Amélie is a 2001 French-language romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre. It tells the story of Amélie Poulain, played by Audrey Tautou, a shy and quirky waitress who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better while dealing with her own isolation. The film features an ensemble cast of supporting roles, including Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Lorella Cravotta, Serge Merlin, Jamel Debbouze, Claire Maurier, Clotilde Mollet, Isabelle Nanty, Dominique Pinon, Artus de Penguern, Yolande Moreau, Urbain Cancelier, and Maurice Bénichou.
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter.
Suzanne Valadon was a French painter who was born Marie-Clémentine Valadon at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. She was also the mother of painter Maurice Utrillo.
Naomi Ellen Watts is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama For Love Alone (1986). She appeared in three television series, Hey Dad..! (1990), Brides of Christ (1991), and Home and Away (1991), and the film Flirting (1991). Ten years later, Watts moved to the United States, where she initially struggled as an actress. She took roles in small-scale films until she starred in her breakthrough role as an aspiring actress in David Lynch's psychological thriller Mulholland Drive in 2001.
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French artist and humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment.
Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza was the consort of the Orléanist pretender to the French throne, Henri, Count of Paris, and the daughter of Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, pretender to the throne of the Empire of Brazil.
Jacques Henri Lartigue was a French photographer and painter, known for his photographs of automobile races, planes and female Parisian fashion models.
Marie-José Benhalassa, known professionally as Marie-José Nat, was a French actress. Among her notable works in cinema were the sequel films Anatomy of a Marriage: My Days with Jean-Marc and Anatomy of a Marriage: My Days with Françoise (1963), directed by André Cayatte. In 1974, she received a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film Violins at the Ball.
Because modern Belgium is a multilingual country, Belgian literature is often treated as a branch of French literature or Dutch literature. Some writing also exists in the regional languages of Belgium, with published works in both the Walloon language, closely related to French, and also in various regional Flemish or Dutch-related dialects.
The Balkan Princess is a musical in three acts by Frederick Lonsdale and Frank Curzon, with lyrics by Paul Rubens and Arthur Wimperis, and music by Paul Rubens. It opened at London's Prince of Wales Theatre on 19 February 1910. The cast included Isabel Jay and Bertram Wallis. There was a successful Broadway run in 1911 that used a libretto by Leonard Liebling, and the show toured widely thereafter.
The Ballets Suédois was a predominantly Swedish dance ensemble based in Paris that, under the direction of Rolf de Maré (1888–1964), performed throughout Europe and the United States between 1920 and 1925, rightfully earning the reputation as a "synthesis of modern art".
Events from the year 1908 in France.
Events from the year 1936 in France.
Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma was a French Prince, businessman, soldier and racing car driver, who was a member of the deposed sovereign royal and ducal House of Bourbon-Parma.
Le Divorce is a 1997 novel by American author Diane Johnson. In 2003, it was adapted into a film of the same name starring Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts. The novel is a comedy of manners detailing the relationship between the American Walker family and the French Persands and how the two families cope when they learn that there is to be a divorce in the family.
The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest is the main art museum in the city of Brest, Brittany, France, housing French and Italian old masters as well as more modern art. It and most of the city were destroyed by Allied bombing during the Second World War and the building and its collections both had to be recreated in the post-war period,making it what one author has called "the largest collection [of old masters] to have been formed in France since 1945". The museum building was completed in 1968 and is typical of Brest's functional post-war architecture.
Maria is a Canadian comedy-drama film, directed by Alec Pronovost and released in 2021. The film stars Mariana Mazza as Maria, an aimless young woman who takes a job as a substitute teacher in a high school after promising her dying mother that she will make an effort to accomplish something in her life, despite her lack of education in how to teach students.
Patricia and Jean-Baptiste is a Canadian comedy-drama film, directed by Jean Pierre Lefebvre and released in 1968. The film stars Lefebvre as Jean-Baptiste, a factory worker who is directed by his employer to take Patricia, a woman who has recently emigrated from France to take a job as secretary at the factory, on a tour of Montreal, during which he both develops a romantic interest in Patricia and transforms his own dismissive view of the city.
The Case Against X is a 1952 French crime thriller film directed by Richard Pottier and starring Yves Deniaud, Elina Labourdette and Yves Vincent. It was shot at the Saint-Maurice Studios in Paris and on location in the city. The film's sets were designed by the art director Lucien Carré.
Blue Sky Jo is a Canadian comedy-drama film, directed by Patrice Sauvé and released in 2024. Adapted from Marie-Renée Lavoie's 2010 novel La petite et le vieux, the film stars Juliette Bharucha as Hélène, a young girl in the blue-collar Limoilou neighbourhood of Quebec City who befriends her elderly neighbour Roger.
