Copra Films

Not just another documentary on the French resistance movement, this film focuses on one particular group of underground fighters in France: those from Eastern Europe. Many were Jews and all had fled their native countries before the war broke out. They were among the most staunch and fearless enemies of fascism, as shown here in personal interviews and memoirs of war-time experiences. But the most famous of these immigrants were 23 who were rounded up among several hundred Parisians in 1943, tried for their activities, and executed -- all were immigrants under the leadership of the Armenian poet Manouchian. After their execution, Paris was papered with posters decrying these 23 martyrs as "foreign communists."

Starting as an investigation, the film begins with the discovery of a murdered young woman. Gradually we go back in time to realize that this crime is altogether the logical continuation of a philosophy of life where neither sex nor death are taboo, and where a lust for pushing limits meets it ultimate conclusion.

Absent-minded yet cultured, Pierre answers his parents demands to wed by ignoring both astronomy and the housemaid, instead falling head-over-heels for rich damsels.

Fragments of a text by Jean Genet – “Four Hours in Chatila” – are illustrated by summer images of a park in Brussels. The contrast between what is seen and what is said attempts to stop, to break the flow of information which tends to neutralize horror.

In this documentary by Coline Serreau, known for her feature film Why Not?, a selection of Frenchwomen in characteristically no-win situations discuss what they are experiencing and answer, if only by implication, the question: "What do women want?"

He had died in 1955 after a long solitary life and was completely forgotten... Until in 1962 Bertrand Collin du Bocage and Georges Martin du Nord bought a collection of forty canvases signed with a stylized 'K' monogram at the Paris flea market. Thus a genius was rediscovered. Indeed after some research work the two men found out that 'K' stood for Kalmakoff.