Theme lists

Monsters and witches come from folk tales and have been staples of the cinema since its inception. While these creatures provoke fear and anxiety in the collective imagination, they often turn out to less terrible than thought. This course invites you to meet these strange characters and find out what lies behind their monstrous appearance...

Odd encounters

Who has not dreamed of meeting a spirit in a forest, a little wolf who is scared of the dark, three endearing bandits, a bear who makes music, a cowardly lion or a rabbit in a hurry? You can make this dream come true by watching the six films in this course and meeting an array of curious characters. The first five films are especially suitable to children from age 5. But the last film in the course (Alice) features a much stranger and more worrying creative universe and is more aimed at slightly older children, from age 6-7.

World builders

Benshi takes you on a voyage of exploration of imaginary worlds, where you can meet colourful characters with endlessly creative minds, people who invent worlds of fantasy or marvels and other who strive to build entirely new horizons... This course is for young cinema lovers aged 5 and over who like adventures and extraordinary stories.

Cinema bubbles

There is only a short step from cartoons to cinema! That is no surprise, since they share a common language: a story told in a sequence of images. Usually cartoons are adapted to the cinema, but sometimes things go the other way and a film is adapted into a cartoon. That is particularly true when the film is created by a famous comic album writer or illustrator, as in the cases of Tardi for April and the Extraordinary World or Goscinny and Uderzo for The Twelve Tasks of Asterix. Whether it is the indomitable Gauls who continually send invaders packing or the four famous, nasty and amusing bandits from the west in stripy outfits, these colourful characters do not mince their words and it is no surprise to see them given a chance to make their voices heard. The border between the 7th and 9th arts is very thin... Seven films that can be enjoyed from ages 5-6 and help youngsters progress from pages to the screen - and vice versa!

Game on !

With toys or figurines that come to life as soon as your back is turned or public places transformed into theatres of incredible adventures, the only limit to children's games is the imagination. In that sense film makers are big kids who, through cinema, invent new universes with their very own rules. They play as they please with motifs and viewers. So a flower pot can transform into a big scary jungle, and buttons can become spoils of war! Let's play with the cinema and revel in the wonderful space where anything is possible...

Our fantastic neighbours

Living with neighbours is not always easy, especially when they are fantastic creatures! But with a little magic and a healthy dose of fantasy, anything is possible. Monsters, mermaids, talking cats, ghosts and crazy toons: this course introduces you to exceptional neighbours brought to life by the magic of the imagination and animated cinema. These meetings spawn the kinds of stories we love - the ones that help you grow.

Brothers and sisters

It is not always easy to find your place in a family, especially when you have to share it with a brother or sister. The heroes of these films are brothers and sisters in various forms - wolf cubs, twins, Buddhists or sea divinities -, but they tackle challenges and plot together, supporting each other and helping each other grow. The six films in this course are poetic, moving, funny and musical, and they introduce you to very different sets of siblings who are, nonetheless, all linked by the same deep love and shared understandings.

Homage and Parody

Sometimes cinema makes fun of itself by subverting a genre's motifs with humour and tenderness. This can mean alluding to characters or themes and exaggerating them or turning their characteristics upside down. These parodies are often very funny and, above all, are vibrant tributes to a genre or film that has made an impact on the history of cinema. Frankenstein, for example, has been regularly parodied (e.g. Frankenweenie, Frankenstein Junior) Will you be able to recognise the genres or works being spoofed in the films on this course? A good, alternative way of discovering the cinema while laughing...

Questions of size

Little people living among big people; friendships between characters who seem different in many ways, especially their sizes; being immersed in a disproportionate world ... animated films revel in embracing contrasts and changes of scale. They can pull off the little miracle of telling stories from the viewpoints of small characters, helping us to look at the world in an alternative way. Since the question of size relates also to our role in the world, these films offer us another way of looking at what (and who) is around us.

[En]chanted course

When talking movies arrived, film also embraced music, singing and dancing. That gave rise to a new genre that reached its peak in the 1950s in the United States. Since then, musical films have carried on enchanting young and old viewers alike. As they cross genres and years, they lose none of their celebratory quality. Through the seven films chosen for this course, Benshi invites you on to the dance floor to discover musical films in all their diversity. This en-chanting course is for young cinema- and music-lovers aged 6 and over.

