Colérique, anticonformiste, d’une rare exigence dans son art... : William Karel, qui fut son ami et son photographe de plateau pendant près de vingt ans, raconte Maurice Pialat. À partir de cette relation privilégiée, de ses archives personnelles inédites, de témoignages des plus célèbres acteurs du cinéma français, portrait d’un immense cinéaste qui fut aussi un homme blessé

Estranged childhood friends, both passionate filmmakers, find themselves on divergent paths: one an acclaimed Oscar winner, the other struggling in TV. Accusations of plagiarism further strain their relationship as one's success is built on the other's stolen ideas.

1981 film by Claude Goretta

Muriel, a writer nearing 50 whose older lover won't live with her in Paris, meets a man on a train - Samuel, an Arab. He's attracted to her and pursues her, dropping in, asserting himself. She's willing to connect. He's passionate, then boorish, then jealous and possessive. He seems fixed on "Who's the strongest?," while she wants respect and trust. She's self-possessed as well as sexually charged, willing to laugh, and alternately firm and forgiving. He has little money, no immigration papers, few prospects, and a gambling jag. What does each want, and why does she stick with it? Is this colonial strife, war between the sexes, or a love story?

Layla, a young mother and model wife who spends the summer in the remote Christian mountains. One day she accidentally encounter with a French man this opens Layla's eyes to her condition as a woman living in a patriarchal society.

The time is the 1930s and two Soviet spies (both Frenchmen by nationality) have been helping Communist factions during the Civil War in Spain. It is the time of Stalin's iron rule in the USSR, and the two agents are suddenly called to Moscow by the KGB. Knowing that they are in trouble for no fault of their own, fear drives one of them to suicide while the other gets his lover and her child and begins a run for his life, knowing that the KGB will never let him go free.

When Catherine is caught with her illicit lover by her father-in-law Paul, the concerned father leaves to tell his son Thomas about the incident. Paul is injured in an auto accident and returns home in a wheelchair unable to speak. Catherine's guilt weighs heavily on her as she hopes to never let Thomas know she was unfaithful. She panics and seeks a way to eliminate Paul in this psychological thriller.

Imagine, if you will, a somewhat contented married woman finding out her husband's infidelity during the celebration of a birthday party. That is what happens to Marie-France, when her husband, Henri, pulls out panties from his pocket to be used as a handkerchief. Marie-France becomes furious, storming out of the house. His son, Sebastian and his wife, Clementine, a struggling couple, decide to take Marie-France to their tiny apartment, something they feel it is a temporary arrangement. Little did they know what they were getting into...

This deftly made French psychological thriller terrifies with its exploration of an experiment gone horribly wrong. Dr. Marc Lacroix, a psychiatrist specializing in brain functions, is obsessed with the link between mind and spirit. To find his link he studies the criminally insane. He builds a secret machine, known only to his mistress Marianne, in which he hopes to exchange minds between humans. He simultaneously wants to help the mentally ill recover, and he wants to experience their madness. He chooses the psychotic killer, Zyto, a man who stabbed at least three women, for his experiment. The initial experiment is successful and the two exchange minds. But trouble ensues when Zyto refuses to reverse the switch. There is little Marc can do when Zyto takes over Marc's life, and more ominously his wife and child whom are unknowingly in mortal danger. Marc, encased in Zyto's body, is returned to the asylum. Will Marc's wife recognize the danger? Will Zyto kill again?

1996 film by Tonie Marshall

A missed highway exit leads Darry Marzouki, an unemployed magician, to cross paths with Irène Montier Duval, a wealthy woman carrying a Hermès bag full of cash. Out of love, she acted as an intermediary in an arms deal between a French minister and Korea. When the deal was exposed, the minister tried to pin the blame on her. On the run, she offers to pay Darry to drive her to Geneva in his BMW. The problem? The BMW isn’t his—he impulsively stole it from his hot-tempered brother-in-law, who’s out for blood. Unable to accept Irène’s offer, Darry pretends to be an activist heading to a summit in Locarno. Irène, eager for a change, plays along. They have little in common but spend three unforgettable days together—while being chased by Koreans, French intelligence, a minister, and the furious brother-in-law. In the end, one finds love, the other freedom.

Paul and Sarah form a happy couple with no problems. But when Sarah sees Paul wrapped in the arms of a young woman her peaceful happiness collapses. She in turn takes a lover. Paul realizes that he's losing his wife and proposes a second honeymoon in Morocco...

Barnie lives in Calais but works in London. Everyday, he takes the Eurostar to go to his office. Although he is married to Lucie, Barnie has two lovers in London: Margot, a young and fresh advertising executive, and Mark, a hot 35 years old auctioneer. Everything could work out fine like that, until Margot, Mark and Lucie separately offer Barnie the same birthday present: a return ticket to Venice on the Orient-Express, and on the same dates. What will Barnie do? Who will he choose to go with? After thinking that going with Lucie could actually save his marriage, problems are not over: Margot and Mark both show up at Barnie and Lucie's house, pretending to be a couple, and asking Barnie for some explanations. Which he obviously can't give...

Young dynamic executive, married and father of two children, Jérôme Ozendron dreams of writing and escaping a life he considers mediocre. The meeting with a former comrade, who had become an actor, brought him into contact with the world of cinema. He meets, Natacha, a cover girl, for whom he is ready to give up, wife and children. Then he becomes the lover of Lilianne, a marginal who persecutes and pursues him. He quit his job to devote himself to writing a novel. But nothing goes as he wants.

In this complex chronicle of the evolution of a provincial family's life, the story follows three generations of at least two neighboring families from the 1890s to the 1970s. In one of many related tales, a man who was engaged to the older daughter of a farmer elopes with the younger one. After many years and the birth of five children, the man leaves his wife and family for the bright lights of the city but continues turning up from time to time, until he is finally taken into the home of one of his sons when he is a quite old man. The complex interactions of the legitimate and illegitimate children of a womanizing miner give rise to yet another set of related stories.

1982 French film by Bob Swaim

The unforgettable hero of Les quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows), Jean-Pierre Léaud made a spectacular entrance into the world of cinema at the age of 14. And to this day, it’s fair to say he’s never left. Truffaut, Godard, Eustache, Pasolini but also more recently Assayas, Lvovsky, Kaurismäki, Bertolucci, Tsai Ming-liang, Bonello or Serra... an impressive filmography in which he has invented a new way of being in front of the camera, where everything is true and everything is fiction. So much so that one might almost have a doubt: does Jean-Pierre Léaud really exist off- screen? Or does he belong entirely to cinema?

More than anything, 30-year-old Rose longs to be reunited with Mickaël, her estranged 11-year-old son who has been placed with a foster family and blames his mother for their long separation. When she discovers that Mickaël is crazy about wrestling, Rose thinks she's found a way to melt the ice: she'll put together a tag team with three girlfriends from the store where all four work as checkout girls...

Louis, a terminally ill writer, returns home after a long absence to tell his family that he is dying.

A group of Parisians frets over the minutiae of life in the course of one week.