2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle 2 or 3 things I know about her. The Godard collection . 1996. 1 videocassette (84 min.). Goddard satirizes society's 1960s transformations and celebrates the cinema's power to challenge, enrich, and condemn. Juliette, a bourgeois housewife, is a loving wife and mother whose domestic moments alternate with her days and nights as a call girl. VHS 4645

3 hommes et un couffin 3 men and a cradle. 1987. 1 videocassette (100 min.). Life will never be the same again for womanizing roommates Pierre, Jacques and Michel when a basket bearing a small infant - presumably the by-product of one Jacques' passion plays - suddenly arrives on their doorstep. Film remade in U.S. as "Three men and a baby.". VHS 2182

4 aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle Four adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle. Great directors. 1991. 1 videocassette (95 min.). A sophisticated variation on the country mouse/city mouse theme, the film centers on the relationship between two young women, one naive and one sophisticated, who meet by accident and then decide to share a flat together in Paris where they will attend the university. VHS 4501

L.627. 1994. 1 videocassette (145 min.). Using the French anti-drug statute L.627 as its title and collaborating with a fifteen-year veteran of the Paris police, Tavernier tells the story of Lulu, a quietly dedicated narcotics cop who becomes part of a small, ill-equipped, but spirited drug squad often taking the law into their own hands. In his private life Lulu is torn between his loyal wife and his mistress who is an addicted hooker. VHS 6059

À bout de souffle Breathless. 1997. 1 videocassette (90 min.). A playful car thief accidentally shoots a policeman, then hides out in Paris with a hip American girl, trying to hustle enough cash for a getaway. VHS 6514

Abel Gance's La roue Wheels of fate. 199. 1 videocassette (130 min.). "A tragic story of the wheel of fate, told with the romantic energy of Victor Hugo and the impact of Euripdes"--Container. VHS 6512

L' Age d'or The Golden age. 1990? 1 videocassette (62 min.). Surrealistic film that is a biting satire on how religion and bourgeois morality thwarts the expression of physical love. Story concerns two lovers who declare war on a bourgeois society intent on thwarting the fulfilment of their desire. VHS 4299

Alphaville une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution. The Criterion collection: Criterion collection (DVD videodiscs). 1998. 1 videodisc (99 min.). Secret agent Lemmy Caution travels to another galaxy and finds himself in a computer-run society which is dedicated to technology and outlaws emotion. DVD 136

Alphaville une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution = Alphaville : the strange adventure of Lemmy Caution. 198. 1 videocassette (ca. 100 min.). In this exciting blend of crime thriller and sci-fi drama, tough American secret agent Lemmy Caution is sent in 1984 from Earth across the galaxy to Alphaville to destroy Alpha 60, the supercomputer that runs Alphaville. Alphaville is a dictatorial state governed by a totalitarian system in which the individual counts for almost nothing, and an alienated society has no use for art, poetry, love, or even thought. People are reduced essentially to the level of robots. VHS 209

Les amants The lovers. The Louis Malle collection. 1992. 1 videocassette (89 min.). Landmark film of both modern French cinema and screen eroticism that was prosecuted in the U.S. for obscenity as Malle evokes sexuality and presents a guiltless treatment of adultery. Moreau portrays a provincial wife whose shallow life changes overnight when she meets an unpretentious young man (Bory) and they enjoy an amorous night together. VHS 4883

An American in Paris. 1999. 1 videodisc (114 min.). Presents the romantic adventures of a carefree young artist in post-WWII Paris. VDD 182

L'Amour, l'apres-midi Chloe in the afternoon . Eric Rohmer collection. 1995. 1 videocassette (98 min.). A successful young executive, living in the suburbs with his new, pregnant wife, finds himself more attracted to the other women he meets in the city. He spends tantalizing afternoons with his temperamental opposite, a bohemian drifter named Chloe, flirting with temptation until the fateful day Chloe confesses that despite her many affairs, he's the only man she loves. VHS 4688

André Techiné après la nouvelle vague = André Techiné : after the new wave. Cinema de notre temps: Eclairage. 1995. 1 videocassette (50 min.). "French director André Techiné identifies and discusses the fundamental opposition in his work: his own childhood in southwestern France, and the big city and its disillusions with provincial France.  Techiné choses scenes from two of his films to represent this universe: the exit from the movie theater in Souvenirs d'en France, which the filmmaker calls his period of stylization, and the communion meal in Lieu du crime, where he approaches the life of the actors."--Container. VHS 4934

Angèle. 1988. 1 videocassette (132 min.). Story about a beautiful but simple farmer's daughter (Orane Demazis) who, despite her angelic name is seduced by a slick pimp form Marseilles and follows him to the city.  Saturnin (Fernandel) the loyal farm hand visits Angèle and finds her in a brothel with an illegitimate child in her arms and brings her back to the farm.  Her father locks her up in a barn but she is freed by a noble peasant who could not forget Angèle's beauty and innocence. VHS 6029

L'Annee derniere a Marienbad Last year at Marienbad. 1990. 1 videocassette (90 min.). Introduces Resnais' unconventional editing techniques. In a vast old-fashioned hotet, the idle rich indulge in chic games. Accompanied by man who may be her husband or lover, a woman meets a stranger who claims they had an affair the year before, "perhaps at Marienbad," but she claims no memory of him. He persists in filling her mind with images that gradually become real, or seem to become real. Time, locales and clothing continually change as her heart struggles to choose between an unremembered past, an impossible present and an unknown future. VHS 2036

L'année dernière à Marienbad Last year at Marienbad. World class cinema collection. 1999. 1 videodisc (94 min.). "A handsome stranger tries to convince a lovely young woman that they had a passionate affair a year ago "perhaps at Marienbad", but she claims not to remember him.  He haunts her mind with images by mixing memory and fantasy, fear and desire."--Container. DVD 135

