Jean-François Balmer

It's Not Me (2024)

This free-form film is a self-portrait, which revisits more than 40 years of the author's filmography and questions the major stations of his life, while capturing the political tremors of the time. ...

The Worst Man in London (2024)

In Victorian London lives a man of adventurous spirit and great wit, Charles Augustus Howell, art agent, art dealer, conspirator and master of blackmail. ...

Mise au Vert (2023)

To strengthen family ties, to free his teenagers from their digital addiction, to reconnect with his roots in the region of his childhood; this is why Régis decides to take his wife and children on a surprise vacation in the Vercors. An old ruined house l ...

Juliette dans son bain (2022)

Ronny Kandiotis, a billionaire and art lover, is the guest of a major museum, on the occasion of a donation to France of two paintings, one by Gauguin and the other by Munch. The same evening, his daughter Lara, is kidnapped by a mysterious organization, w ...

Waiting for Anya (2020)

During the harrows of WWII, Jo, a young shepherd along with the help of the widow Horcada, helps to smuggle Jewish children across the border from southern France into Spain. ...

Visiting Card (2019)

Based on fourteen poems by Max Jacob put to music by Henri Sauguet and Robert Caby, Carte de visite is a particularly vibrant and faithful tribute to the overlooked great poet. Michel Zumpf makes good use of cinema and directs his film just like Max Jacob ...

Murder on Omaha Beach (2018)

Captain Eloïse Gentil, of Caen police, hasn't been on speaking terms with her father Robert, an expert on WWII, for twenty years. But the two are brought together to investigate the death of James Crawley, a 91 year-old former GI, found tied to a pole and ...

Dieumerci ! (2016)

A 44 year old guy gets out of jail and wants to become an actor. ...

Cosmos (2015)

Two young men seek the solitude of the country; their peace is disturbed when a set of random occurrences suggest to their susceptible minds a pattern with sinister meanings. ...

Dead Europe (2012)

In Greece to scatter his father's ashes, Isaac hears of a curse that hangs over the head of his family. Dismissing the idea, his trip begins to unveil dark truths that forced his father to flee years ago. ...

In the House (2012)

A sixteen-year-old boy insinuates himself into the house of a fellow student from his literature class and writes about it in essays for his French teacher. Faced with this gifted and unusual pupil, the teacher rediscovers his enthusiasm for his work, but ...

Celles qui aimaient Richard Wagner (2011)

La Joie de vivre (2011)

At the end of the 19th century, an orphan comes to live with her aunt and uncle in Normandy. The girl is taken in not only out of philanthropy, but because she has a large inheritance that is held in trust. The child grows up and is attracted to her cousin ...

L'Infiltré (2011)

A notorious French ex-felon becomes an informant and infiltrates a Mexican drug cartel. ...

Mort d'un président (2011)

Colère (2010)

The town of Carzac Shakespeare suffered a violent attack that caused a fire in the local factory. Many dead and wounded. Two citizens investigate the drama and discover that its origin could be criminal. ...

Mumu (2010)

The story a rescue, the rescue of a bad brat's life in the post-WWII period. In 1947, Roger reaches 11 years old. He's a kid badly loved, mischievous and specializes in silly things to do. He is sent to a small boarding school in a small village. Mumu reig ...

Lucky Luke (2009)

Fearless gunslinger, Lucky Luke, is ordered by the President to bring peace to Daisy Town. ...

La Vallée delle ombre (2009)

Matteo, a boy from the city, goes to visit his grandfather in a secluded mountain village, where preparations for a local ancient festival are under way. Matteo spends the eve of the festival with Lidia and three other boys from the village. The group of k ...

Lucifer et moi (2009)

Tokyo! (2008)

Three distinct tales unfold in the bustling city of Tokyo. Merde, a bizarre sewer-dweller, emerges from a manhole and begins terrorizing pedestrians. After his arrest, he stands trial and lashes out at a hostile courtroom. A man who has resigned himself to ...

The Sacha Guitry Affair (2007)

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," "Quadrill ...

Henry Dunant: Red on the Cross (2007)

Henry Dunant, son of a Geneva francophone upper class bourgeoisie family, works for a Swiss exploitation company in French Algeria; when the colonists are thirsty, he returns determined to convince the firm and emperor Napoleon III to build a dam for them. ...

Elephant Tales (2006)

A tale of two elephant brothers, Tutu and Zef, in search of their mother, and the menagerie of wild creatures they encounter along the way. Just days after the birth of baby elephant Tutu, human hunters arrive late at night and decimate the herd. Faced wit ...

