Marie Desgranges

Cheers to Joy

March 2020. Véra makes a quick trip to Paris to feed a friend’s fish and water her plants while she’s hospitalized with a mild case of Covid. France is already abuzz with rumors of the spreading virus. But instead of hopping on a train back to Montpellier, as planned, she impulsively lies to her fiancé and says all trains have been canceled and she’s stuck in Paris… just as everyone else is hightailing it out of the city and the entire country goes into lockdown. So Véra holes up in her friend’s apartment, relieved to have a bit of quiet time to herself. Then she crosses paths with Sam — a chance meeting that changes her life.

Safe Conduct

During the Nazi occupation of France, two filmmakers try to build a career without compromising their ideals.

Barbara

An actress will play Barbara, the French singer. The shoot will soon start. The actress works on her character, her voice, the songs, scores, the gestures, knitting, scenes she has to learn, things are going okay, there's progress, development, she is even overwhelmed. The film director also works, through his encounters, through archives, music, he let's himself be submerged, overwhelmed like the actress, by the actress.

Stateless

Etienne, 18, tries to find his place within his family. The father, a former skinhead, can’t bear any longer his son’s behavior. He finds him indolent, lazy, dreamy, a night bird. Yet the young man is looking for his father’s admiration, while opposing him at the same time. This paradox, this identity crisis will bring Etienne to a point of no return one morning when his father asks him to come and help him dismantle a small camp of refugees just outside the village.

Dad on the Run

Jonas, a 23-year-old dad, attempts to carry out an important Jewish tradition: burying the foreskin of his newly circumcised son. The forgetful father only has a few hours to complete the task... but having a group of hit men on his trail won't help matters much.

De gré ou de force

A subsidiary of Générale Financière d'Investissement (GFI), Medic-Hall, a medical equipment company, employs nine salespeople. As part of the restructuring of the group, management decided to separate from them, without paying them severance pay. For this, the company called on Sébastien Jalabier, a degreasing specialist, who undertakes to make them resign by resorting to various means of pressure: tracking down professional misconduct, humiliation, bullying, thankless tasks ...

Don Juan

Jilted on his wedding day, Laurent, a stage actor playing the role of the famous seducer Don Juan, cannot help but see his ex-fiancée in every women he meets. In an attempt to mend his broken heart and ego, he tries to seduce them all but none are receptive to his elaborate (and musical) advances. Meanwhile, at the theater, the leading lady quits and the production brings in Laurent’s ex-fiancée as the replacement.

Solitudes

One night, an interpreter translates a Romanian prostitute's testimony.

The Sacha Guitry Affair

On the morning of 23 August 1944 Sacha Guitry was arrested at his Paris appartment, as the French capital was being liberated. Accused of collaboration with the enemy, the author of successful plays ("My Father was Right," "Let's Make a Dream," "Quadrille") and director of the theatre of the Madeleine was to remain captive for sixty days. His detention took from from the depot, to the Vel' d'hiv', then Drancy, and finally Fresnes Prison.

Sole mio

Daniel copes as best he can with his mother who is desperate to receive news from his father. When the latter finally turns up at Daniel's place the day before his sex change operation so he can become Lisa, Daniel must force his father to at last tell the truth.

Le chasseur de la nuit

At the beginning of the 20th century, two teenagers experience a pathetic and tragic love affair in the Auvergne mountains.

In Praise of Love

Someone we hear talking - but whom we do not see - speaks of a project which describes the four key moments of love: meeting, physical passion, arguments/separation and making up. This project is to be told through three couples: young, adult and old. We do not know if the project is for a play, a film, a novel or an opera. The author of the project is always accompanied by a kind of servant. Meanwhile, two years earlier, an American civil servant meets with an elderly French couple who had fought in the Resistance during World War II, brokering a deal with a Hollywood director to buy the rights to tell their story. The members of the old couple's family discuss heatedly questions of nation, memory and history.

Marie-Louise ou la permission

Star crossed lovers are the focus of this French romantic comedy. Marie-Louise, an American, has come to Paris to meet her new lover, Jean-Paul who has a weekend pass from his military service post. Unfortunately they misunderstood each other's instructions and are each at different train stations. They begin desperate searches throughout the night to find each other. The are hindered by Jean-Paul's ex-lover Marie, whom he rejected. Marie will do anything to get rid of Marie-Louise and win Jean-Paul back. Marie-Louise has her own problems when Jean falls for her. Jean accidently gets her involved with the police after he is arrested on the suspicion of pickpocketing. Despite their travails, the couple still tries to find each other. In the end, they are assisted by a magical nun who finally reunites them.