Three episodes from the history of socialism: Babeuf, whose virulent discourse is a radical assessment of the bourgeois revolution of 1789 (Vincent Nordon episode); the legend of Napoleon I, or the formation of the state as it still dominates today (François Barat episode); and the carnage of the Paris Commune, which official history strives to repress and forget (Joël Farges episode). What does it mean to make a historical film today? It means illuminating the present in the light of the past, and therefore adopting the new modes of modern storytelling to challenge what dominates us, structures us, and oppresses us.

A young Swiss couple, Vincent and Françoise, plan to leave Geneva and settle in Africa: a friend of theirs living in Algeria promises to give them a job there.

1968 film directed by Michel Cournot

In 1830s France, a virtuous widow falls for a self-destructive debauchee obsessed with death. Initial resistance gives way to a desperate and cynical romance.

Description: 'Un metteur en ordre: Robert Bresson' is from a 1966 French television broadcast of 'Pour le Plaisir', a cultural television program. The phrase 'Un metteur en ordre' translates loosely to 'An Imposer of Order'. When you watch the program, you'll see that its title comes from the filmmaker's response to the interviewer's question: 'What's Robert Bresson's profession?' This episode concentrates on 'Au Hasard Balthazar' and includes interviews with Robert Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, and members of the film's cast. Bresson explains the origin of the film's title, while his contemporaries describe their reactions to the film. Several extensive clips from the film are presented, after which Bresson and his cast members offer their opinions of the meaning or consequences of those scenes. The heart of the program is an interview with Bresson, during which he talks specifically about this film. He also gives his ideas on filmmaking in general. For example, here's how he wants his performers to learn their dialogue: 'I ask them to learn their lines ignoring their meaning, as if they didn't have a meaning, as if the words were just syllables. As if sentences weren't made of words but of syllables.'