Antoine et Antoinette. 1998. 1 videocassette (78 min.). Romantic comedy of working class life in postwar France. Antoine and his beautiful wife Antoinette lead a passionate but querulous life together. She is a flirt and he is a jealous hot head. To make things worse, Antoine loses a winning lottery ticket that looked like the key to a better life. VHS 6790

L'Argent de poche Small change. 1990. 1 videocassette (105 min.). A poetic comedy about a group of children as they experience life from early childhood to adolescence. Truffaut explores the range of emotions from humour and fantasy to the serious side of life in this exploration of feelings. DVD 1683, HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 2442

L'Argent Money. Great directors. 1993. 1 videocassette (82 min.). Film seeks to expose the greed and corruption of the well off who ignore the effect of their uncaring attitude on the poor. A middle class boy's parents refuse to lend him money, so a friend gives him a counterfeit 500-franc bill. When the shopkeeper passes the bill on to an unsuspecting delivery man, Yvon, he is arrested and jailed. Although he is eventually acquitted, Yvon loses his job and becomes trapped in a disastrous spiral of theft, imprisonment and murder. VHS 5733

Ascenseur pour l'échafaud Elevator to the gallows. The Louis Malle collection. 1991. 1 videocassette (87 min.). Malle's feature film debut. Love and fear produce death and deceit in this murder drama in which two lovers (Maurice Ronet as Julien Tavernier and Jeanne Moreau as Florence Carala) conspire to kill her husband and make it look like suicide. Tavernier's getaway car is stolen and when the thieves commit their own murders, Tavernier is charged with them. VHS 4882

L'Atalante. 1982? 1 videocassette (82 min.). Study of married life set in the frustrating confines of a barge.  The bride is bored and craves the excitement of Paris. An eccentric barge hand, Père Jules, brings them back together. VHS 45

L'Atalante. 1996. 1 videocassette (82 min.). A restless wife of a young barge captain sneaks off to see Paris and is abandoned by her jealous husband. The couple each suffer during the separation, but find each other and happiness once again. VHS 45

Au revoir les enfants Goodbye, children. 1989. 1 videocassette (103 min.). Based on the director's life, this film chronicles Malle's experiences during the German occupation of France in World War II. Julien is 12 years old, and the smartest boy in his class at boarding school when a new student appears. The two form a friendship even though Julien senses that there is something different about his new friend. VHS 804

Avant garde and experimental films. 1980. 1 videocassette (74 min.). Un chien andalou: A surrealistic film composed of bizarre and grotesque scenes. Based upon the theories of surrealist artist André Breton, this film was meant to have a dreamlike irrationality. Regen: A study of rain in Amsterdam. Uberfall: Story of a man who wins a dice game and is subsequently robbed by a prostitute and beaten up by a thug. Noted for unusual angles of photography and use of distorting mirrors to depict victim's thoughts. Hearts of age: Made by Welles at the age of 19, film was intended as a parody of the surrealist movement.  Welles appears as the figure of death. Ballet mécanique : One of the most influential experimental works in the history of cinema, the film demonstrates Leger's concern with the mechanical world. Repetition, movement and multiple imagery combine to animate and lend an aesthetic view to the clockwork structure of everyday life. VHS 5278

Avant garde shorts subjects from France. 1987? 1 videocassette (ca. 85 min.). La Folie du Docteur Tube: A mad scientist discovers a sneezing powder that changes the shape of anything it touches. Uses mirrors and optical effects to create weird and demented visions. -- Anemic cinema: A Dadaist film consisting of a series of rotating, spiral-like images intercut with spinning discs of words strung together in elaborate, nonsensical French puns. -- L'etoile de mer: Separate, elusive images are juxtaposed to portray one man's difficulty in becoming committed to a woman. A starfish symbolizes his yearning for sincere beauty without hidden, destructive qualities. Emak bakia:  Ray uses light patterns from rotating objects to exhibit his early Dadaistic affiliations. Partially filmed at the villa, Emak-Bakia which in Basque means "leave me alone." -- Charleston: Set in post apocalypse Paris, this surreal fantasy involves a minstrel performer, a young girl, a pet ape and charleston dancing. -- La Souriante Madame Beudot: A study in domestic conflicts, this film portrays the life and dreams of a housewife in a small town who is married to a repulsive businessman. VHS 5475

Bande à part Band of outsiders. 1996. 1 videocassette (95 min.). Two bumbling burglars plan a robbery with a young woman they just met. Problems begin immediately when they both fall for the girl and the plan goes haywire. The jewel-heist plot is merely a jumping off point for Godard's fast paced mix of fantasy and spoof of Hollywood crime films. VHS 6721

La battaglia di Algeri The battle of Algiers . 1982? 1 videocassette (123 min.). Contemporary classsic dramatization of the conflict between Algerian nationalists and French colonialists that culminated in Algeria's independence in 1962. Celebrated for its use of documentary and newsreel style, its complex viewpoint, its taut, suspenseful editing, and its excellent score by Ennio Morricone. VHS 74

Beaumarchais línsolent. 1998. 1 videocassette (100 min.). Beaumerchais was one of history's extraordinary figures : inventor, playwright, diplomat, playboy, Royal spy for King Louis XV, and emissary of the colonial attacks against Britain during the American Revolution. This film explores the years 1774-1784 of his life. VHS 5460

La belle et la bête Beauty and the beast. 1990? 1 videocassette (93 min.). Dramatized adaptation of the classic fairy tale. Tells the fable of the kindly beast and the self-sacrificing beauty whose love releases the prince in him. Contains such visual displays as tears that become real diamonds and walls that grow arms to light Beauty's path through the castle of the Beast. VHS 4375

