Films marked with * are PAL region, otherwise known as Region 2. You need a “region-free” DVD player to play it, or you can play it using your computer and a program like the VLC Player which will play any region. Most films are in French, a few in English

To borrow any movie or book, just text Linda at 616-970-8260.

LES FILMS

*2 Hommes dans la Ville - Germain Cazeneuve left the police to work as a prison trainer, teaching inmates how to live once out of jail and how to stay out. He stands guarantor when Gino Strabliggi, a printer by trade, is paroled two years before his twelve-year sentence for bank robbery expires.

*7 ans de mariage - In an attempt to save his couple, who is adrift both sexually and emotionally after 7 years of marriage, Alain, who is an emergency doctor in a Parisian clinic, consults a sexologist friend.

*Albert est méchant - Patrick Lechat learns that his father, the famous writer Jo Lechat, whom he never knew, has just died leaving a colossal fortune. "Good thing!" Patrick Lechat and his family are currently in a very bad situation.

*Après Vous - Antoine (Auteuil) saves Louis (Garcia) from hanging himself, though in his attempt to get Louis back on his feet, Antoine gets caught in a romantic triangle.

*Attache Moi - Marina is a porn actress, looking for a career in "traditional" cinema. One night, she slept with a young outcast named Ricky, whom she didn't know. Since then, Ricky has spent time in a psychiatric hospital, where he has cherished hopes of finding Marina and living with her. As soon as he is released from the hospital, he decides to kidnap Marina in his own apartment, hoping to seduce her.

*C’est la Vie - A hectic wedding party held in a 17th century French palace comes together with the help of the behind-the-scenes staff.

*C’est le bouquet! - 7 a.m. Catherine receives a phone call from someone called Kirsch. This untimely call throws her into a great state of agitation, which she takes out on her boyfriend, Raphaël. Upset, in turn, Raphaël fights with his employer and even succeeds in getting himself fired.

*Chacun Cherche Son Chat - In the spring of 1995, Chloé, a young make-up artist, decided to take a few days off. To do this, she has to entrust her cat to an old lady who lives in her neighborhood since Michel, her roommate with a hectic life, does not want to take care of the animal. When he returns, Mrs. Renée tells him that her cat has disappeared through the window. Setting in motion her entire network of old ladies and regulars in the Bastille district, Madame Renée activates a small heterogeneous world that sets off, each in its own way, in search of Chloé's cat in a Parisian neighborhood in full mutation.

*Comme t’y es belle! - Isa, Alice, Léa and Nina, linked by their Sephardic families as much as by their friendship, share their lives between love affairs, a beauty salon under tax control, children to raise, a Morocca  nanny without papers to PACSER, repeated diets, family and religious celebrations to honor, but before being beautiful, Their biggest challenge is to be themselves.

*Désiré Landru - husband, lover - and murderer. Based on documented facts, this is the full story of one of the most ambiguous criminals and lovers of the 20th century, the first modern serial killer.

*DIEU EST GRAND, je suis toute petite - Michèle writes her first journal entry, "I am 20 years old, and I have ruined my life!" This is just one of the many journal entry titles that are flashed before every particular scene in the film. Michèle had just recently broken up with her boyfriend so she meets up with some of her friends at a café. It is there that she meets the charming veterinarian François.

*Effroyables Jardins – 1950s, Jacques, a teacher, also works as a clown in his spare time. Every year, he plays in the city where he lived during the German occupation. Lucien, his son, does not understand why his father, a serious teacher, makes such a fool of himself.

*La Chute – a 2004 German drama film. The film evokes the events and circumstances surrounding the death of Adolf Hitler and his final days during the Battle of Berlin in April 1945.

*La Fausse Suivante - A young woman disguises herself as a knight to expose a gold-digging man divided between her and a Countess.

*La guerre d’Algérie - From the colonization of Algeria in 1830 to the Evian Accords, five episodes rich in color/black and white archival images, with all the testimonies of the main actors of the conflict, lasting 270 minutes, describe all the stakes of the conflict that lasted eight long years (1954-1962) and mobilized three million French soldiers with colossal military means.

*Le Coût de la Vie - A compulsive miser who won’t pay his restaurant bill. A restaurant owner whose generosity is making him go broke. A mysterious women who’s determined to make men pay. A factory owner who sells off his factories at cut-rate prices after a heart attack. A young woman who has just come into a large inheritance who wants to be loved just for herself. During the course of a few days, these characters will cross paths.

*Le Père Noël est une Ordure - Two neurotics, working for a suicide hotline on the night of Christmas Eve, get caught up in a catastrophe when a pregnant woman, her abusive boyfriend, and a transvestite visit their office.

*Le Placard - 2001 French comedy film written and directed by Francis Veber. It is about a man who pretends to be homosexual to keep his job, with absurd and unexpected consequences.…

*Les Bronzés - a cult French comedy film directed by Patrice Leconte. The film satirizes life resorts such as Club Med. It is one of many films by the French comedy group Le Splendid. Josiane Balasko, Michel Blanc, Marie-Anne Chazel, Gérard Jugnot, Thierry Lhermitte and Christian Clavier wrote and created

*Les Bronzés Font Du Ski – the sequel to Les Bronzés

*Les Poupées Russes - Russian Dolls is a 2005 romantic comedy-drama film, the sequel to L'Auberge Espagnole (2002) and the second installment in the Spanish Apartment trilogy, which is concluded with Chinese Puzzle (Casse-tête chinois, 2013).

