André Wilms

Aki Kaurismäki returns to France with this sun-kissed utopian parable. One of his most politically resonant films, Le Havre echoes The Man Without a Past’s ruminations on community and resilience, albeit this time (via a hat tip to Carl Dreyer’s Ordet) with a nod to the vagaries of the divine.

An intimate portrait of a woman drifting between reality and denial when she's left to grapple with the consequences of her husband's imprisonment.

Three struggling artists try to make passable livings in Paris despite knock backs and tragedies.

A former sex addict working as a marriage counselor becomes smitten by his sex-obsessed assistant while he desperately tries to put love first.

In 1930s Paris, an actress famous for her gory death scenes at the Grand Guignol Theater contends with a mysterious stalker and ghosts from her past.

An outrageously wicked comedy about two families from award winning debut filmmaker Étienne Chatiliez, this fast-paced satire became the most popular French comedy of the decade. The radiantly bourgeois Le Quesnoys with their immaculate children and perfect manners and the grubby, disreputable Groseilles are thrown together in absurd chaos by an act of revenge as they discover that twelve years prior their babies were switched at birth. A witty send up of class relations and family ties, 'Life Is a Long Quiet River' was celebrated with a host of trophies at France's César Awards ceremony winning for best screenplay, best debut work and acting prizes for Hélène Vincent and Catherine Jacob.

A young Parisian couple with Polish-Jewish roots makes their first trip to their ancestral homeland with very different outlooks and expectations.

Following the death of his mother, Martin (Mathieu Demy) travels to California to settle her estate. When the heartfelt recollections of family friend Linda (Geraldine Chaplin) challenge his own negative memories of his mother, Martin finds himself searching for the truth behind not only her forgotten past, but also his own. An old photograph of his mother with a pretty Mexican girl sets off Martin’s journey south of the border in a red Mustang, determined to find the woman who may unravel the mystery behind his mother’s enigmatic life. Ending up in a dingy Tijuana sex club, Martin meets a broken down stripper named Lola (Salma Hayek), who holds the secret of Martin’s past - and the key to his future. From writer/director Demy comes a heartbreaking tale of lost family, found memories, and owning up to the choices that ultimately define a life.