La Belle et la bête Beauty and the beast. Criterion collection: Criterion collection (DVD videodiscs). 1998. 1 videodisc (93 min.). A fable about a kindly beast and the self-sacrificing beauty whose love releases him from a terrible magic spell. DVD 201

La Belle noiseuse The Beautiful troublemaker . Great directors (New Yorker Video (Firm)). 1994. 2 videocassettes (240 min.). Edouard Frenhofe (Piccoli) is a famous artist who has suffered painter's block since abandoning his masterpiece, a painting of his wife Liz, entitled "La Belle Noiseuse."  Disturbing tensions develop when a young artist and his girlfriend, visiting him in his South of France retreat, inspire him to return to the canvas, using the girl as his new model. VHS 3178

La bête humaine The human beast. 1994. 1 videocassette (100 min.). Fate drives a man to murder and suicide.  A railroad engineer, descended from a family subject to fits of madness, falls in love with a beautiful married woman.  Plotting together to kill her husband, circumstances spin out of control - ending when he strangles her instead. VHS 4378

Betty Blue 37 2 le matin. 1988. 2 videodiscs (122 min.). Zorg is a handyman at a tract of seaside villas when he meets Betty, an impulsive, volatile woman given to fits of temper. When Betty discovers that Zorg has written a novel, she dedicates herself to helping him get it published. When he loses his job, they move to Paris to live with Betty's friend Lisa and meet Eddy, a likable restaurant owner. When dreams collide with reality, the magical fantasy that they have created leads to a tragic climax. VDD 148

Bob le Flambeur Bob the Gambler. 1994. 1 videocassette (97 min.). Bob, a rakish small time gambler, is a "prince" of the Pigalle, hub of Paris's seedy nightlife. He finds out that the Deauville Casino expects to pull in 800 million francs on a certain date and decides to rob it. At the same time he wants to protect Anne, a teen who has come from the country and seems about to become a prostitute. On the night of the heist Bob plays the casino tables until the appointed time. VHS 4880

Le bonheur Happiness. 1996. 1 videocassette (85 min.). Varda's first color film in which she illustrates how the search for personal happiness can lead to gratification or destruction. A young carpenter is happy with his wife and family, happier still when he finds a mistress, whom he marries when his wife is found drowned. VHS 4885

Les bonnes femmes The good girls. 2000. 1 videodisc (93 min.). Blend of eroticism, Hitchcockian suspense and cinematic daring-do that characterizes the French new wave. Set in Paris in the early sixties, film concerns four women who work in an appliance store while looking for love and fulfillment. While their lecherous and petty boss savors every opportunity to deliver a dressing down, the girls find emotional escape by flirting with delivery men, visiting nightclubs and gossiping about the enigmatic motorcyclist who hangs about, following Jacqueline (Joano). For the vulnerable, timid Jacqueline, his dogged persistence can only signify the true love in which she fervently believes. But when she finally decides to speak to the mysterious strange, her dreams of romantic bliss are marred by nagging suspicions. DVD 115

Le boucher The butcher. 1992. 1 videocassette (90 min.). In a provincial French town, a sophisticated schoolmistress avoids attachments but strikes up a congenial friendship with the charmingly passionate local butcher, a veteran of Indochina. As a serial killer spreads terror throughout the countryside, the effort of these two people to come back from their emotional islands to some kind of mutual understanding and reality builds from oblique tenderness and humor to shattering tragedy. VHS 5077

Boudu sauvé des eaux Boudu saved from drowning. 1990? 1 videocassette (87 min.). A Parisian bookseller saves a tramp, Boudu, from suicide in the Seine and, feeling responsible for him, lets him live in his home. Boudu totally disregards proprieties, seduces the wife and maid, and generally plagues the household. Upon accidentally falling into the river again, he rediscovers his liberty and returns to his wanderings. Remade as: Down and out in Beverly Hills. VHS 4390

La boulangere de Monceau The girl at the Monceau bakery ; La carriere de Suzanne = Suzanne's career. Eric Rohmer collection. 1997. 1 videocassette (78 min.). La boulangere de Monceau is the story of a young man who becomes infatuated with a woman he sees on the street, but after several days without seeing her again sets his sights on a girl in the local bakery, eventually having to choose between them. La carriere de Suzanne examines the relationship between two friends when they both become interested in the same woman. VHS 4684

Le bourgeois gentilhomme The would be gentleman. 1981. 1 videocassette (95 min.). Film is a lively satire on the pretensions of a rich but silly man to the snobberies of the aristocracy. VHS 415

Boy meets girl. 2001. 1 videodisc (100 min.). An aspiring filmmaker and a suicidal young woman, both reeling from failed romances, embark on an affair that has disastrous consequences. DVD 317

Café au lait. International cinema. 1996. 1 videocassette (94 min.). A tale of love's triumphant power to bring people together. Lola, a West Indian beauty, confronts her two lovers (Jamal, the son of well-to-do African diplomats and Felix, an impoverished Jewish messenger) with her impending motherhood, then flatly refuses to reveal which of the two men is the father. VHS 4774

Camille Claudel. 1989. 1 videocassette (159 min.). A historically accurate depiction of one of the most important collaborations in the history of art, that of legendary sculptor Rodin, and the creative prodigy Camille Claudel. VHS 2835

Les carabiniers. 199-. 1 videocassette (ca. 80 min.). An anti-war story about two riflemen who requisition two brothers for the war of the King. The brothers are promised the world and as they go off to seek their fortunes, stock footage of war is intercut with their odyssey and the brutality and uselessness of war becomes apparent. VHS 6511

