Seraphine is a beautiful, poignant French film that explores the life and art work of Seraphine Louis.  Orphaned by the age of seven, Seraphine led a humble, isolated life working as a house cleaner in Senlis, France at the turn of the 20^thCentury.   Without friends or family, Seraphine found solace in solitary walks in the countryside and prayer in church.  Her one secret passion in life was an obsessive,  spiritual urge to paint what she experienced and saw in nature during her long walks in the meadows and forests surrounding Senlis. Seraphine spent her evenings painting flowers and fruits  using paint that she made from plant dyes and melted candle wax.  Unable to purchase canvas or fine paint brushes, Seraphine painted on discarded slabs of wood and often used her fingers to apply paint.   It was by chance that in 1912 that one of her wooden slab paintings - a still-life of apples - was discovered by Wilhelm Uhde, a German art collector who happened to be visiting one of the homes where Seraphine worked as a house cleaner.  Uhde was astonished to learn that the artist was the strange and reclusive domestic, Seraphine.  Uhde befriended Seraphine and supported her artistic efforts until WWI erupted and Uhde left France.  He reunited with Seraphine after the war and encouraged her once again to continue with her painting.  Although Seraphine died impoverished and institutionalized in a mental asylum, her work lives on in the Musee Maillol in Paris, the Musee d’art de Senlis, and the Musee d’art naïf in Nice.  Seraphine was directed by Martin Provost.  In 2009 this film won seven Cesar Awards, (the French equivalent of the Academy Awards ), including Best Film and Best Actress for Yolande Moreau.   

France in 1941 is a defeated, demoralized country under German occupation.  The future looks bleak until a small group of men and women begin to organize and fight back.  Based on a true story, Army of Crime stars Virginie Ledoyen and has a 90 percent rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

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Isabelle has an entry-level job at a multinational corporation and a boss who likes to take credit for other people's work.  When this happens once too often, and when Isabelle is humiliated in the process, she devises an elaborate plan to get even.  Love Crime stars Kristen Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier; the film has a 63 percent rating at Metacritic.

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In 1645, a failed actor has to leave Paris in a hurry. To evade his creditors, he masquerades as a priest at the country estate of a rich merchant with a suspicious wife and lovesick daughter. Moliere stars Romain Duris and has a 59 percent rating at Metacritic.

An aging bank robber arrives by train at a small town to pull one final heist. When the local hotel turns out to be closed for the winter, he agrees to stay at the home of a retired schoolteacher, his opposite in nearly every way, and an unlikely friendship begins to grow between them. The Man On the Train stars Johnny Hallyday and has a 75 percent rating at Metacritic.

Georges and Anne, a happily married couple, begin to receive anonymous video recordings of the front of their house. To satisfy his curiosity and reassure his wife, Georges starts making inquiries which reveal that his family history is more complicated than he previously thought. A film by Austrian director Michael Haneke, Hidden stars Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil and has an 83 percent rating at Metacritic.