Titles Available as of July 2022
This is a selective list of streaming video holdings in the American University Library. Streaming guides are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the library catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible. For complete up-to-date streaming holdings, please refer to our streaming catalog.
FEATURE FILMS
A surrealist tale of a man and a woman who are passionately in love with one another, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, the Church and bourgeois society.
Afrique, Je Te Plumerai Africa
Examines how Cameroon's French colonizers have been replaced by a dictatorial indigenous regime which still plunders the land and silences the authentic expression of its people. A case study of the devastation of traditional African societies by imposed colonial cultures.
Ça Twiste À Poponguine Rocking Poponguine
A coming of age story set in a remote Senegalese beachside village during the week before Christmas, 1964, where the local teenage boys are divided into rival cultural camps. The "Ins" ("Inseparables") style themselves after French pop stars, attend school, have all the girls--but no record player. Their rivals, the "Kings," style themselves after African-American blues legends, they work as fishermen, don't have any girls--but they do have a record player.
Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer (Corinne Marchand) set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman's life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.
Guy Van Stratten, American smuggler, leaves an Italian prison term with one asset, a dying man's words about wealthy, mysterious Gregory Arkadin. Guy finds it most pleasant to investigate Arkadin though his lovely daughter Raina, her father's idol. To get rid of Guy, Arkadin claims amnesia about his own life prior to 1927, sending Guy off to investigate Arkadin's unknown past. Guy's quest spans many countries and eccentric characters who contribute clues. But the real purpose of Guy's mission proves deadly; can Guy himself survive it? Featuring Akim Tamiroff, Grégoire Aslan, Patricia Medina, Jack Watling, Orson Welles.
This first feature film on male homosexuality from sub-Saharan Africa is a contemporary African reinterpretation of the age-old Romeo and Juliet conflict between love and social convention. When Sori and Manga tell their parents they are in love, they respond that, "It's impossible; since time began, it's never happened. Boys don't do that."
A loathsome school headmaster's wife and mistress team up to kill him. They dump his body in the school's filthy swimming pool, but when the pool is drained, the body has disappeared.
Mocktar, a Nigerian peasant, arrives at an old gold mining town in Burkina Faso, where he hopes to find work and to forget the past that haunts him. He quickly finds out that the gold rush ended twenty years before, and the inhabitants of this strange, timeless wasteland seem to exist simply from force of habit. The beautiful Coumba, however, is still courageously struggling to raise her daughter after the death of their family. Mocktar will soon be fighting not only to survive, but to provide a better future for Coumba and her child in this film that was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
The story of a sadistic headmaster who brutalizes his fragile wife and his headstrong mistress. The two women murder him and dump his body in a swimming pool; when the pool is drained, no corpse is found.
La Regle du Jeu (1939) “The Rules of the Game"
François Truffaut directed Jules et Jim in 1961. The film is born from the enthusiastic discovery of an autobiographical novel written by Henri-Pierre Roché and love at first sight for the actress Jeanne Moreau, without whom the film would never have been made. Their great complicity enabled Jeanne and François to transform the story into a lover’s triangle. Through the portrayal of a free woman who lives to the rhythm of her desires and who is filmed as an engine of cultural modernity, François Truffaut anticipates the 1960s. Jules is German, Jim is French: their cinematic friendship is contemporary with the rekindling of French-German political alliances. François Truffaut, the man who loved women, dreamed up the invention of a "pure love triangle."
She is beautiful. She is Catholic. She is the King's sister. She is Marguerite de Valois. Her brothers call her Margot.. He is Protestant. They say that he is rude, that he never shaves, that he smells of garlic and sweat. He is Henri de Navarre.. They are forced to marry in a political move to reconcile France, ripped apart by the Wars of Religion.
Ludivine Sagnier stars as Lili, the love and muse of an idealistic young filmmaker in this modern adaptation of Chekov's classic play The Seagull. The story revolves around Mado, a movie-star past her prime who owns an elegant chateau in the serene French countryside. Mado's lover Brice is a successful director who continues to cast Mado in his films. Her son Julien, an aspiring filmmaker, despises his "sell-out" mother, but at the same time yearns for her approval. Lili, Julien's girlfriend (and lead actress), is intent on escaping the lowly life of a poor country girl and dreams of stardom.
Newly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.
Updated in 1998, Edith Piaf's meteoric rise to fame from the nightclubs of Paris to the world's most famous chanteuse is legend. "The Little Sparrow's" throaty renditions of such hits as "La Vie en Rose," "Non, je ne regrette rien," and "L'Accordioniste" seem as fresh today as when they were recorded. This program pays tribute to Piaf by examining her life through archival footage, photos, and the personal commentary of Piaf historian Raquel Britton. Broadway and television actress Bebe Neuwirth narrates.
Monsieur Jourdain, a wealthy tradesman, is sparing no expense to try to buy what he can never be: a born gentleman. As delightful as he is fatuous and as genuine as he is naive, M. Jourdain's attempts to transform himself through custom-tailored clothing and all manner of lessons are absurd to everyone-except himself. But when his pretensions lead him to refuse his daughter's hand to Cleante on the grounds that the young man is not a gentleman, he goes too far. Thanks to a clever scheme, she and her beloved find the happiness they seek.
Fearful of falling victim to marital infidelity, bachelor Arnolphe schemes to marry his guileless young ward, Agnes, whom he has had raised in a convent specifically to be his model wife. However, his naive plan is spoiled when Agnes runs away with Horace-a fact that Arnolphe learns when Horace unwittingly asks him to conceal her at his home. Before Arnolphe can react, it is revealed that Agnes' wealthy father has formally arranged her marriage to Horace, dashing his hopes forever. This play-Moliere's greatest commercial success-drew heavy attacks for supposed moral and literary flaws.