A Winter in Paris (2006)

After being released from prison, a burglar is convinced by a former accomplice to participate in the theft of a precious jewel belonging to a rich heiress. ...

Comedy of Power (2006)

Magistrate Jeanne Charmant-Killman doggedly investigates CEO Michel Humeau, who is accused of participating in massive corporate malfeasance. As her investigation leads her into the upper echelons of government, Jeanne becomes intoxicated by the power she ...

Pierre et Jean (2004)

In the 1930s, on the eve of the Popular Front, Pierre and Jean harmoniously combine their brotherhood. Pierre has just finished his medical studies, Jean his law studies. A rivalry is born between the brothers when Jean, the youngest, inherits the fortune ...

Totally Nuts (2004)

Diane, a young woman in search of a child, is looking for money to go to the sperm bank. She crosses paths with Arthur, a bank robber. ...

My New Partner III (2003)

It's been ten years since the paths of René and François parted ways. From the glorious era when, as cops, they roamed the Montmartre district, they only have a handful of memories left, the money from their cronies having evaporated over time. Everythin ...

That Day (2003)

A father is scheming to have his slightly mental daughter from an earlier marriage killed by allowing a murderous psychopath to be released from the asylum and led to his house. However, the psychopath and the daughter fall for each other. ...

Belphegor, Phantom of the Louvre (2001)

A collection of artifacts from an archeological dig in Egypt are brought to the famous Louvre museum in Paris, and while experts are using a laser scanning device to determine the age of a sarcophagus, a ghostly spirit escapes and makes its way into the mu ...

Charming Fellow (2001)

Octave and his friends, Achille and Hector, wander around at night in the grocery stores, the regulars' restaurants and the creepy bars. Octave meets Esther by chance. These two people have diametrically opposed characters. She is beautiful, cultured, free ...

The King's Daughters (2000)

Late 17th Century: Anne de Grandcamp and Lucie de Fontenelle, two little girls from Normandy, arrive at the Saint-Cyr school founded by Madame de Maintenon for educating the daughters of impoverished nobles ruined in wars and making them into free women. ...

T'aime (2000)

Zef, twenty years old, is a simple-minded man who can only say one word: "love you". Always happy, loving everyone, he lives with his sister Sophie on a farm in the Lot. Attracted by the sad smile of Marie, he rapes her one evening without realizing the gr ...

La Dilettante (1999)

Pierrette is a woman who describes herself as having "opted for the temporary on a permanent basis." After 15 years of living the good life in Switzerland, Pierrette one day packs her bags full of fashionable outfits and returns to her native Paris with no ...

Time Regained (1999)

In early 1920s France, an author, lying on his deathbed, looks at various photographs and is flooded with memories of the people and events that have shaped his life. ...

The Swindle (1997)

Betty and Victor, a rather ill-matched couple, tour unobtrusively around France in their motor-home, earning their living as petty con artists, until one day they find themselves involved in an international money scam which takes them on a globe-trotting ...

An Unlikely Adventurer (1997)

Carole is ready to do anything to save the Guyanese forest and the Wayanas Indians from the pollution of the Gerson laboratories! Fearless and determined, our adventuress will face the unscrupulous men sent by the laboratories to make her give in. In the j ...

La vérité est un vilain défaut (1997)

The trials and tribulations of a good guy who feels obliged to confess the truth to his wife or his boss every time he makes a mistake. ...

Sidecar (1997)

The gloomy life of a high school censor is turned upside down the day he meets an old classmate. ...

Beaumarchais the Scoundrel (1996)

Beaumarchais the Scoundrel is a biopic film based on the life of the French playwright, financier and spy Pierre Beaumarchais depicting his activities during the American War of Independence and his authorship of the Figaro trilogy of plays. ...

Lou Didn’t Say No (1994)

Moments and aspects of the life of a contemporary married couple undergoing a metamorphosis. ...

Crystal Book (1994)

This European thriller, set in Sri Lanka, attempts to expound upon the philosophical implications of life, death, and memory. JB, an academic famed for his studies of oriental culture and alcoholic who has never recovered from his wife's suicide, returns t ...

My Chinese Sister (1994)

In 1977, one year after Mao died, a French man ( played by Alain Bashung) comes back to China to work as a school teacher with his daughter. He quickly ignores the interdiction of getting in touch with Chinese people and finds himself drawn into mysterious ...

