Language Laboratory Film Collection Wagner College, Campus Hall ...

Ghost River/ La Vie Promise (2002) Olivier Dahan. France
Living a rough existence in Niza, Sylvia has to prostitute herself in order to survive along with her
daughter, Laurence. Sylvia and Laurence aren't getting along well, partly because Laurence is tired of her
mother's rough off-limit life, with drugs and alcohol. One night, Laurence stabs Silvia's boss partner after a
fight inside her house. Believing the man is dead, Silvia will run away with Laurence, hitch-hiking. She tries
to reach her ex husband’s house in the countryside, but things get a little bit difficult between Silvia and
Laurence. Later, Silvia meets an ex bank robber, Joshua, who offers to give her a ride in a gas station. When
they get separated, Joshua meets Laurence, who has a strange condition that paralyzes her, causing her
severe attacks. Before Silvia arrives to Piotr's cabin in the wood, she and Laurence will have reconstructed
their lost bond.
The Gleaners & I / Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000) Agnès Varda. France
An intimate, picaresque inquiry into French life as lived by the country's poor and its provident, as well as
by the film's own director, Agnès Varda. The aesthetic, political and moral point of departure for Varda are
gleaners, those individuals who pick at already-reaped fields for the odd potato, the leftover turnip. In
terms of Varda’s treatment of herself in film, this is an innovative approach to autobiography on film.
Goodbye, Children/ Au Revoir les enfants (1987) Louis Malle. France (2 copies)
During WWII, in a Catholic boarding school in the French countryside, two boys become friends. One is a
French boy, Julien Quintin, and the other is a Jewish boy, Jean Bonnet, who is being hidden from the Nazis
by the friars who run the school. Louis Malle directed this film based on what actually happened when he
was at a boarding school himself during the war.
The Good Time Girls/ Les bonnes femmes (1960) Claude Chabrol. France
Ginette, Rita, Jacqueline and Jane try to find fulfillment and love in their lives. Rita has a fiancé whose
family is obsessed with social distinction; Jane has a boy-friend in the army, but does not hesitate to enjoy
herself with chance encounters; Ginette has a mysterious passion that keeps her away from her colleagues
at nights. Jacqueline is lonely; but who is that mysterious bike-rider who is constantly following her?
Good Work/ Beau travail (1999) Claire Denis. France
This film focuses on an ex-Foreign Legion officer, Galoup, as he recalls his once glorious life, leading troops
in the Gulf of Djibouti. His existence there was happy, strict and regimented, but the arrival of a promising
young recruit, Sentain, plants the seeds of jealousy in Galoup's mind. He feels compelled to stop him from
coming to the attention of the commandant who he admires, but who ignores him. Ultimately, his jealousy
leads to the destruction of both Sentain and himself.
The Grocer’s Son/ Le fils de l'épicier (2007) Eric Guirado. France
Antoine Sforza, a thirty-year-old young man, left his village ten years before in order to start a new life in
the big city, but now that his father, a traveling grocer, is in hospital after a stroke, he more or less
reluctantly accepts to come back to replace him in his daily rounds. Back in the village, accompanied by
Claire, a young woman he loves but who hesitates to commit herself, he does the job half-satisfactorily. Too
blunt, not in harmony with the locals, he offends them more than he serves them. Fortunately Claire, who
has more business acumen, helps him to improve his skills. On the other hand, the relationships are tense
with his brother François and even worse with his father, who despises him. So when the latter is back in
the village, the situation deteriorates...