Mathieu Busson

Cinéast(e)s

Julie Gayet, Mathieu Busson

Mona Achache, Lisa Azuelos

Is there such a thing as strictly feminine cinema? Is it more difficult for a woman than for a man to direct a film? Is gender parity necessary in the industry? Actress and producer Julie GAYET and actor and director Mathieu BUSSON ask these questions to twenty French woman filmmakers, who face a camera together for the first time. After over an hour of lively, informal, spontaneous and funny interviews, it becomes obvious that these issues are still problematic and definitely worthy of a documentary. As Mia HANSEN-LØVE remarks, “In the eyes of the people, a woman’s film is always a woman’s film, while a man’s movie is simply… a movie”.

Taken

Pierre Morel

Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace

While vacationing with a friend in Paris, an American girl is kidnapped by a gang of human traffickers intent on selling her into forced prostitution. Working against the clock, her ex-spy father must pull out all the stops to save her. But with his best years possibly behind him, the job may be more than he can handle.

Joan the Maid II: The Prisons

Jacques Rivette

Sandrine Bonnaire, André Marcon

Joan has succeeded in lifting the siege on Orléans and Charles VII has been ordained King of France. However, she is injured in her failed attempt to take Paris, weakening her position at court. When she is finally captured and put on trial, she finds both her life and the sanctity of her body at stake.

Joan the Maid I: The Battles

Jacques Rivette

Sandrine Bonnaire, Tatiana Moukhine

Joan of Arc leaves her childhood home after hearing what she believes to be the voice of God. Convinced that only she can lead France to victory against the invading English, she pleads Charles, heir to the throne, to allow her to guide his troops on the battlefield.

L'incruste

Émilie Deleuze

Claire Keim, Benoît Magimel

A teen party gone out of control provides the focus of this drama which explores the transitions of youth in a transitional time set in the post-disco, pre-punk, early 1980's. Ariane, a teenager, is rebelling against her father and her boyfriend Pierre. She decides to hold a small party. The party is crashed by a large crowd of rude outsiders who proceed to destroy her home. Afterward, Ariane must face her obsessive neatness.

Climats

Caroline Huppert

Yannick Renier, Raphaëlle Agogué

1934. Philippe falls in love with Odile, a beautiful stranger, and decides to marry her, against the will of his parents. They would have preferred a more bourgeois bride, ideally from their own milieu: the paper industry in Angoulême. Isabelle, for instance, whom they have known since she was a child, would have been the perfect match. But Philippe sticks to his choice and marries Odile. At first the newly-weds are passionately in love, and the whole family looks forward to the birth of an heir for the Marcenat family. But in vain. Instead, Odile neglects her marriage and devotes herself to drawing, a gift she inherited from her father. Or is her rekindled interest in art classes more the result of her encounter with the charming but mysterious artist François Crozant? Philippe sense that he's losing his wife and becomes madly jealous of François. Meanwhile Isabelle, who's secretly in love with Philippe, is just waiting for the right moment.

La disparition

Jean-Xavier de Lestrade

Thierry Godard, Géraldine Pailhas

A mother of two mysteriously disappears one morning. Her husband isn't worried as they've had rough patches; his wife just wanted to give him a scare and will come home soon. But her lover is convinced she has been murdered by her husband.

8 fois debout

Xabi Molia

Julie Gayet, Denis Podalydès

Elsa makes a living from little jobs, struggling to gain custody of his son. Mathieu, who lives next door, also keeps getting job interviews only to polish his art of failure. Their situation is increasingly precarious, but both are trying to bounce back in a world that seems not to fit them.

Requiem

Hervé Renoh

Jo Prestia, Jean-Louis Loca

Four hardened crooks break out of prison. Hunted down, with nowhere to run, they seek refuge in the only place the police cannot follow, a Cistercian monastery. Cut off from the outside world, a nightmare stand off develops between the fugitives, ready to kill in defence of their dearly purchased freedom, and the monks they' re holding hostage. But in this potentially lethal confrontation, nothing is quite as it seems. The game' s been rigged from the start. Requiem' s a violent and fast paced French film that really delivers.

Attention fragile

Manuel Poirier

Aurélie Berrier, Mathieu Busson

September, 1986. Alice and Martin are 17 years old. They come from provinces to Montesquieu high school in the capital. Like many youngs of their age, born in the 70s and nostalgic of a too comfortable childhood, they progress carefully in life. While Alice and Martin are finding their footing, demonstrations against the Devaquet law and the tragic death of Malik Oussekine are happening.

FilmmaKErs

Julie Gayet, Mathieu Busson

Is it more difficult for a woman to direct a movie? To finance it? To be respected by her team? Does she have a different way of looking at the world? Does cinema have a gender? In our two previous documentaries, we had already asked these very contemporary questions to 20 female and 20 male directors in France. But we have been eager ever since to expand the borders of our work, to question women filmmakers around the world. That is what this film has achieved, from Asia to Africa and Europe… All the women we met were funny, sincere, committed, concerned, and all looking for the best possible way to exist in an environment always governed by men. All FilmmakErs and living witnesses of the dysfunctions that still exist in the film industry.