La Lumière des étoiles mortes (1994)

June 1940. The Wechrmacht appropriates the houses in which are living Pierre, his wife Magdeleine, their son Charles, their two servants Louise and Lea, and Mademoiselle, the beautiful jewish governess. ...

Rocking Poponguine (1994)

A tale of growing up in 1960s Senegal. Bacc narrates his early years of living in Popenguine, a town divided by culture and musical tastes. ...

Spender : The French Collection (1993)

Spender Christmas Special: Spender is sent to France to escort Tommy Thornton who has been extradited to the UK. ...

East Wind (1993)

The true story of General Smyslovsky and the anti-Communist 1st Russian National Army receiving shelter in Liechtenstein in 1945 and successfully resisting Soviet pressure to be returned for execution in the USSR. ...

Sam's Enough (1992)

After trying a job as a stripper in a Barcelona carnival, Eva (Aure Attika) is ready for something new, so she heads over to France and becomes the roommate of a gay American artist (Phillip Bartlett) and works as the housewife for two wealthy older homose ...

Diên Biên Phu (1992)

Vietnam, 1954. An American reporter finds himself in the middle of the battle of Điện Biên Phủ, between the French army and the Vietminh. ...

La fenêtre (1992)

Madame Bovary (1991)

In 19th-century France, doctor's wife Emma Bovary seeks to escape her dull provincial life through various extramarital affairs and extravagant spending, leading to tragic consequences. ...

En attendant Godot (1989)

Two vagabonds, Vladimir and Estragon, meet on stage in a non-place ("Country road with tree") at dusk to wait for "Godot". This man - who will never come - has promised them that he will come to the rendezvous; although it is not clear what he is supposed ...

The French Revolution (1989)

A history of the French Revolution beginning from the decision of the king to convene the Etats-Generaux in 1789 in order to deal with France's debt problem. Part one spans the event until August 10, 1792 (when the King Louis XVI lost all authority and was ...

The French Revolution: Years of Hope (1989)

First part that includes the beginnings of the French Revolution. The film begins by recounting the events that led to the convocation of the States General in 1789 and ends with the assault on the Tuileries Palace, which occurred on August 10, 1792. ...

Mer de Chine: Le pays pour mémoire (1988)

Golden Eighties (1986)

In a lively shopping center, proprietors and customers are bustling, including three women vying for a man's heart with song and dance. ...

Last Image (1986)

Seen through the filtered lens of boyhood memories, award-winning director Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina crafted this half-fictional, half-autobiographical account of a brief period in the history of an Algerian village. It is 1940, and the quiet town is ruled by ...

L'Amour ou presque (1985)

Without warning, Mélie disembarks on the cargo ship where her father has the sailor's blues. He remembers his drifts and his friend Max who used to get him into some crazy situations. He remembers Alice and Luc whom he decided to avenge. He has his grenad ...

Le Transfuge (1985)

A French industrialist, Bernard Corain, who frequently travels on business to the German Democratic Republic, is contacted by the SDECE to establish a "relationship" with a high-ranking East German official who wishes to leave his country clandestinely... ...

Folie suisse (1985)

Adrien Daubigny, director at INSEE, warns his wife Anna that he now wants to lead his life by chance. Anna and her two children agree to his leaving. The family must meet again a year later. ...

Urgence (1985)

When a neo-Nazi group of terrorists is set to blow a pop concert off the face of the earth because it is an anti-racist benefit, they are faced with the intrepid Jean-Pierre Mougin, a macho sports reporter with zero tolerance for Nazi hate crimes. Going al ...

The Blood of Others (1984)

In the German-occupied Paris, Helene is torn between the love for her boyfriend Jean, working for the resistance and the German administrator Bergmann, who will do anything to gain her affection. ...

Wild Animals (1984)

Berg and Bela are married stunt drivers, but one night Bela dies in an accident. Jaded and reclusive, Berg becomes a nighttime security guard where he befriends a young woman, Mimi, who works nights too. Soon a shadowy figure from Bela's past comes into Be ...

Polar (1984)

This film noir tends to stay within very conventional plot lines, as the narration by the main protagonist, private detective Eugene Tarpon Jean-François Balmer, recites a dreary litany of how he wanted to chuck his profession until an attractive woman sh ...

Swann in Love (1984)

In Belle Époque Paris, a 19th-century Parisian aristocrat falls in love with a lower-class prostitute who seduces him but never loves him. ...

