Les Trésors de Marcel Pagnol

Journey to the West

April 2014 •Chinese

In 2014, Tsai Ming-Liang was invited to make a film for the MarseilleFID, Marseille International Film Festival. Since he was not familiar with Marseille, he decided to make a film as tourist, capturing the beautiful Mediterranean sunshine in the late summer of that year. He also invited famous French actor, Denis Lavant, to appear alongside Lee Kang-Sheng playing Xuanzang. "Journey to the West" was invited to be the opening short film at the Berlin International Film Festival the same year.

Battle of Marseille, le documentaire

November 2022 •French

June 11, 2016: Marseille in Chaos. As the European Football Championship kicks off, a mysterious group of Russian hooligans launches a brutal attack on thousands of British fans, all in front of the world’s cameras. France and England are humiliated, the incident sparks global outrage, and immediate action is demanded.

The Sunken Galley

January 1957 •French

Off the coast of Marseille, near a rocky cliff, a Greek ship was discovered at a depth of forty meters in Mediterranean waters, loaded with amphorae and other pottery. The cargo has been lying on that sandy stretch of seabed for more than two thousand years. The documentary follows the dives of divers who recover cups, vases, plates and jars still full of wine. We are also witnessing new recovery systems, with the use of compressed air.

Madame Hofmann

April 2024 •French

"Welcome to my life", Sylvie Hofmann repeats this sentence almost all day long. Sylvie has been a nurse for 40 years at the North Hospital of Marseille. Her life is running. Between patients, her sick mother, her husband and her daughter, she has always devoted her life to helping others. What if she decided to think a little about herself? To retire? Does she have the right, but above all, does she really want to?

Lara

August 2024 •French

Lara, a German au pair, recently arrived in Marseille, where a new life is beginning for her. Being an introverted young girl, she nevertheless throws herself into the unknown, into the twists and turns of a city whose codes she still does not know.

OM : A jamais les premiers

May 2013 •French

L'heure exquise

December 1981 •French

In the streets of Marseille, René Allio encounters, once again, the spaces of his childhood, and remembers his family history.

La station

February 2025 •French

何以为家

February 2025 •Chinese

Pythéas, l'astronome voyageur

November 2013 •French

Thomas Pesquet : Objectif France

February 2023 •French

Children of the Princess of Cleves

March 2011 •French

Featuring candid discussion about hopes and dreams, love and heartbreak, family and friends, this engrossing documentary makes an inspired connection between classic literature and contemporary teen life in modern-day Marseille as one high school class studies the 17th-century novel La princesse de Clèves.

The Mistral

September 1966 •French

Dutch documentary filmmaker Joris Ivens follows the course of the famous wind as it originates in the Alps and finds its way to the Mediterranean Sea. Natural sounds and creative camera work provide a mood film showing the effect of the fury of the wind on the life of southern France.

Worn Bodies

February 2024 •French

At dusk, boxers from the La Frappe collective train in a Marseille park. Their bodies get into motion, gradually forming a community of gestures, sensations and emotions.

Marseille Story, une histoire de la violence

January 2013 •French

Marseille, a city with a dual identity, is seen both as the setting of Pagnol’s films and as a hub for powerful organized crime. Often labeled France’s crime capital, its contemporary history is marked by recurring violence and media portrayals that clash with political leaders’ responses. Jérôme Pierrat examines the roots of this violence, exploring two centuries of social and political challenges that have shaped the city.

Cézanne au pays d'Aix

May 2015 •French

Notre-Dame de la Garde: Basilique hors norme

September 2021 •French

L'Arbre et le Soleil

January 1990 •French

This film is dedicated to Mas-Félipe Delavouët, the poet discovered by Lawrence Durrell, who wrote 14,000 verses in Provençal over a period of thirty years, and who died on November 18, 1990. "The sky, history and Mediterranean and Provençal myths are the inexhaustable wellspring of this man rooted down there, near Salon-de-Provence" (J.-D. Pollet). "Mas-Félipe Delavouët wrote five books in Provençal, 14,000 verses. A sort of "Odyssey". Of myths. What is stunning in him is that he always talks of disappearances. Cities, works, men, writings, television, etc., everything has to disappear. In order to be reborn. No pain. A sort of hand-to-hand of man and nature. During the filming, I would simply throw out some words... For example, one time I said "creation" and he said: "creation doesn't exist..., creation is before me..., I can only read creation"; this sentence describes Delavouët perfectly (J.-D. Pollet, 1989 and 1993).

Château d'If : La Prison du comte de Monte-Cristo

August 2024 •French

The Forgotten Roundup

March 2023 •French

80 years ago, Marseille's Old Port was the scene of a tragic event that is still largely unknown today: the roundup and total destruction of the Saint-Jean district, on Hitler's own orders. "The Forgotten Round-up" draws on the memories of some of the last direct witnesses to the tragedy, and follows the investigation of Marseille lawyer Pascal Luongo, grandson of one of the victims.