Caught. Collector's classics. 1988. 1 videocassette (88 min.). Leonora Eames fulfills her life's dream when she marries a millionaire but she soon discovers that her husband is mentally unstable. She resents being used as his business hostess and leaves him, finding a job with a struggling physician. A love affair develops, but when Leonara becomes pregnant, she returns to her husband so that her child can be born into wealth. Desperation and murder follow. VHS 4863

Céline et Julie vont en bateau Celine and Julie go boating. Great directors. 1997. 2 videocassettes (193 min.). Regarded by many as Jacques Rivette's most accomplished work, the film is an allusive meditation on the nature of fantasy and the line between it and reality. Two girls, one a mousy librarian, one a flamboyant magician, meet in Paris and wind up sharing each others' lives -- same flat, same bed, same fiance, same clothes -- even the same imagination. The film spins a circular, tortuous fantasy around their lives while at the same time acting as a meditation on the art of cinema itself. VHS 4482

Cesar. The Fanny trilogy. 1991. 1 videocassette (133 min.). After her husband Panisse dies, Fanny tells her son Cesar that his real father is not Fanny's husband but rather Marius who left Marseilles 20 years earlier to travel the world. The young man sets out to find his father who is now living in a nearby town and they are finally united. Cesar then brings Fanny and Marius together again. VHS 6043

Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train Those who love me can take the train. 2000. 1videodisc (122 min.). A minor painter, son of a wealthy family has died and wanted to be buried in his home town of Limoges. Those who loved him in various ways take the train and review their lives on the way to bury him. About a dozen lovers, friends, and students of a famous artist travel from Paris to his hometown of Limoges for his funeral. On the train ride there, the mourners review their own lives. DVD 141

Chacun cherche son chat When the cat's away. 1997. 1 videocassette (91 min.). Romantic comedy set in Paris about a young woman, her missing pet and her search for true love. VHS 6593

Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie. The Criterion collection: The Classic collection: Criterion collection (DVD videodiscs): Classic collection (Chicago, Ill.). 2000. 2 videodiscs (101, 98 min.). "An upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined."--Container. DVD 214

Le Chateau de ma mère My mother's castle. 1992. 1 videocassette (98 min.). Second of Robert's films about Marcel Pagnol's childhood in Provence. During Christmas, Marcel's affection for the area deepens and he also learns to love and appreciate his mother's true nature. VHS 2410

Le Cheval d'orgueil The Horse of pride. 1990. 1 videocassette (118 min.). A lyrical tale of Brittany from 1908 to 1918. The film shows the hardships and joys of French peasant life focusing on the story of a young couple who meet, marry, and soon have a son. Too poor to own a horse, they are content to ride the "horse of pride.". VHS 2344

La chienne. 1989. 1 videocassette (95 min.). Maurice Legrand, mild-mannered cashier and hen-pecked husband,rescues Lulu from a beating by her pimp, Dédé, and set her up as his mistress. When circumstances allow him to break free of his marriage, Legrand arrives at Lulu's apartment only to find her in Dédé's arms. An ironic, tragicomic account of a déclassé romantic triangle that leads to murder. VHS 6575

Cinq sens Five senses. 2001. 1 videodisc (106 min.). An exploration of life and love through the five senses. DVD 185

La cité des enfants perdus The city of lost children. Sony pictures classics. 1996. 1 videocassette (114 min.). In this fantastically-twisted fairy tale chock-full of curious characters and special effects, a gutsy little girl and a sentimental strongman join hearts and hands to save a small boy's dreams from a madman's master plan. VHS 4888

Claude Chabrol, ou, l'entomologiste Claude Chabrol, the entomologist. Cinéma de notre temps: Eclairage. 1997? 1 videocassette (52 min.). "In this 1990 interview with Jean Douchet, Claude Chabrol speculates on the fundamental characteristics of his vision: his refusal of romanticism and of emotional manipulation, his taste for classic direction and his interest in the social fabric. During the interview, clips of his films play on a television in the background."--Container. Film clips from: Le boucher (1969); Violette noziere (1978); Les fantômes du chapelier (1982); Masques (1986). VHS 4933

Cléo de 5 à 7 Cleo from 5 to 7. 1997. 1 videocassette (90 min.). Varda captures the look and feel of Paris as she covers 2 hours in the life of Cleo, a pop singer, who is waiting for the results of medical tests for cancer - which she believes she has. She spends the time consulting a fortune teller, visiting friends, rehearsing a song, spending money and crying. VHS 4886

Cléo de 5 à 7 Cleo from 5 to 7. The Criterion collection. 2000. 1 videodisc (90 min.). Varda captures the look and feel of Paris as she covers 2 hours in the life of Cleo, a pop singer, who is waiting for the results of medical tests for cancer - which she believes she has. She spends the time consulting a fortune teller, visiting friends, rehearsing a song, spending money and crying. DVD 117

Club de femmes Girl's club. 1999? 1 videocassette (90 min.). Story about the girls rooming at The Girl's Club, a hotel in Paris for young women--their relationships with one another, the matronly hotel managers, and men from the outside world. VHS 6013

La collectionneuse The collector. Eric Rohmer collection. 1996. 1 videocassette (88 min.). A witty and erotic look at the theme of resisting sexual temptations. Two older men spend their holidays in a house near St. Tropez with a beautiful young girl who collects men the way some people collect art. Both men try to resist being added to her collection, however, soon fall victim to her charm. VHS 4685

Comment je me suis disputé... ("ma vie sexuelle") How I got into an argument... ("my sex life"). 2000. 1 videodisc (178 min.). A romantic comedy about a group of twenty-something grad students trying to cope with life, love and everything in-between. DVD 155