A musical comedy about a pair of young lovers who lose a lottery ticket worth a million francs and chase it frantically across Paris. Considered one of the very first musical films.
This 1958 French-German-Italian production is one of the finest film versions of Victor Hugo's classic novel about the escaped prisoner Jean Valjean and his implacable pursuer Javert. It stars the legendary French actor Jean Gabin as Valjean. This long film is often said to be the most faithful adaptation of the novel. Directed by Jean-Paul Le Chanois.
Pseudo-intellectualism is all the fashion, and Chrysale is a man under siege. Philaminte, his wife, is enthralled by the pedantic poet Trissotin and is determined to marry their youngest daughter, Henriette, to him in spite of her husband's opposition and Henriette's protests that she be allowed to marry the sensible Clitandre. In the end, Henriette is united with her beloved, but not before Trissotin abandons his suit-just when it appears that the family's fortunes have been lost through Philaminte's spendthrift highbrow pursuits.
Two women love the same man in a world of few prospects. In Budapest, Liliom is a "public figure," a rascal who's a carousel barker, loved by the experienced merry-go-round owner and by a young, innocent maid. The maid, Julie, loses her job after going out with Liliom; he's fired by his jealous employer for going out with Julie. The two lovers move in with Julie's aunt; unemployment emasculates him and a local weasel tempts him with crime. Julie, now wan, is true to Liliom even in his bad temper. Meanwhile, a stolid widower, a carpenter, wants to marry Julie. Is there any future on this earth for Julie and Liliom, whose love is passionate rather than ideal? Featuring Charles Boyer, Madeleine, Ozeray, Florelle.
An innovative semi-improvised feature film about young men from Niger exploring life in Paris and learning to appreciate traditional values back home. Like Jaguar, and starring the three main actors from that film, Petit à Petit is an exercise in what Rouch called ethno-fiction, an idiosyncratic blend of fiction and observational documentary.
Pièces D'Identités / Identity pieces
A Congolese king searches for his daughter in Brussels where for a time he loses his royal fetishes, his identity, but finds a friend, a local cabdriver with a secret identity. With his help and a chain of coincidence (it must be destined), Mani Kongo is reunited with his daughter and his regalia and returns to Africa with a circle of friends.
A military deserter finds love and trouble (and a small dog) in a smoky French port city.
In Amanha Lundju, the trees planted upon the birth of each child begin falling rapidly and mysteriously. Led by the tradition healer, Calcalado, the villagers begin a desert exodus in search of the cause of their curse and discover they must return home to fight for their traditions and their old way of life.
A group of men travel to the moon by being shot in a capsule from a giant cannon. They are captured by moon-men, escape, and return to the earth. Filmed in 1902.
DOCUMENTARIES
This film explores the life and work of author André Gide.
Burning Out : Dans le Ventre de l'Hopital
Burning Out is literally a drama about life and death. For two years, Belgian director Jérôme le Maire followed the members of a surgical unit in one of the biggest hospitals in Paris. Constantly under severe stress, understaffed and subject to severe budget cuts, employees fight each other for resources. Meanwhile the management imposes ever more stringent efficiency and profitability targets. All over Europe burnout has reached epidemic proportions among employees in the public and private sectors. Will we end up killing ourselves? Or will we be able to find meaning and joy at work?
In November 2001, Chris Marker became intrigued by the sudden appearance of grinning yellow cat paintings on Paris buildings and began to document them, as well as other incidents and protests in the city of Paris while he filmed. The creator is eventually revealed to be an art collective known as Mr. Chat.
Dernières Nouvelles du Cosmos
It wasn't until Helene was 20 years old that her parents discovered that their autistic daughter was able not only to communicate, but to write deeply complex, philosophical and poetic work.
French documentary based in a Parisian school for immigrant children. Filmed over the course of one academic year, the documentary follows the teachers and pupils of Granges-aux-Belles secondary school that teaches non-French speaking children between the ages of eleven and 15 to read and write the language fluently.
Le Chagrin et La Pite: Chronique d'une Ville Francaise Sous L'Occupation
Through interviews with participants and newsreel footage, examines the occupation of France by the Germans during World War II as it occurred in the French city of Clermont-Ferrand. Concentrates on the themes of collaboration and resistance.
Filmed just after the March ceasefire between France and Algeria, Le Joli Mai documents Paris during a turning point in French history: the first time since 1939 that France was not involved in any war.
Explores the mind and motivations of Pablo Picasso as he creates over fifteen works before the camera. Using a specially designed transparent 'canvas' to provide an unobstructed view, Picasso creates as the camera records. He begins with simple works that take shape after only a single brush stroke. He then progresses to more complex paintings, in which he repeatedly adds and removes elements, transforming the entire scene, until at last the work is complete.
Les Deux Vsages d'une Femme Bamiléké
Motivated by a desire to better understand her past, Rosine Mbakam returns to Cameroon after many years to interview her mother. As she spends more time with her mother and the women around her, Rosine reveals the strength of their solidarity and their ability to face adversity--whether hiding for their lives from French soldiers or being committed to a man for marriage at age eight.
This film makes the case that we need a completely different approach to economic growth and prosperity and that geo-engineering and building huge projects simply in order to maintain a consumer society makes no sense. British environmentalist Tim Jackson, from the University of Surrey, and French writer Paul Ariés both argue that our current economic system has trapped us into needing to constantly increase our emissions.
A portrait of French composer Maurice Ravel with performances of some of his best known works.
What happens when five HIV-positive gay men spend a week preparing for their first solo parachute drop?