To aid in the selection of videos for your class and research needs, we've created a large number of filmographies on many subject areas.
If you'd like help linking streaming videos to your Canvas Course Reserves or reserving DVDs for you or your students, please contact
mediaservices@american.edu
This is a selective list of video holdings in the American University Library. Filmographies are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible.
For complete, up-to-date holdings please search the library catalog search box on the Media Services homepage. (http://www.american.edu/library/mediaservices/) Finding Aids on the same page includes other subject oriented content.
For more information take a look at the Streaming Video Guides and Browsing Collections.
See also French Language Feature Films – Streaming Guide
13 Tzameti. 2007. 1 videodisc (ca. 90 min.). A young man struggling to support his family takes a package from a neighbor that promises wealth beyond his belief. When he follows the instructions on the package, he finds himself in a game that he might not make it out of alive. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2553
2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle = 2 or 3 things I know about her. 2009. The Criterion collection1 videodisc (84 min.). Juliette, a bourgeois housewife, is a loving wife and mother whose domestic moments alternate with her days and nights as a call girl. Money, sex, fashion, the city, love, language, war. In a word, everything. The film takes as its ostensible subject the daily life of Juliette Janson, a housewife from the Paris suburbs who prostitutes herself for extra money. Features include interviews, essays, and more. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6067
3 hommes et un couffin = Three men and a cradle. 2005. 1 videodisc (106 min.). Life will never be the same again for womanizing roommates Pierre, Jacques and Michel when a basket bearing a small infant - presumably the by-product of one Jacques' passion plays - suddenly arrives on their doorstep. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5836
35 rhums = 35 shots of rum. 2010. 1 videodisc (102 min.). Lionel is a middle-aged widower who makes his living driving a train and shares an apartment with his twenty-something daughter Josephine. Lionel and Josephine have a warm and caring relationship. Lionel's on-and-off girlfriend Gabrielle and their footloose friend Noe live in the same building, and together the four have fallen into a casual family relationship. Lionel is on edge when Josephine's friendship with Noe begins to evolve into a romantic relationship. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7040
5 x 2 = Cinq fois deux. 2005. 1 videodisc (90 min.). "5x2 is a haunting and realistic evocation of the evanescence of love and how adult relationships evolve over time ... François Ozon crafts a chamber drama that is an anatomy of a failed marriage told in reverse chronology, starting with the finalization of the couples divorce and concluding, literally, as they walk off into the sunset for their first encounter. Subverting the conventions of cinema romance along with audience expectations of happy endings, Ozon focuses on five key chapters in these two people's lives-- including the first blush of sexual attraction, the wedding night and the birth of their first child-- that reveal the inextricable emotional ties between them...at the same time that they expose the inevitable seeds of discord"--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1810
8 femmes = 8 women. 2002. 1 videodisc (111 min.). A wealthy industrialist is found murdered in his home while his family gathers for the holiday season. The house is isolated and the phone lines have been found to be cut. Eight women are his potential murderers. Each is a suspect and each has a motive. Only one is guilty. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3755
À la folie, pas du tout = He loves me, he loves me not. 2002. 1 videodisc (96 min.). Angelique, a young student, is in love with a married doctor. She tries to convince him to leave his pregnant wife. Is the love affair the one-sided obsession of a desperate woman clinging to a hopeless dream, and turning it into a nightmare when she realizes it may not come true? HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4070
À ma soeur! = Fat girl. 2004. Criterion collection: Classic collection (Chicago, Ill.). 1 videodisc (86 min.). Twelve-year-old Anaïs is fat. Her sister, Eléna, is a beauty. Eléna meets an Italian law student, who seduces her with promises of love, as the ever-watchful Anaïs bears witness to the corruption of her sister's innocence. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2945