Conte d'été A summer's tale. 2000. 1 videodisc (133 min.). A graduate student takes a vacation and while waiting for his girlfriend, he becomes attracted to two other women. For the next three weeks, he must decide which woman he wants. DVD 246

Conte d'hiver A Tale of winter. Great directors. 1995. 1 videocassette (114 min.). Romantic comedy about the triumph of love over the longest odds. Félicié and Charles share a whirlwind love affair at the beach one summer. As they part, Félicié gives him her address, but due to a crucial, inexplicably stupid mistake, she makes it impossible for him to find her. Five years later, Félicié is still in love with Charles, though she has seemingly lost him forever. Along with her five-year-old daughter (by Charles), she maintains her hope that someday she will again find her Prince Charming. VHS 5763

Le Corbeau The crow. 1992. 1 videocassette (91 min.). Signing "The Raven," a mysterious author reveals in a series of poison pen letters the guilty secrets of the inhabitants of a French provincial town, leading some to crime and suicide. Remade in the United States as "The thirteenth letter.". VHS 4365 

Coup de torchon Clean slate. 1985. 1 videocassette (128 min.). Set in the early part of the 20th century in a French African colony, the film recounts events in the life of the French police chief of a small African village.  As his problems mount (with his wife, his mistress, the local pimp) the officer begins to get rid of those causing his difficulties, in this comedy/drama. VHS 280

Les Cousins. 1996. 1 videocassette (ca. 105 min.). Charles, a student from the provinces, comes to Paris to live with his sophisticated, bullying cousin Paul and falls in love with the woman who becomes Paul's mistress. VHS 6513

Le Crime de Monsieur Lange. 1992. 1 videodisc (78 min.). Story of the creation and demise of a utopian society. A group of workers take over a publishing house and set up a cooperative when its crooked owner, Batala, beset by his creditors, absconds with all of the firm's money. The workers band together and publish a series of comic books based on the character "Arizona Jim,"  written by Monsieur Lange, who is one of the employees. The company prospers, venturing into film producing, but then the infamous Batala returns to resume control. Lange, then kills him to save the collective. VDD 181

Le Crime de Monsieur Lange The crime of Monsieur Lange. 1988. 1 videocassette (89 min.). Story of the creation and demise of a utopian society. A group of workers take over a publishing house and set up a cooperative when its crooked owner, Batala, beset by his creditors, absconds with all of the firm's money. The workers band together and publish a series of comic books based on the character "Arizona Jim,"  written by Monsieur Lange, who is one of the employees. The company prospers, venturing into film producing, but then the infamous Batala returns to resume control. Lange, then kills him to save the collective. VHS 4382

Danton. 1984. 1 videocassette (ca. 150 min.). Georges Danton, the popular revolutionary leader, returns to Paris at a time when the new Republic is in disarray. Maximilien Robespierre and his allies have set up a monstrous dictatorship, beginning the infamous "Reign of Terror." Danton pleads with the people for an end to the bloodshed which violates the spirit of their revolution. VHS 61

Day for night. 1989. 1 videocassette (116 min.). Francis Truffaut's "homage to moviemaking," details the loves and lunacy of the closely-knit family of strangers that comprises an on-location film, cast and crew. VHS 4242

Delicatessen. 1992. 1 videocassette (95 min.). Set several years after a nuclear war has wiped out most of humanity, people only care about finding food. But the residents of an old tenement get fresh meat from the butcher on the main floor, whose stocks coincide with the arrival & departure of new tenants. A sweet-natured ex-clown takes the job as a butcher's assistant and gets a room in the building. He becomes a catalyst in the lives of the cleaver-wielding butcher (who deals in "prime cuts" of human flesh), his myopic daughter, a woman with a flair for suicide, toymakers who create little boxes that go "moo," and other unusual tenants. VHS 4887

La demoiselle sauvage The savage woman. 1993. 1 videocassette (100 min.). A badly-beaten woman with blood on her hands staggers out of a village home. She escapes in her car which she crashes. After wandering in the wilderness, Marianne (Tulasne) collapses near the floor of a dam that blocks her path. Elysee (Habich), an engineer working on the dam, finds her and as he nurses her back to health he discovers her horrible secret. Meanwhile Marianne is being hunted by the police. VHS 6215

Les Demoiselles de Rochefort. 1996. 1 videocassette (125 min.). "In the picturesque seaside village of Rochefort, Delphine teaches dance while her twin Solange composes and gives piano lessons.  As the girls dream of success and romance in the far-off big city, they don't realize that true love may be just around the corner!"--Container. DVD 309

La Dentellière The lacemaker. 198? 1 videocassette (107 min.). A bittersweet twist on the Cinderella theme about a shy beautician who falls in love with a handsome student who is captivated by her grace and innocence but unable to appreciate her inner beauty. VHS 1347

Le Dernier metro The Last metro. 1992. 2 videodiscs (131 min.). Truffaut's backstage tale of survival and strained loyalty, colored by childhood memories. Lucas Steiner (Bennent), the Jewish director of the Montmartre theatre, has supposedly left the country but is actually in hiding in the theatre's basement. In his absence, the theatre is run by his wife, Marion (Deneuve) who is determined to protect her husband. She hires Bernard Granger (Depardieu) to star with her in a new play. VDD 141

Le Dernier métro The Last metro. 1992. 1 videocassette (131 min.). In Nazi-occupied Paris, Lucas Steiner (Heinz Bennent), the Jewish director of the Montmartre theater is in hiding. In his absence, the theater is run by his wife, Marion (Deneuve) who is determined to protect her husband. Romantic tensions mount as she and her leading man (Depardieu) begin to fall in love. At the same time, a pro-Nazi theater critic ensconces himself in the theater causing stress to the entire cast. VHS 1872

