Pierre Kerjean
Georges Franju's Judex is an arch, playful tribute to the serials of the influential silent filmmaker Louis Feuillade. Franju shuffles through the plot of Feuillade's lengthy serial of the same name, about an adventurer named Judex (Channing Pollock) whose revenge against the corrupt banker Favraux (Michel Vitold) unleashes a complicated series of schemes.
Frédéric Henderson
A group of people visit a weird old man who is a student of the black arts. The man lives in an ancient, cursed castle. Soon people in the group start being killed off.
Self
Burie
Jules is a shepherd who lives a humble and solitary life in rural Provence. From time to time, he is visited by a lonely widow, Fine, who longs to be his wife. One day, Jules comes across an unexploded bomb lying on the ground in open countryside. After a few foolhardy attempts to set the bomb off, Jules makes a surprising discovery. It is filled with thousands of bank notes…
Mr. Chapuis
On crowded Milan streets, two men execute a split-second payroll heist-in broad daylight-then begin a lightning-paced getaway, via every conveyance available. But after all, when a tough guy's returning to France (where he's been sentenced to death in absentia) after holing up in Italy for nearly a decade, he's got to have some startup money--particularly if he's going back with the wife and kids.
Emile Tessot
Dr. Génessier is riddled with guilt after an accident that he caused disfigures the face of his daughter, the once beautiful Christiane, who outsiders believe is dead. Dr. Génessier, along with accomplice and laboratory assistant Louise, kidnaps young women and brings them to the Génessier mansion. After rendering his victims unconscious, Dr. Génessier removes their faces and attempts to graft them on to Christiane's.
Donadieu
Assola is an imaginary village on the border between Italy and France and the borderline crosses the village itself. The French customs agent Ferdinand is always trying to catch the Italian smuggler Giuseppe. Giuseppe discovers that Ferdinand was actually born in Italy and therefore he can't be a French customs agent.
The grandfather (voice)
Le curé
The Adventures of Cadet Rousselle that on the French Revolution left his hometown in search of fortune. He thinks he knows love with Violeta, a dancer in a band of comedians but ends up involved in a monarchist plot.
Le maire
A publicity-minded French mayor reunites quintuplets and their earthy father, all six played by Fernandel.
Le curé
A greedy advertising executive wants to attract the tourists into a small village:he claims Napoleon slept in the local inn on his was back from Elbe island.
A young customs officer is given an important mission: to investigate drug trafficking on the Belgian border. Incognito, he goes to the place where he easily spots the gangsters.
Arnaud, le secrétaire de mairie
A small village is torn apart by a quarrel between the baker and the italian grocery tenant, mother of a pregnant young girl. She accuses the baker's son, doing his military service in Algeria, to be the father of the would be child. Offended, the baker refuses to deliver bread to the villagers standing on the mother's side.
Father with dogs
After his wife's death, a man discovers that his daughter may not be his.
Le gardien de l'église d'Assy
After attending to a suicidal young man, Dr Richard learns that his wife has been unfaithful for years. This comes as a shock after 10 years of supposedly happy marriage. Back home, he demands answers from Madeleine. A long night of explanations ensues.
Le concierge
Anthology film with three shorts each featuring a famous detective: Monsieur Wens, Lemmy Caution and Maigret.
Le docteur Marchandeau
A doctor, leading an agreed life of the provincial petty bourgeoisie, falls in love with a young woman. As their relationship deepens, he becomes violently jealous and blames her for her dating and friendships.
Piedalu is an ordinary villager, who comes to the capital to present his financial plan to the Minister of Renovation, and finds it difficult to find someone to listen to him. He meets an actress in Paris, whom he takes for a girl from his country.
le curé
In Cantagrel, Urbain Coindet, a farmer and town councilor in his forties, finds his wife hanging from a beam in the barn. Aurélie Coindet has committed suicide but not everybody is convinced. The village is soon divided in two conflicting sides, the Republicans who support Urbain and the clericals accusing him of murder, which particularly suits Frédéric, a tobacco smuggler who hates the farmer. Urbain's case becomes even worse as he develops a tender feeling for Jeanne, a sweet young lady who happens to be Frédéric's sister...
