The second annual fest of new French films doesn’t have much to do with chic. Indeed, the one previewable film set among upscale Parisians is something of a nightmare: The Price to Pay (at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, at the Avalon Theatre) is about a wealthy businessman whose wife (Nathalie Baye) does nothing but shop. The man cuts off her spending money until she consents to sex, and the resulting explosion nearly ends the couple’s marriage. Romance is equally toxic in Anna M. (at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 27, at the Landmark E Street Cinema), in which a young book restorer starts stalking her physician, convinced that they’re in love although the doctor is happily married. Love works out a little better, against all odds, in Bad Faith (at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, at the Avalon Theatre), a tale of romance between a Jewish woman (Avenue Montaigne star Cécile de France) and a Muslim man, both of whom turn tribal when their families react badly to the match. It’s almost a relief to escape from love to war with Fragments of Antonin (at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28, at the Avalon Theatre), an account of a shell-shocked World War I veteran obsessed with the five men he killed. This weekend’s attractions include a program of short films (at 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, at the National Gallery of Art’s East Building Auditorium) and Bab’Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul (at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, at the National Museum of Naturay History’s Baird Auditorium), an enchanted tapestry of Sufi parables set in the Tunisian desert. The series runs to Thursday Nov. 1, at various venues; see Showtimes for this week’s films; see cestchic.org for a complete list of films and venues. $10. (202) 944 6091.