1.
French Algeria
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French Algeria began in 1827 with the blockade of Algiers by the French navy and lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an part of France. The vast arid interior of Algeria, like the rest of French North Africa, was never considered part of France, one of Frances longest-held overseas territories, Algeria became a destination for hundreds of thousands of European immigrants, known as colons and later, as pieds-noirs. However, indigenous Muslims remained a majority of the population throughout its history. Gradually, dissatisfaction among the Muslim population with its lack of political and economic status fueled calls for political autonomy. Tensions between the two groups came to a head in 1954, when the first violent events of what was later called the Algerian War began. The war concluded in 1962, when Algeria gained complete independence following the March 1962 Evian agreements, since the 1516 capture of Algiers by the Ottoman admirals, the brothers Oruç and Hayreddin Barbarossa, Algeria had been a base for conflict and piracy in the Mediterranean. In 1681, Louis XIV asked Admiral Abraham Duquesne to fight the Berber pirates, again, dEstrées bombarded Tripoli and Algiers from 1685 to 1688. An ambassador from Algiers visited the Court in Versailles, and a Treaty was signed in 1690 that provided peace throughout the 18th century, however, Bonaparte refused to pay the bill back, claiming it was excessive. In 1820, Louis XVIII paid back half of the Directorys debts, the dey, who had loaned to the Bacri 250,000 francs, requested from France the rest of the money. The Dey of Algiers himself was politically, economically. Algeria was then part of the Barbary States, along with todays Tunisia – which depended on the Ottoman Empire then led by Mahmud II —, the Barbary Coast was then the stronghold of the Berber pirates, which carried out raids against European and American ships. Conflicts between the Barbary States and the newly independent United States of America culminated in the First, an Anglo-Dutch force, led by Admiral Lord Exmouth, carried out a punitive expedition, the August 1816 bombardment of Algiers. The Dey was forced to sign the Barbary treaties, while the advance of U. S. British. The name of Algeria itself came from the French and his intention was to bolster patriotic sentiment, and distract attention from ineptly handled domestic policies by skirmishing against the dey. In the 1790s, France had contracted to purchase wheat for the French army from two merchants in Algiers, Messrs, Bacri and Boushnak, and was in arrears paying them. These merchants, Bacri and Boushnak who had debts to the dey, devals nephew Alexandre, the consul in Bône, further angered the dey by fortifying French storehouses in Bône and La Calle against the terms of prior agreements. After a contentious meeting in which Deval refused to provide answers on 29 April 1827
2.
Cannes Film Festival
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Founded in 1946, the invitation-only festival is held annually at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès. On 1 July 2014, co-founder and former head of French pay-TV operator Canal+ Pierre Lescure took over as President of the festival, the Board of Directors also appointed Gilles Jacob as Honorary President of the festival. The 2016 Cannes Film Festival took place between 11 and 22 May 2016, australian film director George Miller was the President of the Jury. I, Daniel Blake, directed by British director Ken Loach, in 2017, The Festival de Cannes will celebrate its 70th anniversary edition from May 17 to 28. In 1947, the festival was held as the Festival du film de Cannes, at that time the principle of equality was introduced, with a jury made up of only one representative per country. The festival is now held at the Palais des Festivals, expressly constructed for the occasion, although for its 1949 inaugural the roof was unfinished, the festival was not held in 1948 and 1950 on account of budgetary problems. Although its origins may be attributed in part to the French desire to compete with Autumns Venice Film Festival, in 1955, the Palme dOr was created, replacing the Grand Prix du Festival which had been given until that year. In 1957, Dolores del Rio was the first female member of the jury as a Sélection officielle – Member, in 1959, the Marché du Film was founded, giving the festival a commercial character and facilitating exchanges between sellers and buyers in the film industry. Today it has become the first international platform for film commerce, in 1962, the International Critics Week was born, created by the French Union of Film Critics as the first parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival. Its goal was to showcase first and second works by directors all over the world. In 1965, an hommage was paid to Jean Cocteau after his death, the next year, Olivia de Havilland was named the first female president of the festival. The 1968 festival was halted on 19 May, some directors, such as Carlos Saura and Miloš Forman, had withdrawn their films from the competition. The filmmakers achieved the reinstatement of the President, and they founded the Film Directors Society that same year, during the 1970s, important changes occurred in the Festival. In 1972, Robert Favre Le Bret was named the new President and he immediately introduced an important change in the selection of the participating films. Until that date, the different countries chose which films would represent them in the festival, Bessy created one committee to select French films, and another for foreign films. In 1978, Gilles Jacob assumed the President position, introducing the Caméra dOr award, in 1983, a new, much bigger Palais des Festivals et des Congrès was built to host the Festival. It was nicknamed The Bunker and provoked many reactions against it, in 1984, Pierre Viot replaced Robert Favre Le Bret as President of the Festival. It was not until 1995 that Gilles Jacob created the last section of the Official Selection and its aim was to support the creation of works of cinema in the world and to contribute to the entry of the new scenario writers in the circle of the celebrities
3.
