In a bleak industrial town, a disillusioned journalist, Roger is determined to make his mark on the world. When he hears about a competition to get into the Book of Records, he coerces his adolescent son, Michel, into entering – his challenge being to open and close a door 40,000 times within 24 hours...

One of the greatest writers in Russian literature is forced to take on a task his gift with the pen has not prepared him for in this historical drama. Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Miki Manojlovic) is working on his latest novel, The Gambler, with the help of his secretary Anna (Carolina Crescentini) when he's summoned to a insane asylum to meet with Gusiev (Filippo Timi), a former associate who is now an inmate. Gusiev tells Dostoyevsky a remarkable story that he's joined a band of rebels who are plotting to assassinate the leaders of the Russian royal family. A loyalist to the throne, Dostoyevsky is determined to stop the revolutionaries before they can carry out their deadly plan, but can he fully trust the words of a supposed madman? Directed by Italian filmmaker Giuliano Montaldo, I demoni di San Pietroburgo (aka The Demons of St. Petersberg received its world premiere at the 2008 Moscow Film Festival. Allmovies

Francisco Goya (1746-1828), deaf and ill, lives the last years of his life in voluntary exile in Bordeaux, a Liberal protesting the oppressive rule of Ferdinand VII. He's living with his much younger wife Leocadia and their daughter Rosario. He continues to paint at night, and in flashbacks stirred by conversations with his daughter, by awful headaches, and by the befuddlement of age, he relives key times in his life, particularly his relationship with the Duchess of Alba, his discovery of how he wanted to paint (insight provided by Velázquez's work), and his lifelong celebration of the imagination. Throughout, his reveries become tableaux of his paintings. IMDB review

A mysterious woman, dressed in black and carrying a small suitcase, arrives in Nice and tries in vain to get a job in luxury goods shop. She ends up in a plush hotel where a solitary middle-aged man, engages her to be his companion. They introduce themselves - she is Charlotte, he is Paul. Both are reluctant to talk about their past; both need someone to make their present predicament more tolerable. Unbeknown to either of them, Charlotte is being followed by another man, who seems intent on revenge...

As a boy, Michel Clément, promised his dying father that he would follow in his footsteps and become a police inspector. Twenty years on, Clément just manages to scrape through police school and lands a trainee place in Paris. Clément’s lack of enthusiasm and talent for the job soon become apparent, but his mother forces him to stick at it. Whilst his colleagues are busy tracking down a psychopathic crook, Roger Morzini, Clément is saddled with a journalist, Marie-Anne Prossant, as he occupies himself with routine tasks. Posing as a writer, Morzini wins Clément’s confidence so that he can kidnap Marie-Anne, who has been taunting the crook in her TV interviews. Realising how he has been duped, Clément makes a valiant attempt to redeem himself...

In the bourgeois circles of Europe after the Great War, can anything save the modern man? Harry Haller, a solitary intellectual, has all his life feared his dual nature of being human and being a beast. He's decided to die on his 50th birthday, which is soon. He's rescued from his solipsism by the mysterious Hermine, who takes him dancing, introduces him to jazz and to the beautiful and whimsical Maria, and guides him into the hallucinations of the Magic Theater, which seem to take him into Hell. Can humor, sin, and derision lead to salvation? IMDB review

Catherine is an attractive young woman who lives in the country with her two aunts. One day, she is discovered by Judith Aurigault and her partner Michel, the owners of a popular woman’s magazine based in Paris. They offer Catherine the opportunity to become a cover girl and she accepts without hesitation. Judith and Michel plan to build a spectacular romantic story around Catherine, now known as Chouchou. Their idea is to stage a marriage between her and a cover boy named Patrice. But when Patrice is taken ill on the day of the fake marriage it looks as if all the publicity will be wasted. Michel takes advantage of the situation and replaces Patrice in the wedding. He does so not out of duty to his magazine but because he is really in love with Catherine and would like to end his affair with Judith.. Filmsdefrance

This Italian heist-comedy movie is a revision of Mario Monicelli's 1958 film Big Deal on Madonna Street. This version is set in modern Milan. TV technicians Fabio and Enzo have been unable to find decent jobs. They decide to crack a safe at a Tony Milan jewelry store instead. To help them they enlist a beautiful but unsophisticated young woman to get the layout of the store. To help them find underground access to the store, they get help from a sewage worker. Finally to disarm the store alarms, they find an obese trapeze artist. A clever hotelier is also involved. Will they succeed?