Le premier client de Marie
Based on the novel of the same name by writer Edouard Peisson, this Jean Delannoy film display one boy’s unconditional love for his mother, despite her tragic mistreatment of him. After being raised by a shepherd for the past 12 years, Simon (Pierre-Michel Beck) is reunited with his mother Marie (Madeleine Robinson). Marie is a prostitute in Marseilles and is now stable enough to welcome Simon back into her life. Unaware of her profession at first, Simon is happy to have his mom back, but in time he learns how she makes her living. This troubles Simon but he continues to love her, despite not loving her chosen profession. His anger toward this issue gets directed toward Marie’s louse of a boyfriend, Paul (Frank Villard), and the result is a heartfelt tale about love and family.
A young woman, Maya, is treated in a mountain hotel, where her husband joins her every Saturday. She falls in love with an attractive lawyer, who has come to this hotel in Savoie to successfully climb the Aiguille Rouge. The lawyer rejects Maya at first, but ends up becoming her lover and promises to run away with her... once the Aiguille Rouge has been climbed. But a storm breaks out during the ascent, and the lawyer dies, struck down.
Olivier Cabrol is an immature young reveler who lives from hand to mouth. One day he inherits a fabulous fortune from an eccentric uncle. But on the one condition to spend a certain amount of time as a tramp. Olivier accepts out of sheer greed but soon finds the experience rewarding. He finds himself as well as new friends (true ones this time) and even love in the person of Colette.
Le père Lajeunesse & le greffier
Michel has stolen from his employer, Mr Bellanger, for the love of Juliette. He is now in jail. One night, while sleeping in his cell, he wakes up all of a sudden, the gates open and he finds himself in a strange village where all the inhabitants have lost their memory. There, meets Juliette again who seems to agree to marry a powerful man, who might well be Bluebeard...
Camille
Jean Michaut is a bargeman who lives nearby an old barge cemetery named "Bras-Mort". He is in love with Monique, the daughter of a wealthy boat owner. The girl returns his affection but runs her head against the wall of her family's class prejudices. Her "nearest and dearest" prove indeed prepared to do everything to separate the two lovers. But Monique will not buy in. On the contrary, she leaves her intolerant family to live with Jean among simple, more tolerant bargemen.
The coachman
Fates of multiple otherwise disconnected characters intertwine miraculously under the sky of Paris. And it all happens in one day.
Le père d'Yvon
The inhabitants of a Scottish island in the 19th century follow their own religion without need for clergy, but as strangers arrive, their faith and beliefs face a deep crisis.
Victor
A wealthy baron, without offspring, who knows death is approaching, wants to adopt a man who kept him alive a bit longer, when he was almost run over by a horse drawn cart.
le maire et le curé
While he was about to end his life, Baron de Cantenac wanted to return one last time to the land of his ancestors. He then discovers a treasure that he will strive to use to revive his village.
The gravedigger
When he finds a package in the metro, given this period of restrictions, Mr. Truche thinks it may be a good deal, he takes it home but discovers a woman's head inside. A friend of Mr. Truche having just disappeared, the superintendent accuses her of having murdered her and discovers the head buried in his cellar. But the girlfriend, whom Mr. Truche loves platonically, returns from the countryside and at the same time we spot the assassin of the unknown woman.
A gangster, thief of atomic formulas, has a double in the person of a naive musician. A music hall artist who makes eyes at the musician is deceived by the gangster who also takes advantage of the resemblance to track down a band of thugs who are chasing him. Virtue is ultimately rewarded.
