Didier Decoin

Why did Simenon, a novelist who contributed so much to the seventh art, like to say that he hated the cinema? Because he could never become a director? Because, claustrophobic, he was unable to lock himself in a projection room? Clearly, there is an affair between the writer and the cinema and Georges Simenon is the main protagonist. An investigation that is more than ever topical as Patrice Leconte has announced his plan to adapt an investigation by the famous Inspector Maigret.

An interview of French film director Marcel Carné by Didier Decoin

A look back at ten years in the life of the French writer Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870). From financial straits to wealth, from glory to bankruptcy, the decade from 1842 to 1852 summarises his extravagant life filled with twists and turns, characterised by a compulsive creativity and extraordinary appetite for life. We follow Alexandre Dumas as he travels throughout Europe, from Florence to Montecristo, from Marseille to Saint-Germain-en-Laye and from Paris to Brussels. We meet the father of "The Three Musketeers" who, with his remarkable sense for action, took his inspiration from his own story to breathe life into his characters.

Documentary about the making of Marcel Carné's 1942 film.

In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shop keeper named Jakob is summoned to ghetto headquarters after being caught out after curfew. While waiting for the German Kommondant, Jakob overhears a German radio broadcast about Russian troop movements. Returned to the ghetto, the shopkeeper shares his information with a friend and then rumors fly that there is a secret radio within the ghetto.

Following the assassination of President Marc Jarry, a member of the investigation committee refuses to sign off on the committee's final findings.

In the harbor city of Le Havre, France, a woman is stabbed during the night, just below the windows of her neighborhood. Pierre (Yvan Attal) has witnessed the murder, and heard the wails of the women crying for help. So have the neighbors, certainly. But at the end, nobody called the police. Nevertheless, sorrows are too heavy for Pierre, which feel the needs to tell everything to his wife (Sophie Quinton), and to the police. During the investigation, it appears that 38 people witnessed the murdering, and none reacted...

Jean-Francois Abgrall, today the head of a private detective agency, was just a simple provincial gendarme back in 1989 when he was assigned to investigate a murder on a beach. Instead, his investigation put him on the trial of one of France's most terrifying serial killers, Francis Heaulme, who for eight years wandered the country committing some of the most brutal murders in the annals of modern crime. This is the true story of that manhunt, a tale of terror, suspense and determination.

Forty-year-old Joanne Guiberry runs a modest hairdressing salon in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. Twice a year, at each solstice, she brightens up her rather dull life by meeting up with her lover. Twice a year, on the other side of the sea, on the banks of the immense St. Lawrence River, three hundred thousand snow geese land with a thunderous roar for a few weeks of feasting during their migration. Like a bridge between the time of the solstices and the time of the birds, there is Manon, a twenty-year-old student, and Louise, a large, wounded goose. Louise and Manon, each in their own way, will experience love and give Joanne a new lease on freedom.

Horty, a French foundry worker, wins a contest and is sent to see the sailing of the Titanic. In England, Marie, saying she is a chambermaid on the Titanic and cannot get a room, asks to share his room. They do, chastely; when he awakens, she is gone, but he sees her at the sailing and gets a photo of her. When he returns home, he suspects that his wife Zoe has been sleeping with Simeon, the foundry owner. Horty goes to the bar, where his friends get him drunk and he starts telling an erotic fantasy of what happened with him and Marie, drawing a larger audience each night.

The story of Pierre Brossolette, who was a talented student, journalist and a defender of human rights.

The girlfriend of an associate of a gangland boss, is persuaded by a police detective to inform about her lover's associates.

In the 17th century, under Louis XIII, the policy of Cardinal de Richelieu aimed at the definitive establishment of a monarchic power, and gave rise to a struggle against the great feudal lords, who favored a weak central power. Numerous conspiracies against the Cardinal were led by the high nobility. The one led by Henri Coiffier de Ruzé d'Effiat, marquis de Cinq-Mars, was the last and most famous of them.

A mother discovers that her 14-year-old daughter Yumi has leukemia and only six months to live. She decides to keep the information secret and pushes her past tutor Akira, now a university student, to reconnect with her.