Animated painting

["Cinema is the form of modern writing whose ink is light" - Jean Cocteau] Discover six films that plunge you into a fantasy world of pictures, including films that reference master painters and great works, or paintings from which you cannot escape and others you enter with glee, and films that are themselves animated paintings...

The Great Outdoors

Flowers begin to bloom, trees regain their green finery and the birds are singing: spring is here! It is time to rediscover everything that Mother Nature gives us ... in the countryside, woodland, parks and gardens, and also in the cinema! This course takes you on a trip through a nature shown in all its glory, even where it is endangered... Since our ecosystem is never more beautiful than when it is respected and protected, let us learn to love it and preserve it together. Watching these seven feature films will help. This course is aimed at young cinema buffs who love nature, care about the environment, and are aged 6 or over.

Once upon a time there was a forest

When you are the edge of a forest, you have a choice: to venture deep within or to escape. Whether you are going in or getting away, you will have to journey through a forest in every film in this course. The forests may be beautiful and lush or mysterious and otherworldly. Either way, the characters in them are looking for meaning and a sense of self and wind up meeting wolves, ogres or less well known creatures such as tanukis and Migoos. The forests teach lessons about ecology and life, giving explanations that help young people grow. So then, this your chance to venture into the woods. Watch how you go...

Brat pack

The time to go back to school is not far away so Benshi decided to focus on children ... but not just any kids: these are scamps, tear-aways, pests and incorrigible rascals - in other words, brats! These films put the spotlight on naughty children who wreak havoc wherever they go, brazen as you like and sometimes full of quirky humour. But since cinema knows how to handle things, the portraits of these short-trousered terrors are also opportunities to investigate what lies behind their explosive and fragile emotions. School's back, long live break time!

Fantastic voyages

Cinema lovers, get ready to explore the unknown and encounter strange creatures, parallel worlds and supernatural powers! Whether you want to journey through time, to other planets or inside the human body, the voyages shown in this course will certainly take you away from your everyday setting! The seven feature films that make up this course inspire you to question what is real and stimulate your imagination. So then, ready to go?

True stories

Benhsi offers this course for young cinema lovers eager to discover true stories that can be upsetting, moving, exotic, funny or even sporting. Each of these documentary films opens a window on a world, enabling us to meet individuals who gives us insights into who they are, where they live, and how. The cast of heroes even includes animals, since they too have (true) stories to tell us!

Party time !

Benshi invites young cinema lovers on a festive course! A jazz concert by alley cats, a frantic wedding dash, village galas with slapstick or romantic stories, marriage in the kingdom of the dead... You can enjoy all of these atmospheres - which are always fun, even when morbid - in the six films in the Party Time course.

Genre cinema

Travel through cinematic genres that have marked the history of cinema from its beginning to the present. Pirates films, slapstick, fantasy, science fiction, westerns, thrillers or parody, will you be able to identify the motifs that define each of these genres? These seven totemic films will transport you into different universes and eras. Meet pirates, cowboys or detectives and discover the "genre theory" step by step. A first step towards developing your love of cinema...

Summer adventures

The magic of the cinema lies mainly in its power to make us travel without having to go to the other side of the world! Whether you spend summer with the family or friends, at home or in a far-off land, this is undoubtedly a season unlike any other for kids. These timeless few weeks are often when we gain memories that help us grow. So to celebrate the summer holiday, Benshi offers budding cinema lovers a selection of seven feature films that enable them to enjoy special adventures with heroes seeking discovery and freedom. This refreshing course is a great opportunity to expand minds and deepen knowledge of the cinema.