Le diable probablement The devil, probably. Great directors: Great directors (New Yorker Video (Firm)). 1997. 1 videocassette (95 min.). Story follows Charles and his quartet of friends, all in revolt against the pollution of an industrialized consumer society. VHS 6290

Diabolique. 1987. 1 videocassette (107 min.). The tyrannical headmaster at the DeLasalle School for boys drives his wife and mistress into a strange alliance. Fed up with his brutality, they conspire to murder him and deposit his corpse in the school swimming pool. When the pool is drained several days later, they find that the body has disappeared. VHS 3548

Diabolo menthe Peppermint soda. International cinema. 1993. 1 videocassette (97 min.). Detailed and insightful picture of life as an adolescent in the tale of two sisters (the older 15, the younger 13) whose parents are separated. The girls are living in Paris with their mother in the turbulent year of 1963 and the film spans a year of first loves, bad grades, forbidden stockings and dreaded family vacations. VHS 5497

Le dîner de cons The dinner game. 2000. 1 videodisc (81 min.). Pierre and his snobbish friends have a standing date for dinner. Every week, they compete to see who can bring the biggest idiot to the party. Pierre is sure he's found a winner in the unsuspecting François, a ministry accountant whose hobby is making matchstick models of famous monuments. But when circumstances trap Pierre in his apartment with François, the tables are turned and everyone gets their just desserts. DVD 87

Diva. 1997. 1 videodisc (123 min.). Cynthia Hawkins is the operatic superstar whose refusal to make a recording frustrates her adoring public.  A young fan named Jules makes a secret tape and is stalked by thugs who plan to blackmail the diva. Jules also accidently acquires a tape which tells of a top mobster's role in an international sex and drug ring. Two hired killers are out to get the tape. DVD 134

Diva. d1983. 1 videocassette (123 min.). Cynthia Hawkins is an operatic superstar whose refusal to make a recording frustrates her adoring public. Jules, a young mail courier, is an impassioned fan of Cynthia and he smuggles a tape recorder into a performance and tapes her singing. At the same time, a prostitute hides a tape in Jules' delivery bag that details the career of a French mobster who is involved in illegal drugs and an international sex ring. Dizzying chases and bizarre plot twists follow, as Jules, aided by his two eccentric friends, Gorodish and his Vietnamese mistress, Alba, is pursued through Paris by hired killers out to get the tape. VHS 2649

La Double vie de Veronique The Double life of Veronique. 1994. 1 videodisc (96 min.). Veronika, a young singer, lives in Poland while Veronique, a music teacher and aspiring singer, lives in Paris. Born on the same day they share the same appearance and talents and also the same sense that somewhere there exists another person with whom her life is intertwined. VDD 142

Le doulos. 1988. 1 videocassette (109 min.). Paying homage to American gangster films of the 1940s, film is a complicated thriller about the fatalistic relationship between two men: Maurice (Serge Reggiani), a crook just out of prison; and Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a mysterious, cryptic informer caught up in the complex relationship between the criminal underworld and the police.  Film is filled with double and triple crosses, beautiful women and a dark vision of the world. VHS 4379

A Dream of passion. 1987? 1 videocassette (106 min.). Maya (Mercouri) is to play Medea on the stage. In preparing for the role, she is encouraged by her director to develop a relationship with an American woman (Burstyn) who, Medea-like, has killed her children and is in prison. The relationship becomes an obsession for Maya. VHS 567

Early auteur films the first shorts made by famous directors. 198. 1 videocassette (121 min.). A collection of short films made early in the careers of Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Roman Polanski, Michelangelo Antonioni and Alberto Cavalcanti. All the boys...: College roommates become acquainted with Patrick on the same day in separate encounters. Each falls for his line and agrees to a later date with him. They do not realize they have dates with the same Patrick until later, when they see him with another girl -- Two men and a wardrobe: A fantasy-parable without commentary about the cost of private lives in the modern world, as portrayed in the adventures of two men who emerge from the sea with a dilapidated old-fashioned wardrobe -- Les Mistons: Focuses on the fantasies and exploits of five adolescent boys awakening to adult emotions who follow and torment two lovers. The hearts of the age: Made by Welles at the age of 19, intended as a parody of the surrealist movement. Welles appears as the figure of death -- Rien que les heures: An impressionistic study of Paris and its inhabitants -- The fat and the lean: A pantomised parable which satirizes man's desire to dominate other men -- N.U.: Nettezza urbana: Documents one aspect of city life that is often taken for granted as it shows street cleaners in Rome as they go about their daily work. VHS 5222

Emporte-moi Set me free. The classic collection: Classic collection (Chicago, Ill.). 2000. 1 videocassette (95 min.). 1963 will be the year that changes the life of 13 year old Hanna.  In a movie theatre she discovers Nana, played by Anna Karina in Jean-Luc Godard's My life to live.  At the end of the year, Hanna comes to understand the message of the sensuous and bewitching Nana.  She is free to live her life as she wishes. VHS 6538

Les Enfants du paradis Children of paradise. 1991? 2 videocassettes (190 min.). Story of theatrical society in 19th century Paris and the love between the mime Debureau and the beautiful courtesan Garance who is also loved by an aristocrat, a criminal, and an actor. VHS 1738

Les enfants du paradis Children of paradise. The Criterion collection: Criterion collection (DVD videodiscs). 2002. 2 videodiscs (190 min.). Drama about the theater and the individuals that made the stage their life. Includes the love story of four men for one woman.DVD 375

