Director: Priscilla Pizzato

Life and Fate by Vassili Grossman

The convoluted and moving story of Russian writer Vassili Grossman (1905-64) and his novel Life and Fate (1980), a literary masterpiece, a monumental and epic account of life under Stalin's regime of terror, a defiant cry that the KGB tried to suffocate.

Bonjour Tristesse, Hello Scandal: The Raunchy Book That Shocked France

Summer 1953. Françoise Sagan, a young French girl, begins writing Bonjour Tristesse. A few months later she becomes a published author, while France is scandalized by her frank description of female youthful sexuality.

The Grapes of Wrath: The Ghost of Modern America

In April 1939, "Grapes of Wrath" entered the pantheon of literature with a bang. Americans are at loggerheads over the odyssey of the Joad family, tenant farmers from Oklahoma who, like thousands of others, were driven from their land during the Great Depression. Eighty years have passed since the famous work was published, and 90 years since the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929. To mark this occasion, the documentary examines the genesis of the novel, its themes, its renewed reception during the financial crisis of 2008.

Vivien Leigh, autant en emporte le vent

In "Gone with the Wind" she was an unforgettable Scarlett O'Hara. Beauty, two-time Oscar winner, celebrated Hollywood star and great Shakespearean interpreter - Vivien Leigh was all that. Behind the celebrity, however, was a fragile person. Her bipolar disorder clouded her success and her private happiness.

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Dangerous Liaisons: A Feminist Manifesto?

Well known for its exploration of seduction and revenge, the “Dangerous Liaisons” by Choderlos de Laclos caused a scandal from its first publication in 1782. Despite – or because of the scandal – the book was a top-seller. Since then, it stood the test of time. Combining eras, continents and people, the novel is adapted around the world. Marvelous tool for reflection on the female condition, social satire announcing the Revolution, remarkable work on the conflicting nature of love but also of the gender war, consecration of the power of the words, a libertine manual… “Dangerous Liaisons” is all of these at once.

Molière and the King

The life and work of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622-73), the greatest French-language playwright, Molière, who revolutionized theater by bringing to the stage, with lucidity and dazzling modernity, the themes of his time and who had a special relationship with Louis XIV, the dazzling Sun King, that allowed him to develop as an artist while using his talent, like that of many other artists of his time, to enhance his personal glory.