The African (1983)

Charlotte flies to East Africa to build a tourist center near Lake Williams where the pygmies live. Here she meets her husband Victor, a devoted conservationist who left her three years ago to live in the jungle. Can you imagine his enthusiasm when she arr ...

Ladies' Choice (1982)

As a result of an automobile accident, a sophisticated TV producer meets her car mechanic/blue collar nemesis. They start a comic affair, but can they reconcile their totally different worlds? ...

Bluff (1982)

A César award winning short film about a group of men playing poker until, at precisely 6pm, a bright light suddenly invades their room... ...

Strange Affair (1981)

A young Parisian advertising executive becomes so captivated by the unsettling charm of his mysterious new employer that he eventually abandons his family and friends, viewing it a privilege to let the ubiquitous employer take over his home, his life, his ...

Snow (1981)

Anita is a barmaid at the center of a community of street preachers, prostitutes, dealers and users. When a beloved friend (and young drug dealer) is caught by narcotics agents, Anita takes it upon herself to score for his struggling clients. ...

Une page d'amour (1980)

In Passy, ​​Paris, 1895. The young widow Hélène calls the doctor Henri Deberle during the night, when her daughter Jeanne suddenly gets breathless. Together they spend the night at the bedside, and it develops from a trusting encounter a love relatio ...

Cop or Hood (1979)

When the local police inspector was found dead in a prostitute's house, police division commissioner Stan Borowitz is sent to investigate the situation. Posing as the prostitute's long-lost brother "Antonio Cerruti," he discovers a mare's nest of police co ...

These Kids Are Grown-Ups (1979)

When a real-estate promoter attempts to take over the homes of two electronics whizzes and boot them out, they contrive ingenious ways to inconvenience and harass him. By pooling their knowledge, they are able to pull off a crucial robbery using a very spe ...

The Sewers of Paradise (1979)

In July of 1976, the Societé Générale of France was robbed of well over $10 million dollars by a group burrowing through the sewers of Paris. This movie is based on a book by the thieves' mastermind, Albert Spaggiari. The famous theft won the nickname, ...

The Adolescent (1979)

In the summer of 1939, 13-year-old Marie goes with her parents to visit her grandparents in a small town near Avignon. Marie discovers her femininity and falls for a young Jewish doctor, but he prefers Eva, Marie's mother. ...

Mountain Pass (1978)

Serge (Stevenin) is a dweller in the French provinces who happens upon Georges (Jacques Villeret), a Parisian motorist in distress. Serge arranges for the car to be taken to a nearby garage. Georges' friends, who were with him in the car, have continued th ...

Le Chandelier (1977)

Jacqueline is married to Maître André, but is in love with her lover Clavaroche, a fiery officer stationed in the city. In order to avert Master André's suspicions about his wife's fidelity, Clavaroche suggests that Jacqueline take a "Chandelier". ...

La Menace (1977)

Henri Savin has managed a trucking company for his lover, Dominique Montlaur, for many years. Now he is planning to leave her for Julie Manet, the woman he has made pregnant, and Dominique is hysterical. She first threatens suicide, then shows up at a meet ...

The Castaways of Turtle Island (1976)

Jean-Arthur has been working as a clerk in a travel agency. One day, he, along with his colleague comes to a brilliant idea: what if I offer tourists real extreme recreation? So the group of tourists land on a deserted island with no food, no shelter, noth ...

Little Marcel (1976)

A homeless young man, living in his delivery truck, is simultaneously adopted by a pranksome group of youngsters and made into a police informer. Believing that he is doing something good both for the other kids and for himself, he has no qualms. ...

The Night Caller (1975)

A serial-killer frightens Paris by phoning young ladies at night, telling them insults about their lives. Minos, as he calls himself, wants to prevent the world from free women and he targets at first these ones. Commissaire Letellier is given the investig ...

The Mouth Agape (1974)

Monique is dying of cancer, lying in bed in the apartment above the store her family owns. Her philandering husband carries on with life, her son remains aloof, and her daughter-in-law wonders if she is witnessing her own decline. They all struggle to expr ...

Love at the Top (1974)

A shy bank employee unexpectedly invites a young woman to a café, leading to a one-night stand. When he shares this with his disillusioned friend, the writer helps him navigate a dazzling social ascent. ...

Nothing to Report (1973)

In 1956, the professional army of France lacks the manpower to keep the peace in Algeria, the colony which the country is determined to hold on to at any price. For this reason, reservists are called up and subject to an intense period of training before b ...