Jean de Florette
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Jean de Florette is a 1986 French period drama film directed by Claude Berri, based on a novel by Marcel Pagnol. It is followed by Manon des Sources, the film takes place in rural Provence, where two local farmers scheme to trick a newcomer out of his newly inherited property. The film starred three of Frances most prominent actors – Gérard Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil, who won a BAFTA award for his performance, the film was shot, together with Manon des Sources, over a period of seven months. At the time the most expensive French film ever made, it was a commercial and critical success. The two films helped promote Provence as a tourist destination, the story takes place outside a small village in Provence, France, shortly after the First World War. Ugolin Soubeyran returns early in the morning from his military service, Ugolin stays only briefly to talk, as he is eager to get to his own place farther up in the mountains. Here he throws himself into a project that—at first—he keeps secret from Papet and he eventually reveals that the project consists of growing carnations. Papet is at first skeptical, but he is convinced when the flowers get a price at the local market. They decide the project is worthy of expansion, and together they go to see the neighbouring farmer known as Pique-Bouffigue, the land in question is apparently dry, but Papet knows of a source of water, a spring, that can solve that problem. The neighbour does not want to sell, and an altercation breaks out when he insults the Soubeyran family, in the fight Pique-Bouffigue is killed, but rather than feeling remorse, Papet sees this as an opportunity. After the funeral, they dig out the rubble that is filling the spring, plug the hole, unknown to them, they are seen blocking the spring by a poacher. The property descends to the mans sister, Florette, a childhood friend of Papet. He writes to a friend for news on Florette. The property thereby descends to her son Jean, who is a tax collector and unfortunately, to discourage the new owner from taking up residence, Ugolin breaks many tiles on the roof of the buildings. Florettes son, arrives with his wife Aimée and young daughter Manon, the new owner is called Jean Cadoret, but Ugolin, in the local custom, calls him Jean de Florette. Jean makes it clear that he has no intention of selling and he has a grand scheme for making the farm profitable within two years, involving breeding rabbits and feeding them off cucurbit. Jean does not know about the spring, only of a more distant one. The distant spring, where an old Italian couple lives, is 2 kilometres away, Jean believes the needs of the farm can be met from here
4.
Manon des Sources (1986 film)
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Manon des Sources is a critically acclaimed and commercially successful 1986 French language film. Directed by Claude Berri, it is the second of two films adapted from the 1966 two-volume novel by Marcel Pagnol, who wrote it based on his own film of the same title. It is the sequel to Jean de Florette, following the events of Jean de Florette, Manon, the daughter of Jean, is living in the countryside of Provence near Les Romarins, the farm that her father once owned. She has taken up residence with an elderly Piedmontese squatter couple who teach her to live off the land, tending to a herd of goats and hunting for birds, after seeing her bathe nude in the mountains, Ugolin develops an interest in Manon. When he approaches her, she seems disgusted by his vileness, but Ugolins interest in Manon becomes obsessive, culminating in sewing a ribbon from her hair onto his chest. At the same time, Manon becomes interested in Bernard, a handsome, as a small child, Manon had suffered the loss of her father, who died from a blow to the head while using explosives in an attempt to find the water source. César and Ugolin then bought the farm cheaply from his widow—Manons mother—and unblocked the spring, Manon witnessed this as a child. The two men profited directly from his death, when she overhears two villagers talking about it, Manon realises that many in the village knew of the crime but had remained silent, for the Soubeyran family was locally important. While searching for a goat that fell into a crevice above the village, Manon finds the source of the spring that supplies water to the local farms. To take her revenge on both the Soubeyrans and the villagers, who knew but did nothing, she stops the flow of water using the iron-oxide clay, the villagers quickly become desperate for water to feed their crops and run their businesses. They come to believe that the flow had been stopped by some Providence to punish the injustice committed against Jean. Manon publicly accuses César and Ugolin, and the villagers admit their own complicity in the persecution of Jean and they had never accepted him, as he was an outsider and was physically deformed. César tries to evade the accusations, but an eye-witness, a poacher who was trespassing on the vacant property at the time, steps forward to confirm the crime, Ugolin makes a desperate attempt to ask Manon for her hand in marriage, but she rejects him. Rejected by Manon, Ugolin commits suicide by hanging himself from a tree, the villagers appeal to Manon to take part in a religious procession to the villages fountain, hoping that acknowledging the injustice will restore the flow of water to the village. With the assistance of Bernard, Manon unblocks the spring in advance, and she is last seen very pregnant and leaving a church service on Christmas Eve with her husband. Meanwhile, César has been broken by his nephews suicide, delphine, an old acquaintance of his, returns to the village and tells him that Florette, his sweetheart from that period, had written to him to tell him she was carrying their child. Receiving no reply from him, she had tried to abort it, Florette left the village, married a blacksmith from nearby Créspin, and the child was born alive but a hunchback. César, away on military service in Africa, never received her letter, in a cruel twist of fate, Jean, the man he drove to desperation without having met him, was the son he had always wanted