*Rien Que du Bonheur - With his vitriolic pen, Désiré Loncle, does not make the life of filmmakers easy. But chickens come home to roost, don't they? As a matter of fact, Désiré gets his due punishment when Manu, his girlfriend, kicks him out of home. At a loss, he finds refuge with Alex, a young actor. He is soon joined by Eduardo, an Italian producer, dumped like him by his wife. While Désiré tries to rebuild himself, the three men decide to write a film script that will be the basis of a vehicle for Alex.

*Rire et Chatiment – Vincent, an osteopath, suffering from histrionic personality disorder, exhausts Camille who decides to leave him. A disaster never comes alone, and Vincent discovers that same evening that his antics can sometimes trigger real drama.

*Tout Va Bien – On S’en Va - A father, knowing he has Alzheimer's disease, decides to reunite his three daughters in order to see them one last time and ease family tensions.

*Un Crime au Paradis - In the 1980 French countryside, farmer Jojo and his ill-tempered wife Lulu hate each other, though their respective interests speak against divorce. The only thing that keeps the oppressed Jojo from murder is the threat of the guillotine...

*Un petit jeu sans conséquence - Claire and Bruno have been together for 12 years. During a day in the countryside gathering all their loved ones (friends and family), they will be led to pretend that they are separating... Which comes as no surprise, much to their amazement.

*Une affaire privée - François Manéri is a private detective in charge of the whereabouts of a young missing woman, Rachel Siprien. Six months have passed since the disappearance. At the request of the mother of the latter, François took over the business.

A 3 disc collection of films by Jean Renoir

À Nous La Liberté – Émile is an escaped convict who becomes a wealthy industrialist. Unfortunately, his past returns (in the form of old jail pas Louis) to upset his carefully laid plans.

Amélie - Despite being caught in her imaginative world, Amelie, a young waitress, decides to help people find happiness. Her quest to spread joy leads her on a journey where she finds true love.

Au Revoir Les Enfants - During the winter of 1943–44, Julien Quentin, a student at a Carmelite boarding school in occupied France, is returning to school from vacation. He acts tough to the other students, but is actually a pampered boy who misses his mother deeply. Saddened to be returning to the monotony of boarding school, Julien's classes seem uneventful until Père Jean, the headmaster, introduces three new pupils.

Balzac – A passionate lover of women and the arts, Balzac is both ambitious and excessive. His flamboyant lifestyle is hindered, however, by tremendous persona struggles.

Bon Voyage - An actress, a writer, a student, and a government worker band together in an effort to escape Paris as the Germans move into the city.

Chocolat - A French woman and her young daughter open up a chocolate shop in a small remote village that shakes up the rigid morality of the community.

Coco Avant Chanel - a 2009 biographical drama film directed and co-written by Anne Fontaine The film stars Audrey Tatou  and details the early life of French fashion designer Coco Chanel.

Girl from Paris - Sandrine gets tired of her life as an IT instructor in Paris and decides to leave her work and dedicate her life to agriculture. She first goes to college where she earns her BTS in two years, undertaking internships along the way. She then wishes to buy an isolated farm in the Vercors from an old farmer called Adrien who wishes to retire.

Joyeux Noël - A 2005 war drama film based on the Christmas truce of December 1914, depicted through the eyes of  French, British and German soldiers.

L’Aventure c’est L’Aventure - In Paris in 1972, a group of five career criminals realise that the rewards from their traditional way of life are shrinking in the modern world. Lino, for example, finds that his prostitutes want to be independent entrepreneurs recognised by the state. Jacques accepts that his bank robberies yield a low net return for high risks. After much discussion, the five settle on celebrity kidnaps.

La Chêvre – After unsuccessfully searching for a French tycoon’s missing daughter in Mexico, Campana (Depardieu) is grudgingly saddled with accident-prone accountant Perrin (Richard), a would-be detective presumed to be so maladroit that he will accidentally lead Campana to the missing girl.

Les Choristes - In 2004, Pierre Morhange (Jacques Perrin), a French conductor performing in the United States, is informed before a concert that his mother has died. After the performance he returns to his home in France for her funeral. An old friend named Pépinot (Didier Flamand) arrives at his door with a diary which belonged to their teacher, Clément Mathieu. They proceed to read it together.

Les Compéres - A teenaged boy has run away from home. His father is ineffective at finding him, so his mother contacts two former lovers from around the time her son was conceived, telling them both that the child is their son and asking them to look for him.

Les Fugitifs - In the film, an experienced bank robber is taken hostage during a bank robbery. His former nemesis thinks that he orchestrated the latest robbery, and the veteran robber is forced to flee with his former captor.

