French films about workers

26 year-old Karl Marx embarks with his wife, Jenny, on the road to exile. In 1844 in Paris, he meets Friedrich Engels, an industrialist’s son, who has been investigating the sordid birth of the British working class. Engels, the dandy, provides the last piece of the puzzle to the young Karl Marx’s new vision of the world. Together, between censorship and the police’s repression, riots and political upheavals, they will lead the labor movement during its development into a modern era.

An adaptation of Émile Zola’s 1877 masterpiece L’assommoir, the film is an uncompromising depiction of a lowly laundress’s struggles to deal with an alcoholic husband while running her own business.

The story of a destiny. Suzanne's and her family's. The ties that bind them, keep them together, and the love she pursues... to the point of leaving everything behind.

A former footballer living in Brittany enlists his old teammates to help the local fisherman to win some games in order to raise money and save jobs.

40-year-old Bertrand has been suffering from depression for the last two years and is barely able to keep his head above water. Despite the medication he gulps down all day, every day, and his wife's encouragement, he is unable to find any meaning in his life. Curiously, he will end up finding this sense of purpose at the swimming pool, by joining an all-male synchronised swimming team.

"Marius" takes place in Marseilles' Old Port, at the La Marine Bar, owned by César and his son Marius. Marius' biggest dream is to embark on one of the boats passing by his dad's bar and to set off to a faraway land. Fanny, a young and pretty seafood peddler, has secretly been in love with Marius since her childhood; Marius, never admitting it, has always loved Fanny. One day, a sailor drops by La Marine and offers him a job on an exploratory ship. Trying to hold him off and to make him jealous, Fanny confesses his love to him and provokes a fight between Marius and one of César's old friends, Panisse, a boat merchant, who despite his old age, has been courting Fanny for a while. Torn between the call of the sea and his love for her, Marius abandons his dream to be with Fanny who gives herself to him. As César and Honorine, Fanny's mother, are getting ready for the wedding, Marius changes his mind, drawn back to the call of the sea.

Paris, in the early 1960s. Jean-Louis Joubert is a serious but uptight stockbroker, married to Suzanne, a starchy class-conscious woman and father of two arrogant teenage boys, currently in a boarding school. The affluent man lives a steady yet boring life. At least until, due to fortuitous circumstances, Maria, the charming new maid at the service of Jean-Louis' family, makes him discover the servants' quarter on the sixth floor of the luxury building he owns and lives in. There live a crowd of lively Spanish maids who will help Jean-Louis to open to a new civilization and a new approach of life. In their company - and more precisely in the company of beautiful Maria - Jean-Louis will gradually become another man, a better man.

A middle aged carpenter, who requires state welfare after injuring himself, is joined by a single mother in a similar scenario.

The tale of an individualist proletarian in a time marked by the rise of mass political movements. In early 20th-century Italy, illiterate sailor Martin Eden seeks fame as a writer while torn between the love of a bourgeois girl and allegiance to his social class.

After promising 1100 employees that they would protect their jobs, the managers of a factory decide to suddenly close up shop. Laurent takes the lead in a fight against this decision.

Aglaé, a young factory worker, has only one focus in life: her job at a car crash test site. When she learns that the factory is going to be relocated abroad, she accepts, to everyone's surprise, to go to India in order to hold on to her job. Accompanied by two colleagues, she sets out on a perilous road trip to the other side of the world.

It's mid 19th century, north of France. The story of a coal miner's town. They are exploited by the mine's owner. One day the decide to go on strike, and then the authorities repress them

A US Army colonel in France tries to track down an escaped sex maniac.

Marcel Marx, a former bohemian and struggling author, has given up his literary ambitions and relocated to the port city Le Havre. He leads a simple life based around his wife Arletty, his favourite bar and his not too profitable profession as a shoeshiner. As Arletty suddenly becomes seriously ill, Marcel's path crosses with an underage illegal immigrant from Africa, who needs Marcel's help to hide from the police.

A star is born in a time of both celebration and instability in this historical drama with music from director Christophe Barratier. In the spring of 1936, Paris is in a state of uncertainty; while the rise of the Third Reich in Germany worries many, a leftist union-oriented candidate, Léon Blum, has been voted into power, and organized labor is feeling its new power by standing up to management.