Duchemin
The accountant of an insurance company, rather eccentric and quick to push the song, is responsible for monitoring the actions of an alluring South American whose suicide would mean the collapse of the company. Finally, the accountant discovers an attempted insurance scam and marries the surly and charming interpreter who was the liaison between the South American and himself.
Firmin
When her godmother dies, Nicole's happiness collapses and her fiancé leaves her because she is ruined.
Le maire d'Azay
In 1825, Paul-Louis Courier, a Republican writer known for publishing pamphlets against the French monarchy, was killed in the farm where he had retired. Was it a political assassination or a vicious crime? Those who have known him loved him or hated him are interrogated by the police. Will the guilty person(s) be ferreted out?
The Dombreval troupe is the last vestige of an outdated form of entertainment: the traveling theatre. Mireille is the director, strong, courageous, but overwhelmed by the hardships and financial difficulties. Full of dignity, she refuses negotiations and compromises, confronting the gendarmes with determination. The end is however near, Mireille is aware of it.
Edith, a young orphan, is exploited as a waitress and bullied by her adoptive father. But she has a dream: she wants to become a star. One day the Orient Express, which never stops at the little station across the café she works in, is forced to pull up due to a technical incident. And out of a carriage gets ... a company of dancers, who start rehearsing before Edith's amazed eyes. She meets the director of the company, handsome dancing star Harry Belmont, who takes an interest in her beauty and in her natural talent. When she leaves her obnoxious father for Vienna, Harry is absent. She nearly gets seduced by a libidinous man but, after a narrow escape, she gets a job from Treberg, the owner of the restaurant she had dined in. Treberg finds her there, hires her as a dancer and the pair soon meets tremendous success. A star is born but, realizing that he comes second to her, he prefers to vanish.
Angelo, a glass-blower from Murano, and Georgia Maglia, the pretty daughter of a fallen fascist magistrate, are chosen to be the stand-ins for the stars of a film version of "Romeo and Juliet" being shot on location in Venice and Verona. It is not long before they fall in love and their romance parallels that of Shakespeare's timeless heroes. Indeed their union is threatened by the schemings of Raffaele, the Maglia family's dubious tout...
Doctor Schaefer
A soccer enthusiast like his father, Martin Lambert is the (gifted) goalkeeper of the local team. He falls in love with Jeanette and soon marries her. Alongside a happy marital life, Martin becomes a successful professional. Which proves a mixed blessing since fame makes him vain and haughty and his marriage gets seriously affected. But the Second World War breaks out and Martin is drafted. Taken prisoner a few months later, he is sent to a camp. When he is released, he tries resume his career but his wounds hurt too much and he has to give in. But not soccer: he will now proudly train young shoots.
On the banks of the Rhône, not far from Tain l'Hermitage, Alcide Garonne, an old ferryman - and incidentally a poacher - lives out of wedlock with Victorine Rousset nicknamed Maryse, a colorful tramp. When Garrone's son, Pilou, a worker, falls in love with Augusta, the mayor's daughter, the unconventional old couple tries to protect the unconventional young pair from the disapproval of self righteous villagers.
Toubredin
In the peaceful alpine village of Granges-de-Mortes, a tragedy has just taken place: Gustave Boeuf, the local Casanova, has mysteriously died at the foot of a wayside cross. Shortly afterwards, a peasant, who is suspected of having murdered him, hangs himself from a branch of the calvary. But was he the real culprit? Angélique Barrodet, an old maid , who had been Gustave's fiancée before he abandoned her on the very day of their wedding, leads the investigation in her own way.
Le capitaine
A stranger named Constant disrupts the life of Flora, who is seemingly happy with her husband Lucien. But she suddenly experiences a passionate love, taking refuge with Constant in a cave they call “home under the sea.”
The owner of the lingerie store
She dragged out a more than mediocre life in the port of Antwerp; he is a renowned pianist-virtuoso. These two solitary beings, totally different, meet by chance on a liner and gradually realize that they complement each other harmoniously.