Adanggaman. 2007. 1 videodisc (85 min.). Ossei is a strong-willed young man who sets out to rescue his mother when their village is raided. His quest leads him to the stronghold of the dreaded King Adanggaman, an arrogant despot who thrives on the slave trade and uses fierce female warriors to enforce his power. One of these Amazons, herself a former slave, falls in love with Ossei, and they escape to the bush. DVD 4850
Adieu Philippine. 2008. Jacques Rozier: Jacques Rozier (Series). 1 videodisc (106 min.). Michel is working in a television crew while he waits to be shipped out with the French Army to Algeria. He meets two young actresses, Liliane and Juliette, who join him as he spends his last days of liberty. DVD 7916
The adventures of Antoine Doinel five films. 2003. Criterion collection: Criterion collection . 5 videodiscs (412 min.). Five films featuring the enthusiastic, melancholic, and hopelessly romantic trouble maker Antoine Doinel, played by Jean-Pierre Léaud. The films take Doinel from his troubled childhood through myriad frustrations and romantic entanglements, from his stormy teens through marriage, children, divorce, and adulthood. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5251-5255
L'affaire = Farewell. 2011. 1 videodisc (118 min.). In 1981 after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. U.S.-Soviet relations are at their lowest point in more than a decade. A French businessman based in Moscow, Pierre Froment, makes an unlikely connection with Grigoriev, a senior KGB officer disenchanted with what the Communist ideal has become under Brezhnev. Grigoriev begins passing him highly sensitive information about the Soviet spy network in the U.S. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9212
L'age d'or. 2004. 1 videodisc (63 min.). Using a melange of strange and unrelated images, this surrealistic film about two lovers who mock convention is a statement by Buñuel on the nature of the bourgeoisie, the Church and the police. Banned in France within two weeks of its release. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2792
al-Rihlah al-kubrá = Le grand voyage. 2006. Film Movement series: Film Movement series. 1 videodisc (113 min.). The stern father of a Muslim family in France has his teenage son drive him to Mecca for the religious pilgrimage known as the hajj. The son, who is irreligious and has a non-Muslim girlfriend, doesn't relate to his traditionalist father, nor does the dad relate to his son -- a culture clash (and generational clash) that is the spine of their entire trip to Saudi Arabia. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8961
Alphaville une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution. 98. The Criterion collection: The Classic collection: Criterion collection (DVD videodiscs): Classic collection (Chicago, Ill.). 1 videodisc (99 min.). Secret agent Lemmy Caution travels to another galaxy and finds himself in a computer-run society which is dedicated to technology and outlaws emotion. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 136
Les amants = The lovers. 2008. Criterion collection: Criterion collection . 1 videodisc (90 min.). A restless bourgeois French woman finds her eye wandering from both her husband and her lover to an attractive passing stranger. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5243
Les amants du Pont-Neuf = The lovers on the bridge. 2003. 1 videodisc (126 min.). A homeless artist who is losing her sight finds herself drawn into a passionate relationship with a troubled street performer. Despite all obstacles, they find love and shelter on the famed Pont-Neuf bridge in Paris. But in time, their unlikely love will be tested as the artist's secret past catches up with her. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4200
Amélie from Montmartre = Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. 2001. 2 videodiscs (122 min.). Amélie is a young woman who had a decidedly unusual childhood; misdiagnosed with an unusual heart condition, Amélie didn't attend school with other children, but spent most of her time in her room, where she developed a keen imagination and an active fantasy life. Despite all this, Amélie has grown into a healthy and beautiful young woman who works in a cafe and has a whimsical, romantic nature. She decides to step into the lives of others around her to help them out. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 401
Amour de femme. 2004. 1 videodisc (89 min.). Jeanne, a happily married, 35-year-old osteopath with a 7-year old son meets a pretty dancer named Marie at a party arranged by her husband. While Marie is much younger than Jeanne, there is an immediate chemistry between them. The two soon become close friends and Jeanne decides to start taking a dance class taught by Marie. But when Marie starts to fall in love with Jeanne and decides to kiss her, Jeanne discovers she too loves Marie. Jeanne must now choose between the happy family life she currently maintains and her new love. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4374