Frédéric, a young man with a troubled past, has the good fortune to be given a job in a luxurious mountain hotel. When one of the hotel guests disappears one evening and is later found dead, Frédéric suspects he may have been killed by the family who employ him. But rather than betray his boss, Jacques Couvreur, he makes up his mind to protect him. Unwittingly, Frédéric puts himself in grave danger...

At the age of 51 and after 20 months on unemployment, Thierry starts a new job that soon brings him face to face with a moral dilemma. How much is he willing to accept to keep his job?

After an emotional exchange between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestinian refugee escalates, the men end up in a court case that gets national attention.

In November 2009, French security van driver Toni Musulin makes off with nearly 12 million euros, then turns himself over to the authorities a week later.

A penetrating study of a marriage on the rocks, set against the backdrop of a small Mediterranean fishing village. Both a stylized depiction of the complicated relationship between a married couple and a documentary-like look at the daily struggles of the inhabitants of Sète in the South of France.

NEDs (Non Educated Delinquents) is the story of a young man’s journey from prize-winning schoolboy to knife-carrying teenager. Struggling against the low expectations of those around him, John McGill changes from victim to avenger, scholar to NED, altar boy to glue sniffer. When he attempts to change back again, his new reality and recent past make conformity near impossible and violent self determination near inevitable.

A kindhearted seventeen-year-old in the American Southwest turns to prostitution to fulfill her dream of a new life in San Francisco.

Marco leads a double life. As Marco, he is a construction worker but rich ladies craving sexual excitation know him as Patrick. As Marco he is married to Fanny, an ambitious young woman who has opened her own hairdressing salon in partnership with her friend Rosalie. Marco/Patrick is not a male prostitute at heart: in fact he does the job in order to support his wife's business. Which doesn't prevent Judith, an elegant tele-shopping presenter who buys his services, from falling in love with him. But when Fanny learns what Marco does and with whom, she first gets mad but soon starts interfering in their affair.

France, a factory worker, lives with her three daughters in Dunkirk. The factory where she worked has been closed, leaving France and all of her workmates without a job. She decides to go to Paris to look for work. There she finds a cleaning job at the home of a rich man, Steve, whose world is radically different from her own. As their paths keep crossing, she discovers that her employer played a part in closing the factory in Dunkirk...

Based on a true story, the film is set in the summer of 1984 – when Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is on strike. At the Gay Pride March in London, a group of gay and lesbian activists decides to raise money to support the families of the striking miners. But there is a problem - the union seems embarrassed to receive their support. However the activists are not deterred. They decide to ignore the union and go direct to the miners. They identify a mining village of Onllwyn, in the Dulais Valley in Wales, and later set off in a mini bus to make their donation in person. And so begins the extraordinary story of two seemingly alien communities who form a surprising and ultimately triumphant partnership.

During the 1970s a student named Gilles gets entangled in contemporary political turmoils although he would rather just be a creative artist. While torn between his solidarity to his friends and his personal ambitions he falls in love with Christine.

Twenty year old Antoine has made enemies of a gang of young thugs, to whom he owes money. Fed up with his scams and petty crimes, his mother and older brother decide to send Antoine to his father's place in Saint-Etienne. The two men haven't seen each other for several years.

A police officer who's transfered in the police of Marseille gets assigned to take down a group of Italian robbers who drive the powerfull Ferrari's with the older niece of Daniel, a terrible driver who gets the legendary white taxi.

Beatrice is a blabbermouth and a so-called billionaire countess who likes to believe she’s in intimacy with world leaders. Donatella is a young quiet tattooed woman, locked in her own mystery. They are both patients of a mental institution and subject to custodial measures.

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October 1941. Eighteen months into France’s occupation by German troops, young Communist members of the Resistance shoot dead an officer of the German Army. In retaliation, Hitler demands the deaths of 150 Frenchmen, as 'retribution'. The targets are to be mostly young men believed to share the assassins’ political convictions. Most of these men are taken from an internment camp for opponents of the occupation; a 35-year-old French rural administrator is ordered to select the victims. Although the parish priest appeals to their conscience and moral sensibilities, both the German military and their French helpers slavishly follow their orders.

A joinery instructor at a rehab center refuses to take a new teen as his apprentice, but then begins to follow the boy through the hallways and streets.

Rémi Gaillard is the real character of the World network, troll, provocateur, one of the biggest-selling comic actor in Europe. One and a half milliards of viewing and millions of fans. A day came, and he decided to steady down: got married, settled down on work on a parking place, promised a pregnant wife, that also «goes away to the decree» and gives up the pranks. But how to deafen talent and disorderly conduct of fantasy?. Fans can not assume his care. Gaillard returns.