L'Espoir Sierra de Teruel. Les grands films classiques. 198? 1 videocassette (75 min.). Set in 1937 at Teruel during the Spanish Civil War. Malraux, a volunteer in Spain, contrasts the horrors of war with the beauties of nature and the simple pleasures of life. He uses the struggle against Spanish dictatorship as a statement of the universal hope that war will produce a better life for all and overcome the evils of fascism. VHS 3241

The Experimental avant garde series. 199. 1 videocassette (40 min.). Menilmontant: Film takes its title from the working class district of Paris where its drama occurs. Portrays seduction, jealousy and prostitution as it uses montage to tell the story of the trials and tribulations of two orphaned girls living on the streets of Paris. -- Charleston: Set in post apocalypse Paris, this surreal fantasy involves a minstrel performer, a young girl, a pet ape and charleston dancing. -- La Folie du Docteur Tube: A mad scientist discovers a sneezing powder that changes the shape of anything it touches. Uses mirrors and optical effects to create weird and demented visions. VHS 5476

Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain Amélie from Montmartre. 2002. 2 videodiscs (122 min.). Amélie is a young woman who had a decidedly unusual childhood; misdiagnosed with an unusual heart condition, Amélie didn't attend school with other children, but spent most of her time in her room, where she developed a keen imagination and an active fantasy life. Despite all this, Amélie has grown into a healthy and beautiful young woman who works in a cafe and has a whimsical, romantic nature. She decides to step into the lives of others around her to help them out. DVD 401

Fahrenheit 451. 1985. 1 videocassette (112 min.). Montag, a regimented fireman in charge of burning the forbidden volumes, meets a revolutionary school teacher who dares to read.  Suddenly he finds himself a hunted fugitive, forced to choose not only between two women, but between personal safety and intellectual freedom. VHS 2101

Fanny. The Fanny trilogy. 1991. 3 videocassette (120 min.). Fanny, daughter of a fishmonger loves Marius son of a saloon owner, who has just gone to sea for an extended period. Fanny discovers she is pregnant and marries Panisse, a rich older man, to give her son legitimacy. Marius returns planning to marry Fanny, but his father knowing who fathered Fanny's child sends Marius away to prevent complications. VHS 6041-6043

La Femme du boulanger The Baker's wife. 1988. 1 videocassette (124 min.). When the beautiful, young wife of the local baker runs off with a handsome shepherd, the tranquility of village life is shattered. The villagers are forced to take action when the unconsolable baker is too heartsick to bake bread. The whole village organizes to lure, cajole and force the young woman away from her lover and back to her husband--so that they can once again have bread on their tables. VHS 6031

Le Feu follet The Fire within. 1992. 1 videocassette (104 min.). Describes the last 48 hours in the life of a alcoholic dissolute playboy headed towards suicide. Evokes images of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe, but presents a picture of dissolution and suicide devoid of self-pity. VHS 2366

The fifth element. 1997. 1 videodisc (ca. 126 min.). Two hundred and fifty years in the future, life as we know it is threatened by the arrival of Evil. Only the fifth element can stop the Evil from extinguishing life, as it tries to do every five thousand years. DVD 113

La Fille du puisatier The well-digger's daughter. 1999? 1 videocassette (140 min.). Patricia (Day), the welldigger's daughter, finds herself pregnant as her lover, Jacques (Grey), goes off to war. Both sets of parents begin to feud because of the scandal and Pascal Amoretti (Raimu), Patricia's father, throws her out of the house to protect the innocence of his younger daughters. When Jacques is reported dead, the families declare peace. Jacques returns alive and everyone is delighted. VHS 6032

La fille seule A single girl. 1997. 1 videocassette (90 min.). Drama showing a day in the life of a young Parisian woman named Valerie who is beginning a new job and who reveals to her boyfriend that she is four weeks pregnant. VHS 6058

Four bags full. 198. 1 videocassette (82 min.). A serio-comic wartime morality play. Jean Gabin is a scoundrel who agrees to help smuggle an illegal pig across Paris. On the way he must endure both the Nazis and the collaborating French. VHS 1412

François Truffaut 25 years, 25 films. 1993. 1 videodisc (90 min.). Documentary look at Francois Truffaut who was once one of the most influential critic of the French New Wave and who went on to become a brilliant, prolific, and uncompromising director, creating 25 films in 25 years. VDD 176

François Truffaut, ou, l'esprit critique François Truffaut, the critical spirit. Cinéastes de notre temps: Eclairage. 1997? 1 videocassette (64 min.). "In this 1965 documentary, François Truffaut, shown at home and in the screening room, comments on his films from Les Mistons to La Peau Douce, thus revealing the connection between his opinions as critic and his work as filmmaker. He speaks candidly about his past as movie buff, his collaboration with the Cahiers du Cinéma, those who have influenced him, and his admiration for American cinema"--Container. VHS 4931

French animation program. 198. 1 videocassette (58 min.). Short films combining live action and animation and utilizing technical innovations that greatly extended the resources of animation. VHS 139

Gang of four. 1 videodisc (155 min.). This film from Jacques Rivette deals with an acting class conducted by a female director (Bulle Ogier) who will only work with women. The four students in the class all live together, and when Ogier instructs them to study the play "Double Infidelities" by Marivaux, their assignment begins to spill over into their personal lives, creating scandal and conflict. DVD 319

Général Idi Amin Dada autoportrait. 1991. 1 videocassette (90 min.). A terrifying comedy.  Along with the surreal pomposities of the notorious ruler, there's the cold-blooded reality of expulsions, disappearamces and executions. VHS 3840