L'amour en fuite = Love on the run. 2003. Criterion collection: Criterion collection . 1 videodisc (95 min.). The conclusion of the Antoine Doinel series. Antoine is now in his thirties, in the process of divorcing Christine, enjoying moderate success as a novelist, and clinging to his romantic fantasies. The newly single Doinel finds a new object of his affections in Sabine, a record store salesgirl whom he pursues with the belief that without love, one is nothing. Along the way he renews his acquaintance with previous loves and confronts his past. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5254
L'amour, l'apráes-midi. 2006. Criterion Collection: Criterion collection . 1 videodisc [98 min.]. A successful young executive living in the suburbs with his wife and baby finds himself attracted to, and then entangled with, another woman from his past. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2426
Andre Techine. 2008. 3 videodiscs (452 min.). Hotel America: Hélène, a distracted anesthetist, almost runs down Gilles one evening on a Biarritz street. She is still numb from the drowning death earlier that year of her lover, a visionary architect. Gilles presses for a relationship, then backs away, deciding she could never love someone of lower class and limited prospects. But she does fall in love with him and gradually her depression eases. As she heals, he becomes obsessed with her lover's talents and his own limitations, behaving bizarrely and pushing her away. I don't kiss: Pierre breaks away from his family life in rural France and moves to Paris where he finds it harder than expected to become an actor. He rejects the help of an older gay man and lives on the streets, where he meets a young female prostitute. My favorite season: Set in beautiful southwest France and marked by the symbolic passage of seasons, this film explores the turbulent relationship between Emilie and her brother Antoine during a particularly emotional eruption of their long-time dysfunctional family. Wild reeds: A poignant coming-of-age story set in southwest France in 1962. Sensitive young François is uncertain of his sexuality as he finds himself more attracted to his classmate Serge than to his platonic girlfriend Maïté. An older boy, Henri, is drawn into the circle, further complicating relationships. Through their passage into adulthood, the four experience a series of sexual and political conflicts as they explore the mysteries of the human heart. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3581-3583
L'Année dernière a Marienbad = Last year at Marienbad. 2009. The Criterion collection: Criterion collection . 2 videodiscs (94 min.). L'Année dernière a Marienbad: "A surreal fever dream, or nightmare, gorgeously fuses the past with the present in telling its ambiguous tale of a man and a woman who may or may not have met a year ago, perhaps at the very same cathedral-like, mirror-filled château they now find themselves wandering. Unforgettable in both its confounding details (gilded ceilings, diabolical parlor games, a loaded gun) and haunting scope, Resnais' investigation into the nature of memory is disturbing, romantic, and maybe even a ghost story." -- Disc menu. Toute la mémoire du monde: "A poetic piece about the French national library in Paris and the archiving of memory that looks forward to his later films." -- Disc menu. Styrene [aka: Le chant du styrene] : This short film was "shot in the Pechiney polystyrene factories and features boldly abstract color images and voice-over text [written] by Raymond Queneau." -- Disc menu. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 135*
L'armâee des ombres = Army of shadows. 2007. The Criterion collection: Criterion collection . 2 videodiscs (145 min.). A civil engineer who is one of the French Resistance's chiefs is given away by a traitor and interned in a camp. HOME USE COLLECTIONDVD 3744
L'armée du crime = Army of crime. 2011. 1 videodisc (138 min.). In Paris, 1941, Armenian poet Missak Manouchian leads a motley crew of foreign-born resistance fighters in clandestine battle against the Nazi occupation. An initially reluctant Manouchian and his team must resort to guerilla tactics and radical measures in the name of liberty. News of their daring attacks, including the assassination of an SS general, eventually reaches Berlin. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8291