Eddie, Dov, Yvan and the others ... Our warm friends have migrated from the moribund Sentier to the flourishing suburb of Aubervilliers ... Where the old Jewish entrepreneurs left the ground to young courageous and dynamic Chinese wholesalers ... The little band is as close to each other as in previous episodes, and life goes on at the mercy of small family events and business. Dov still seems frivolous, enterprising Eddie, chilled Yvan, casual Karine, resolute Sandra, naive Chochana, irresponsible Serge and mythomaniac. As for Patrick, he is in love and the happy elected is far from easy to access. Everything would be fine until a bad wind brings its share of adversity seriously compromising the cohesion of the group. Will they succumb under the storm to the turmoil, or, once again, by mutual aid, cunning and skill, will they triumph over the crisis with panache?

Laura is still waiting for Prince Charming at the age of 24. So when Sandro appears at a party, exactly like her Prince would in her dreams, she thinks she's found the right one. But then again, when she meets Maxime, Laura starts to wonder if some Princes could be more charming than others? Of course Sandro has problems of his own : his father, Pierre, just bumped into Madam Irma at his father's funeral and this reminded him of the date of his own death which Madame Irma had predicted ages ago. Now Pierre is unable to make any plans, not with his new partner Eleonore, nor with Sandro. And Maxime has his own problems, and so does Eleonore, Marianne, Jacqueline and many others. But don't worry, in the end, they'll all live happily ever after.

From the moment they meet - and against their will - Helene and Joachim begin a lovers' dance they are powerless to stop.

George, a charismatic and adventurous young woman, born from an old, catholic family, falls in love, in her teens, with a female teacher named Sybil. Devastated by her lover's eventual suicide, some years later, George embarks on an exciting and reckless journey to the depths of Pigalle's nightlife, circa 1960. After an encounter with a very wealthy, still attractive, but older woman, Odete, who offers her money and gifts in return for sexual favours, George becomes Gigola, a kind of gigolo for women only.

In a social context deteriorated by a countrywide economic crisis, the life of several people will be turned upside down after they meet Cecile, a character who symbolizes desire.

Brussels, early '60s. Alice and Céline live in twin bourgeois houses. They are best friends as are their children, Theo and Maxime, who have grown up like brothers. Both families spend all their time together. This perfect harmony is broken when an accident creates strong divisions between the two families.

Fatima, an Algerian-born woman who now lives in France with her two teenage daughters, with whom she is barely able to communicate.

Vassili is an aged prostitute with killer instincts. He finds an unconscious young man in the Forest of Boulogne and takes him home. Now lovers and accomplices, the two men become a couple in prostitution and steal from their clients. And yet, menaces of retaliation leave the couple with no choice but to escape from Paris. The runaway begins...

Frank Valken, high-flying robber, has just made a final masterful break. At least that’s what he believes… Ideal suspects, Valken and his gang find themselves involved in a criminal case of thirty years. It seems that the crazy killers are back.

After a bank job goes badly wrong, three desperate criminals take a young woman and a father and child hostage - it's the beginning of a frantic and violent road trip that not all of them will survive.

In 1971, Carole and Delphine meet and fall in love in Paris. When Carole follows Delphine back to her family farm in Limousin, the two find lesbianism and feminism are not as easy in the countryside.

A comedy that affectionately pokes fun at men and their eternal quest for satisfaction. At last, a film about self-acceptance and renunciation.

Married French lawyer Andre defends succesfully the case of Yvette, who committed a robbery. He falls in love with her, but she isn't true to him.

A union pensioner and his wife are robbed, but find that merely getting the assailants brought to justice is not enough for their consciences.

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Set in London's world of high class call girls, Amoureux Solitaires tells the story of London based French escort Virginie, and Rupert, a man who rescues trafficked girls.

Neïla Salah grew up in Créteil, a tower block suburb on the outskirts of Paris, and dreams of becoming a lawyer. She has been accepted into a major university in Paris and on her first day there she is confronted by Pierre Mazard, a professor known for his provocative behavior and blunders. To make amends for an incident, he accepts to help Neïla prepare for a prestigious competition in courtroom eloquence. Both cynical and demanding, Pierre could become the mentor who she needs... But first both must overcome their prejudices.