In my backyard

I live in the world. But the world is, first and foremost, what happens in my backyard. I would like to invite you here. Whether I live in a city or the countryside, in a rich neighbourhood or a poor one, or in a peaceful country or a country at war, I did not choose to be born here but this is my world. It shapes me and defines me in ways I cannot know, so will I be able to get away from it to free myself? Will I want and need to? There are visible borders (such as a wall, an edge or an enclosure) and invisible ones (beliefs, culture, a real or imagined danger, what my parents think and the ideas they pass on to me, the way people look at me because I live here) between me and the world. This film course invites viewers to discover how cinema addresses the issue of where we live. Each film has its own way of living in the world.

Childhood throughout the World

Cinema bears eloquent witness to the world and to childhood, serving up the adventures, games, hardships and joys of children from all over the world. With this course Benshi invites you to take a world tour by watching seven portraits of children from various continents and cultures. From Japan to New Zealand, Colombia and Saudi Arabia, these young heroes in search of freedom tell us about their daily lives, their societies and traditions and how they perceive them. These seven films illustrate the universality of childhood and the richness and diversity of cinema. Have a good trip! An international and universal course for globetrotting young cinema lovers aged 7 and over. Films are in their original languages.

Treasures of Japan

All set for the Land of the Rising Sun! This course is designed as an invitation to travel through the Japan of yesteryear and today. Benshi chose works by essential directors of Japanese cinema (including Miyazaki, Takahata, Hosoda, Kitano and Kore-Eda). They are suitable for cinema-lovers aged 7 and over. These stories reflect prized qualities of Japanese culture - modesty and sensitivity -, and the importance of the family is a recurring theme in them, as is respect for environmental balance. Now is the time to discover these "Treasures of Japan"... This course opens a little door that encourages you to continue exploring the vast richness and diversity of Japanese cinema.

Stop thief !

Bandits and robbers are legendary characters in the history of cinema. But they are not always what we think: through these six films set in very different universes, you will meet lovable bandits, gentle and mischievous thieves and other, more sinister rogues. These figures are indispensable to adventure films and provide opportunities to address topics such as friendship, grief, family and unemployment. This course starts with a readily understood animated film and concludes with a neo-realistic Italian film and a film noir, charting a real progression in terms of cinematographic sophistication. So you are strongly advised to complete the course by watching the films in the suggested order.

Tell me if this bothers you

If I had green hair or scissors instead of hands, would you be bothered? If I were a girl who liked doing things that boys do, or if I were a boy who preferred dancing to boxing, would that also bother you? This course is designed to be an introduction to otherness, an invitation to think about the idea of difference.

Shivers down the spine

A jaunt into the world of the dead, a disturbing encounter with a poltergeist, a mysterious disappearance ... Benshi invites you on a worrying, scary and terrifying course! Films that will give you the chills from age 8 upwards.

World Mythologies

For as long as people have been people, they have liked to tell stories: about heroes who defy gods, fantastic beings who inhabit rivers and forests (nymphs, selkies or tanuki) or angry gods who flood the earth. People have used cinema to continue telling these great stories. All kinds of metamorphosis, many-headed monsters, gigantic creatures, tiny humans and gods who hold them in their hands ... anything is possible in cinema! Each people tells their story in their own way. The films selected for this course give a little world tour encompassing universal stories, from the creation of the universe to adaptations of Greek myths. This course also provides an opportunity to discover a great name of the cinema: Ray Harryhausen, the brilliant special effects inventor ! This list was curated by Elodie Imbeau, education manager at the Cinémathèque Française.

Telling stories to show history

What better medium to address history and freedom than the cinema? The seven very different films in this course tell stories that take us into the heart of history and recount the painful episodes that scarred the 20th century. They invite us, often very poetically and sometimes with humour or even music, to go back in time and share the adventures of these "small but great heroes". These seven films illuminate the past and help us to gain a better understanding of the world in which we live. They gently address events that have marked contemporary history and serve to stimulate great discussions with your children.

Disguised identities

Whether they are wearing masks or disguises or pretending to be somebody else, the heroes and heroines of cinema sometimes need to go unnoticed in order to accomplish their goals! That gives rise to stories and situations that are sometimes comical and often laden with suspense or misunderstandings. These are sure to delight cinema lovers aged 8 and over. Put on your cape and mask and embark on great adventures with the Disguised Identities course!

Rebels