Ascenseur pour l'echafaud. 2006. Louis Malle collection. 1 videodisc (97 min.). Florence Carala and her lover Julien Tavernier, an ex-paratrooper, want to murder her husband by faking a suicide. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5241
L'Atalante. 2003. International cinema. 1 videodisc (87 min.). When Juliette marries Jean, she comes to live with him aboard the barge "L'Atalante", where they travel along the Seine River. The bride, becomes bored and leaves the ship for Paris where she starts flirting with other men. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 601
L'Atlantide = The mistress of Atlantis. 2005. 1 videodisc (78 min.). Two French legionnaires become lost in the Algerian desert and discover the fabled lost continent of Atlantis. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2928
Au hasard Balthazar. 2005. The Criterion collection: Criterion collection . 1 videodisc (95 min.). Robert Bresson's masterpiece follows a much-abused donkey, Balthazar, whose life strangely parallels that of his owner, Marie. A beast of burden suffering the sins of man, Balthazar nevertheless nobly accepts his fate. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1365
Au revoir les enfants = Goodbye, children. 2006. Criterion collection: Criterion collection . 1 videodisc (101 min.). Based on the director's life, this film chronicles Malle's experiences during the German occupation of France in World War II. DVD 2021
L'Auberge espagnole. 2003. 1 videodisc (122 min.). Xavier is a straight-laced French college senior who moves to Barcelona as part of a student exchange program, much to the dismay of his beautiful girlfriend. But sharing cramped quarters with students from all over Europe quickly leads to multi-cultural chaos as Xavier gets an eye-opening lesson on how to live, love, laugh and party. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1311
L'avocat de la terreur = Terror's advocate . 2008. 1 videodisc (137 min.). A look at Jacques Verges, a lawyer known for not only defending and later marrying a known bomber, but also for winning cases for known Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy and Nazi criminal Klaus Barbie. DVD 9717
Azur et Asmar = The princes' quest. 2009. 1 videodisc (99 min.). Two infants from very different backgrounds become friends through circumstance, only to become rivals as adults. When the pair work together on a quest to find their princesses, will their true friendship once again shine through? HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6696
La baie des anges = Bay of angels. 2003. 1 videodisc (79 min.). A hypnotic tale of love at the roulette wheel as a compulsive gambler falls in love with a bank clerk on holiday. DVD 8724
Baisers volés = Stolen kisses. 2003. Criterion collection: Criterion collection . 1 videodisc (91 min.). The third installment of the Antoine Doinel series. It's now 1968 and the mischievous and perpetually love struck Doinel has been dishonorably discharged from the army and has returned to Paris, where he embarks on a series of ill-fated jobs, finally settling on an amusing stint as a private detective. In his ever-turbulent love life, he finds himself torn between an attractive, serious-minded young violinist and a glamorous, older married woman. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5252
Le ballon rouge = The red balloon. 2008. Criterion collection . 1 videodisc (34 min.). Pascal is a young French boy who discovers a stray balloon on the streets of Paris that seems to have a mind of its own and begins to follow Pascal everywhere. The two become inseparable, yet the world's harsh realities finally interfere. A touching allegory of the magic powers of love and friendship. Pascal, a French boy, befriends a red balloon that follows him everywhere. A touching allegory of the magic powers of love and friendship. Newly restored. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4202
Bande à part = Band of outsiders. 2003. Criterion collection: Criterion collection . 1 videodisc (95 min.). Two burglars plan a robbery with a young woman they just met. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1340
Barakat! = Enough! 2008. Global lens collection. 1 videodisc ( 94 min.). The story of two women. Emel is a Westerner whose husband, a journalist, is missing - perhaps kidnapped or even killed. Khadija is an older woman who has lived through the country's decades-long struggle. Together they search for Emel's husband. DVD 1975
La bataille du rail = the battle of the rails. 2006. 1 videodisc ( 85 min.). During the occupation of France by Nazi Germany, French railway workers bravely battled the Nazis on many fronts, from transporting forbidden mail to committing acts of sabotage. They became an invaluable part of the French resistance. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1906
