Cari Beauchamp

Au fil d’extraits lus de ses Mémoires et tirés de sa filmographie, qu’elle a traversée avec une délicatesse teintée d’élégance – trente-quatre films –, Clara et Julia Kuperberg (Billy Wilder – La perfection hollywoodienne, Joni Mitchell – Le spleen et la colère) retracent le parcours d’une femme éprouvée par la vie et d’une comédienne à l’aura mystérieuse et au jeu subtil, tout en intériorité, qui se souciait bien plus de son art que de son image. Comme le dit Martin Scorsese, ici longuement interviewé, qui lui voue un culte et dont la salle de projection personnelle est ornée des affiches de Péché mortel et de Laura, "derrière le masque de sa beauté" perçaient ses fêlures, qui la rendaient si touchante. Avec, aussi, les émouvants témoignages de ses petits-enfants et l’éclairage d’historiens du cinéma, le portrait sensible d’une grande actrice oubliée, populaire en son temps et cependant peu reconnue par le système.

Ce documentaire examine la sexualité galopante des début d'Hollywood à travers des extraits de films et des témoignages de stars de l'époque comme Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford et Marlene Dietrich.

Première femme réalisatrice, productrice et directrice de studio de l’histoire du cinéma, Alice Guy est le sujet d’un documentaire mené tambour battant telle une enquête visant à faire (re)connaître la cinéaste et son œuvre de par le monde.

A Hollywood, au début du XX ème siècle, les pionniers sont aussi des pionnières. Lois Weber, Mary Pickford et Dorothy Arzner : des réalisatrices, scénaristes, actrices qui débordent d'imagination, d'humour et d'une formidable énergie.

Blonde, beautiful and talented, Marion Davies was the first and funniest screwball comedienne. As star of two of the best comedies ever made, Show People and The Patsy, she combined zany slapstick and exuberant mimicry. Glamorous, witty and kind, both on screen and off, Davies was also famous for her 35-year-long love affair with William Randolph Hearst.

Dickson Hughes and Richard Stapley, two young composers and romantic partners, are caught in the web of silent film star Gloria Swanson when she hires them to write a musical version of Sunset Boulevard, her 1950 film directed by Billy Wilder.

From 1915-1939, Frances Marion was one of the most powerful talents in the movie industry. In one of the most liberating eras for women in film, she wrote more than 200 movies and was the world's highest paid screenwriter - man or woman. Kathy Bates gives voice to Marion's words from her letters, diaries, and memoirs. Includes commentary by silent film historian Kevin Brownlow, critic Leonard Maltin, and Marion's celebrated biographer Cari Beauchamp. Current women filmmakers reflect on the legacy left to them by Marion and the pioneering women of early Hollywood.

From 1915-1939, Frances Marion was one of the most powerful talents in the movie industry. In one of the most liberating eras for women in film, she wrote more than 200 movies and was the world's highest paid screenwriter - man or woman. Kathy Bates gives voice to Marion's words from her letters, diaries, and memoirs. Includes commentary by silent film historian Kevin Brownlow, critic Leonard Maltin, and Marion's celebrated biographer Cari Beauchamp. Current women filmmakers reflect on the legacy left to them by Marion and the pioneering women of early Hollywood.

Filmed in Nepal and India this documentary presents the stories of young girls whose lives have been shattered by the child sex slave trade. The film provides actual footage from inside the brothels of Bombay, known even to the tourists as "The Cages," captured with "spy camera" technology. The documentary also introduces the heroes of the movement who are working to abolish child sex slavery and who remind us that, "these are our daughters."

Each installment focuses on a different era of American movie history, from the invention of the first moving pictures to the revolutionary, cutting-edge films of the 1960s.