Le genou de Claire Claire's knee. Eric Rohmer collection. 1996. 1 videocassette (106 min.). Satire about sexual temptations. On vacation without his fiancee, a diplomat is introduced to two young girls. He flirts with one, while harboring a secret, peculiar obsession for her stunning teenage sister. VHS 4687

Germinal. Sony Pictures classics. 1994. 2 videocassettes (ca. 166 min.). Germinal is one of 20 novels (known as the Rougon-Macquart cycle) by Zola that document French life under the Second Empire. This story is set in the 1870s in a French mining community where the miners (working class) are exploited by the owners (bourgeoisie). The film interweaves personal tragedy and social upheaval - the miners strike; there is a terrible mine accident -- that, while destroying one family, plants the seeds of change for future generations. VHS 4881

Gervaise. 1995? 1 videocassette (121 min.). Story of a mid-19th-century working-class young mother's struggle to raise her children amidst the squalor of the Parisian slums. Gervaise's husband, after an accident, becomes an alcoholic. She then falls in love with a blacksmith but he is sent to prison. She works hard to support her family as a laundress but, after a series of misfortunes, she loses not only the business but her family and finally her respectability. VHS 6015

Le Gloire de mon père My father's glory. 1992. 1 videocassette (110 min.). The enchanting story of Marcel Pagnol's childhood in the south of France, and a very special summer when he was 11 years old. In the countryside of Provence he fell under the spell of the rugged hills, made new friends and strengthened the unique bond with his father. VHS 2420

Les gout des autres The taste of others. 2000. 1 videodisc (112 min.). The lives and loves of several completely opposite men and women artfully intersect in what becomes a delightfully funny web of romantic entanglements! While negotiating differences in wealth and status, style, and taste, this vivid collection of characters mix and match in outrageously volatile combinations! Internationally acclaimed for its sexy comic sophistication-- expect the unexpected from this uncommonly entertaining motion picture! DVD 313

Le Grand meaulnes The Wanderer. 1991. 1 videocassette (108 min.). A magical love story in which romantic adolescent idealism gives way to the sobering reality of adulthood. Set in France at end of the 19th century. A mysterious stranger arrives in the tavern of a village and falls in love at fist sight. VHS 2117

La Grande bouffe Blow out. 1995. 1 videocassette (125 min.). Four middle-aged men (a pilot, a judge, a master chef and a TV personality) decide they have had enough of the tiresome life around them: the dull repressed people, the mundane world events, the disappointing wines and the even worse food. So they decide to end it all in one last, decadent, drunken, depraved, orgiastic and impeccably well-catered marathon assault on their systems. Locking themselves away in a millionaire's mansion with exquisite cuisine, the world's finest vintage wines and champagnes and a like-minded woman, they begin their final crazy "Grande Bouffe" -- a real "Blow-Out.". VHS 4052

La grande illusion Grand illusion. 1983. 1 videocassette (111 min.). Classic French film that is considered a brilliant expose of the senselessness of war even as it highlights the brotherhood of men in wartime no matter what their race or class. Two French Air Corps officers, Fresnay (an aristocrat) and Marechal (a mechanic), are shot down and captured during World War I. Imprisoned in a fortress commanded by the aristocratic Van Rauffenstein, they must deal not only with the enemy but with class conflicts as well. In spite of their different backgrounds, they are finally drawn together in an escape attempt. VHS 48

La Grande illusion Grand illusion. 1987. 2 videodiscs (114 min.). Classic French film that is considered a brilliant expose of the senselessness of war even as it  highlights the brotherhood of men in wartime no matter what their race or class. Two French Air Corps officers, Fresnay (an aristocrat) and Marechal (a mechanic), are shot down and captured during World War I. Imprisoned in a fortress commanded by the aristocratic Van Rauffenstein, they must deal not only with the enemy but with class conflicts as well. In spite of their different backgrounds, they are finally drawn together in an escape attempt. VDD 15

Grande illusion Grand illusion. The criterion collection. 1999. 1 videodisc (114 min.). In this classic tale of adventure duty and honor conflict in a German prisoner-of-war camp when an aristocratic French officer becomes friends with the commandant while cooperating with his comrades in a daring escape. DVD 213

La guerre est finie. 1995? 1 videocassette (120 min.). A Spanish revolutionary maintains his ideals even though he is warned he will be sold out. Aging, tired leftist Montand travels from Spain to Paris, reports to his political associates, and visits mistress Thulin. VHS 6516

La Haine Hate. 1996. 1 videocassette (95 min.). Sai d is an Arab, Hubert is black, and Vinz is a Jew, all of them young, unemployed and living in a dreary, troubled Paris suburb, largely inhabited by poor immigrant families. Each of them needs to vent the anger they feel about the police brutality that landed another friend in the hospital. The film focuses on one day in the lives of these three hoodlum friends and the result is a brutal, harrowing study of the cyclical nature of violence. VHS 4190

Hiroshima mon amour. Video yesteryear. 1994? 1 videocassette (88 min.). Presents the love story of a French anti-war actress and a Japanese architect. Their relationship brings back memories of her love for a German soldier during the occupation of France in 1944.  The scars of this earlier relationship for her, and of the atomic blast for him, create an aura in which their love must fail. Movie theme broadly concerns the need to remember the past, i.e. Hiroshima, yet live in the present. VHS 4

L'historie de Adele H The story of Adele H. 1981. 1 videocassette (97 min.). Based upon her diary, this film concerns Adèle Hugo, the beautiful  younger daughter of the author Victor Hugo, who follows her English lover, Lt. Pinson, to Nova Scotia in 1863 and from there to Barbados. She believes him to be her fiance, her lover, her destiny, the mirror of her soul. For months and years she waits for him, harasses him, throws herself in his path but he wants nothing more to do with her. Finally, she distort