Les Misérables (the musical w/ Hugh Jackman)

Les Misérables (w/ Gérard Depardieu) - In 19th-century France, Jean Valjean, who for decades has been hunted by the ruthless policeman Javert after breaking parole, agrees to care for a factory worker's daughter. The decision changes their lives …

Merci Pour le Chocolat - André Polonski is a virtuoso pianist of international renown. He first married Mika, owner of a Swiss chocolatecompany, but then left her for Lisbeth, with whom he had a son, Guillaume. When Lisbeth died in a car accident, he remarried Mika.

Midnight in Paris - Set in Paris, the film follows Gil Pender (Owen Wilson), a screenwriter, who is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his materialistic fiancée (Rachel McAdams) and their divergent goals, which become increasingly exaggerated as he travels back in time each night at midnight.

Mon Oncle - The film centers on the socially awkward yet lovable character of Monsieur Hulot and his quixotic struggle with postwar France's infatuation with modern architecture, mechanical efficiency and consumerism

Mon Oncle Antoine - Benoît is a young teenage boy living in rural Quebec. He works at the town general store belonging to his aunt Cécile and his uncle Antoine, who is also the town undertaker. On 24 December, he begins work, setting up the store display much to the delight of the town and flirting with Carmen, the young girl whom his uncle and aunt employ, and treat as an adopted child.

My Mother’s Castle (Le Château de Ma Mère) - Every holiday Marcel and his family go to their cottage near Marseilles. During one of these holidays he meets Isabelle, a pretty but conceited girl... Adapted from the cult classic novel from Marcel Pagnol.

Paris, Je t’aime - Through the neighborhoods of Paris, love is veiled, revealed, imitated, sucked dry, reinvented, and awakened.

Place Vendôme - Vincent Malivert is the head of a prestigious jewel broker's firm on the exclusive Place Vendôme. Hampered by debt and implicated in trafficking of stolen jewels, he commits suicide, leaving his wife Marianne to pick up the pieces.

Small Change - The lives of a motherless boy, who is just starting to get interested in women, and his physically abused friend, who lives in poverty, are mixed with more or less innocent childhood experiences and challenges of a number of children.

Stavisky -  1974French biographical drama film based on the life of the financier and embezzler Alexandre Stavisky and the circumstances leading to his mysterious death in 1934.

The Clockmaker - Respected professionally and socially, the widowed watchmaker Michel Descombes lives peacefully over his shop in Lyon with his teenage son Bernard, who works in a factory. One morning when his son has not come home, which is not unusual, police arrive and take Michel to see their inspector, who gradually breaks the news that the boy has killed a man and fled with a girl called Liliane.

The French Connection/The French Connection II - In Marseille, a police detective follows Alain Charnier, who runs a heroin-smuggling syndicate. The policeman is murdered by Charnier's hitman, Pierre Nicoli. Charnier plans to smuggle $32 million worth of heroin into the United States by hiding it in the car of his unsuspecting friend, television personality Henri Devereaux, who is traveling to New York by ship. /Picking up four years after the original left off, narcotics officer Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle  (Gene Hackman) is still searching for elusive drug kingpin Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey). Orders from his superiors send Doyle to Marseille, France, to track down the criminal mastermind and bust his drug ring.

Un Air de Famille - An average French family ostensibly celebrates a birthday in a restaurant. In one evening and during one meal, family history, tensions, collective and separate grudges, delights, and memories both clash and coalesce. Indeed, poking each other's sore spots turns out to be the main order of business.

LES LIVRES

amour cosaque - Heinz G. Konsalik

Antigone – Jean Anouilh

Black Out - Arthur Hailey

Burckhardt Le Bédouin de Petra - Daniele Masse

Cahier d’un Retour au Pays Natal – Aimé Césaire

Cartes sur Table - Agatha Christie

Châtelaine, un jour… - Max Du Veuzit

Christmas Pudding - Agatha Christie

Cinq heures vingt-cinq – Agatha Christie

Connaissance de l’Est – Paul Claudel

Contes de nos jours - Torrens/Sanders

Cyrano de Bergerac (lecture facile) – Edmond Rostand

Danse sur un Arc-en-Ciel - Utta Danella

Des Matins Heureux - Sophie TalMen

entre chiens et loups - Gilbert Cesbron

Faire surface - Margaret Atwood

Fausta vaincue - Zevaco

Gatsby le magnifique - Fitzgerald

Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers - J.K. Rowling

Imhotep Le Mage du Nil - Pierre Montlaur

J comme Jugement – Sue Grafton

Jacques le fataliste – Diderot

Jean de Florette – Marcel Pagnol

L’Affaire Pélican – John Grisham

L’Avare – Molière

L’aventure ambiguë – Cheikh Hamidou Kane

La Bougainvillée -n Fanny Deschamps

La cantatrice chauve/La leçon – Ionesco

La Carte Postale - Anne Berest

La Chanson de Roland

La Comtesse de Cagliostro - Lupin

La Faiseuse d'étoiles - Mélisa Da Costa

La ferme des animaux - George Orwell

La Loi - Roger Vailland

La Modification - Michel Butor