Paul Berthier, an ambitious public prosecutor, is witness to the accidental drowning of a young girl in the Charente but does nothing to help. It starts to look like the girl was murdered, and the case lands on Berthier's desk. Suspicion turns to Guillaume Vauban, the rich son of a local industrialist and ex-boyfriend of the dead girl. Paul Berthier finds himself entangled in a web of lies as he opens the case against Guillaume, who has now been arrested. With a conscience far from clear, Berthier agrees with the judge's decision to remand the young man in custody. Through cowardice Berthier clings to his reputation, determined to save face at any cost. Drunk with judicial power, he's caught in a downward spiral.

This is the sprawling saga of Honoré de Balzac, a man who created a great literary oeuvre from the dramas and adventures of his own life - a life that he shaped into one spectacular and unforgettable blaze of passion. At the heart of the story are the women in Balzac's life. Although gruff, unsophisticated, and far from handsome, Balzac exerts an irresistible fascination on women.

Doctor Fournier arrives in Beirut as the civil war is raging. He finds himself with a colleague working in a hospital controlled by a Shiite militia and treating the injured. Driven by his doctor’s oath, he crosses the demarcation line to treat Christian casualties of the ongoing clashes. This causes Muslims in his neighborhood to brand him a traitor. He is kidnapped to be exchanged for a fighter captured by Christian militiamen. The film is part of the TV series *Médecins des hommes *(*Doctors of men*). It was considered the best movie in the series.

The Basilica of Monreale, near Palermo in Sicily acts as subject and springboard of Carné's final film; Its hundreds of gorgeous and intricate tiled mosaics vividly depict scenes from the Bible. Kinetic camerawork and dramatic narration of each scene compliment these stunning pieces in order to retell the Holy Book's age-old Story.

In a small French village, an angel appears disguised as a beautiful young blond.

In a small French village, an angel appears disguised as a beautiful young blond.

Louis XIV, the French sun-king has two passions, establishing absolute rule over the realm -after decades of religious/civil wars- by divine right and artistic brilliancy as a dancer

Alice is the widow of a Jewish surgeon who helps the former diplomat Jerome smuggle Jews out of Austria to save them from the Nazis. The duo recruits Charles, a shoe manufacturer whose uncle is a Nazi sympathizer in the Vichy government. Charles and Alice become lovers when they are picked up in Paris by Nazi soldiers on a curfew violation.

Patrick Perrault, a photo-journalist covering the war in Beirut in the late 1980s, is himself caught up in the hostilities when one day he is picked up and bundled into a car at gun-point. Blind-folded, he is taken to an unknown location where he discovers that he is being taken hostage by Lebanese guerrillas.

Two boys in their early teens in a strictly-run pre-WWII Catholic School form a firm friendship which is troubled by an abbot who is obsessed with the younger of the students.

A French army journalist bears witness to the atrocities of the Algerian war in 1962 in this gripping French war movie. It is based on the 1967 novel by Philippe Labro. The film begins in Paris as Jerome Carier, ready to embark to Algiers, is beaten and questioned about the politically sensitive photographs he has. The photos were sent to him by Francois, a friend stationed in Algiers. Francoise is trying to get the French and the Algerians to reconcile. Jerome arrives in the war-torn country and finds himself faced with unbelievable carnage. The French are behind most of it. Because he took the pictures, Francois life is in jeopardy. He is murdered and Jerome finds himself attracted to his girl friend, a radio station announcer. The film contains graphic pictures of the slaughter.

Claire (Laure Marsac) is a 16-year-old young woman who discovers her father Pierre (Bernard Giraudeau) is not a healing physician but a killer with a bloody war record in the Lebanese conflict. She runs away from home and into the arms of Kamal (Michal Albertini). While Pierre stalks two terrorists, Claire and Kamal are violently confronted by Kamal's abandoned wife and family. The ravages of the conflict extend to those who are never participants in the battle but are among the casualties of war.

Students of the prestigious dance school are dying under mysterious circumstances. Inspector Michel Eparvier suggests that the cause of death for women is physical exhaustion for dance lessons as their teacher Wolf brings the girls to exhaustion, making them to practice the technique of movement over and over again.

Students of the prestigious dance school are dying under mysterious circumstances. Inspector Michel Eparvier suggests that the cause of death for women is physical exhaustion for dance lessons as their teacher Wolf brings the girls to exhaustion, making them to practice the technique of movement over and over again.