Belleu
When Monsieur Crauqual, the supervisor, is found hanging, all wonder why this rather rich person decided to kill himself. And when a pupil is found hanging too, François and his friends decide to investigate. They are certain there is a killer within the walls of Collège François 1er and determined to prevent him from going on running wild.
Kerroët
Hervé is a tough sea captain in command of the "Duchesse Anne", a rum-trading ship. But the sea dog hides a tender heart and he allows Marie-Douce, a poor slum girl who dreams of seeing the wide world,on board. To have her accepted by the crew, he passes her off as his niece. A seasoned master like him, wise enough to ban alcohol use on his ship, should have known better : a beautiful girl on the deck cannot but unleash the savage instincts of all those men without women.
Néel
Jérôme owns a boat with his crook of an uncle, La Rose de la Mer. They sail with a band of crooks hired by the uncle to scuttle the ship and collect the insurance premium.
Camille Duroc
June 1944, a French town towards the end of the occupation. Following several attacks perpetrated by the resistance, the inhabitants who listen to English radio are rounded up by the Germans in a prison and considered as hostages. In one of the cells are found men from all walks of life: an aristocrat, the Viscount of Saint-Leu, Doctor Noblet, a resistance fighter, Béquille the wanderer with a wooden leg, and a strange character nicknamed "Black Market". The latter arouses mistrust among the prisoners, because it could well have been introduced by the enemy.
A song editor from Marseille meets the daughter of a showman whom a competitor wants to ruin to get the hand of the young woman.
Pierre risks being taken advantage of by an agency that sets up financial scams, he escapes thanks to Marcelle, the secretary of the director of the agency, who is a childhood friend. She does her best to keep the young man away from the scams of his boss. However, the director, in love with Marcelle and jealous of Pierre, succeeds in trapping and ruining him. Marcelle will then denounce him to the police, but before being arrested he will kill her.
Perrin
Pierre risks being taken advantage of by an agency that sets up financial scams, he escapes thanks to Marcelle, the secretary of the director of the agency, who is a childhood friend. She does her best to keep the young man away from the scams of his boss. However, the director, in love with Marcelle and jealous of Pierre, succeeds in trapping and ruining him. Marcelle will then denounce him to the police, but before being arrested he will kill her.
Mimile is a street singer and also a very inventive free rider. With his friend Georges, a musician in the same orchestra, they meet Arlette Sicleton and Lulu. Arlette is the sister of Sicleton, a sports event organizer and Lulu is the daughter of Ledoux, the supervisor in charge of tracking down free riders. After many misunderstandings, love will triumph.
Le père Maxence
In France, in 1930, a supervisor of a boarding school for young offenders seeks to awaken the music by forming a choir, despite the skepticism of his boarding school director.
Calixte
An inventor has just developed an extraordinary machine, a disintegrating ray and thought detector. He experiences it one evening on a group of relatives, including his fiancée, and it seems to turn into a tragedy: he is found lifeless, apparently poisoned. A man calling himself a police officer begins to investigate.
Ramuel
In my “cellar” where case workers all the people of a great hotel, the head of the café, Donge, finds the corpse of Mrs Petersen, a rich client. The investigation by Maigret allows him to rub the husband of the victim, a Swede, Teddy, Ms Petersen’s son, his housekeeper, a social dancer and Donge himself who is the natural father of Teddy. The child he will go to his real father or not he will leave the rich Petersen who adores? The murder mystery and enigma sentimental are resolved by Maigret.
Gourlet
During the Directory, a handful of royalists tried to get the Dauphin Louis XVII to escape from the Temple.
Tramp
Renée Ménard, a young mixed-race Indochinese, arrives in France to find her French father, whom she only knows is called Paul Ménard. In the hope of identifying her father, she meets a series of men with that name.
