the second part, Mesrine: Public Enemy Number One, detailed Mesrine's criminal career. The film has earned comparisons to the American film Scarface, and Vincent Cassel earned rave reviews for his portrayal of Mesrine.
Neige is a 1981 French drama film directed by Juliet Berto and Jean-Henri Roger. It was entered into the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Young Cinema Award.
The Round Up is a 2010 French historical war drama film written and directed by Roselyne Bosch and produced by Alain Goldman. The film stars Mélanie Laurent, Jean Reno, Sylvie Testud and Gad Elmaleh. Based on the true story of a young Jewish boy, the film depicts the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, the mass arrest of Jews by French police who were accomplices of Nazi Germans in Paris in July 1942.
The Girl on the Train is a 2009 French drama film directed by André Téchiné, starring Emilie Dequenne, Catherine Deneuve and Michel Blanc. The plot centers on an aimless girl who lies about being the victim of a hate crime.
Le Diable et les Dix Commandements is a French film from 1962 directed by Julien Duvivier that consists of seven sketches played by an ensemble cast that includes Michel Simon, Micheline Presle, Françoise Arnoul, Mel Ferrer, Charles Aznavour, Lino Ventura, Fernandel, Alain Delon, Danielle Darrieux, Jean-Claude Brialy, and Louis de Funès.
Deborah Lifchitz was a French-Jewish expert on Semitic languages of Ethiopia, who worked at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris and took part in the Mission Dakar Djibouti in 1932-3. The Nazis imprisoned her in 1942; she was murdered in Auschwitz.
Last Known Address is a 1970 French-Italian film directed by José Giovanni. This movie is based on the eponymous novel The Last Known Address by Joseph Harrington.
Les Fugitifs is a French 1986 action comedy film, directed by Francis Veber. It was remade in 1989 as Three Fugitives, also directed by Veber.
The Mona Lisa Has Been Stolen is a 1966 French comedy film directed by Michel Deville.
Rosette "Rose" Wolczak was a Jewish child murdered in the Holocaust. Born in France in 1928, she came to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1943 as a refugee, and was expelled for what the Swiss authorities ruled to be indecent behavior. She was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she was gassed upon her arrival in November 1943.