The beaches of Agnès Les plages d'Agnès. 2010. The Agnes Varda collection. 1 videodisc (110 min.). An autobiographical reflection on art, life and the movies from director Agnès Varda. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7524
Belle de jour. 200. 1 videodisc (102 min.). Subtle, erotic film about a wealthy young surgeon's wife who indulges her masochistic fantasies by working as a part-time prostitute in a Paris brothel. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 646
La belle et la bête = Beauty and the beast . 98. Criterion collection: Criterion collection . 1 videodisc (93 min.). A fable about a kindly beast and the self-sacrificing beauty whose love releases him from a terrible magic spell. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 201
Betty Blue. 88. 2 videodiscs (122 min.). Betty and Zorg make life a magical fantasy in which absolutely anything can happen--until their dreams collide with reality. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 994
Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis = Welcome to the sticks. 2007. 1 videodisc (106 min.). Post office manager Philippe longs for a transfer to the sunny, sophisticated south of France. But when his attempt to cheat his way into a transfer backfires, he is sent instead to Nord-Pas de Calais. This northern province is known for its chilly dampness, its drunken, unemployable population, its terrible food and an impenetrable dialect known as Ch'timi. But Philippe soon learns to love these people so much that he must devise a strategy, with the help of the natives, to keep his left-behind wife from discovering his secret. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6197
Bob le flambeur. 2002. Classic collection: Criterion collection: Classic collection (Chicago, Ill.): Criterion collection . 1 videodisc (102 min.). Bob the gambler and his friends learn that the Deauville Casino expects to pull in 800 million francs. On the night of the heist Bob plays the casino tables until the appointed time. Before the dawn breaks, some of the men and women will win, some will lose, and some will die. DVD 425
Le Bonheur = Happiness. 2007. 4 by Agnáes Varda: Criterion collection: Criterion collection . 1 videodisc (80 min.). "Though married to the good-natured, beautiful Thâeráese, young husband and father Franðcois finds himself falling unquestioningly into an affair with an attractive postal worker. One of Agnáes Varda's most provocative films, Le bonheur examines, with a deceptively cheery palette and the spirited strains of Mozart, the ideas of fidelity and happiness in a modern, self-centered world."--Container. DVD 4154
Le bonheur ou, l'histoire de l'infortunaté Khmyr, de sa femme-cheval Anna, de son opulent voisin Foka, au dernier kolkhozien fainéant. 2007. 2 videodiscs (225 mins.). Le bonheur: A silent slapstick comedy about a peasant seeking happiness by himself, but only finding it after he joins the collective farm movement. Le tombeau d'Alexandre: Examines the life and work of Russian film director, Alexander Medvedkin, while also giving a broad picture of life in the Soviet Union. Discusses the relation between art and politics in the Soviet Union. DVD 5856
Les bonnes femmes = The good girls. 2000. 1 videodisc (93 min.). Blend of eroticism, Hitchcockian suspense and cinematic daring-do that characterizes the French new wave. Set in Paris in the early sixties, film concerns four women who work in an appliance store while looking for love and fulfillment. While their lecherous and petty boss savors every opportunity to deliver a dressing down, the girls find emotional escape by flirting with delivery men, visiting nightclubs and gossiping about the enigmatic motorcyclist who hangs about, following Jacqueline (Joano). For the vulnerable, timid Jacqueline, his dogged persistence can only signify the true love in which she fervently believes. But when she finally decides to speak to the mysterious strange, her dreams of romantic bliss are marred by nagging suspicions. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 115
La boulangère de Monceau. 2006. Criterion collection . 1 videodisc [23 min.]. The story of a young man who becomes infatuated with a woman he sees on the street, but after several days without seeing her again sets his sights on a girl in the local bakery, eventually having to choose between them. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2421
Le bourgeois gentilhomme = The would be gentleman. 81. 1 videodisc (95 min.). The classic 17th century Molière comedy is given respectful treatment in this 1958 version. A vulgar nouveau-riche protagonist attempts to buy his way into the uppermost rungs of society provide plenty of knowing chuckles. DVD 7393