Le curé
Having lost his memory due to serving in World War I, Gaston has spent the past 15 years in a psychiatric hospital. Due to his large disability pension fund, several families claim him as their missing son. Gaston is introduced to the Renaud family by the Duchess Dupont-Dufort and her lawyer. The Renaud family attempt to revive Gaston's memory with stories of his past, but he is apalled by some of the things he hears and dislikes the man he is supposed to be.
Louis
A rich young man, Pierre Trévoux, has a desire for adventure and boasts of his courage. While he is staying with friends in the countryside, his hosts, to play a trick on him, organize a fake burglary, but he discovers the hoax. When he returns home, he finds his house broken into. Convinced that the game continues, he does not understand that he is dealing with real gangsters. His recklessness allows him to rout the criminals.
Pascaud
Alice, an unhappy young woman in the household, is the mother of a little boy, Pierre. She falls in love with a young doctor and plans to run away with him and his son. Finally, not considering the right to deprive Pierre of his father, she gives up. Twenty years pass, Pierre has grown up, he suspects his little brother, Jean, of just being his half-brother. His suspicions gnaw at him, his mother confesses to him her past fault. Faced with this confession, Pierre will abandon the one who sacrificed her life for him.
'La Coule'
An opera singer is stricken with amnesia and, on the evening of a premiere (in his stage costume which is that of a tramp), he goes to wander with real tramps.
Ademaï is very happy to spend a vacation month in Corsica, invited by his family; when he arrives, much to his surprise, all the male relatives have just been shot.
Maënnec
Maloin, a maritime station guard, spends his nights at the port signal box. One night, he becomes the witness of a murder: for a simple suitcase smuggled, the altercation between the two men turns to drama. While the first falls and drowns, the second flees. Maloin, instead of warning the police, decides to dive in and recover the suitcase...which contains more than 3 million in small denominations! That's when the trouble begins...
Goupi-Dicton
An old woman living in an inn is killed and her family members seem like the likely culprits.
le père de Gabrielle
The story of how the people of Paris cope with the strains and struggles of war, from the siege of the city by the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian War of 1871 to the invasion by the Germans in World War II.
It's a sailors' story; they often sail away and when they return, the first thing they do is searching girls in the harbor. One of them -Jean- is shy and he does not know how to go with women. One day, he meets Yvonne and falls in love with her. But, alas, she prefers his good friend René. Another suitor, Pierre, owns the "À la Belle frégate" a café where Yvonne works as a waitress. Madam(e )Juliette, pretends she helps Yvonne and tries to make her an "entraineuse"(hostess) for less-than -handsome guests. But the girl knows better and will choose one of her suitors.
Legend has it that in the village of PugetMaure, a mysterious goat is the guardian of a treasure once abandoned by the Saracens. Norette, the mayor's daughter, has a golden bell that would reveal the secret. A Parisian journalist is interested in the story. In front of the coalition of villagers, he abandons the treasure and marries Norette.
Le curé Agnel
Auguste, a somewhat simple-minded Provençal fisherman, loves and admires Mireille. This concerns only Maurice, son of an important wholesaler, whom scruples do not stifle. Seduced and abandoned, Mireille moves Auguste who tries to mend his poor happiness. The local priest, with wise words, leads Mireille to offer her hand to Auguste.
Jouset
Mademoiselle Bressac is a bossy spinster who manages "Le Clos", her estate, with an iron hand. But is she really a bad person? Her manners are abrupt but they only hide a heart of gold. Doesn't she bring up four orphans, Dominique, Fabien, Chantal and Jean? And as if it were not enough, she has accepted to educate another child, her niece Patricia, entrusted to her care by her irresponsible father. Thanks to her, the five young people have grown up in harmony and now they are about to find their place in society. Two of them, Jean and Patricia, who love each other, live only for the estate.
Alfred, the drunkard
Inspector Wens moves into a Paris boarding house to catch a serial killer.
Durieu
Stuck in Angoulême between her uncle, who composes classical music, and her aunt, who is a fan of contemporary music, young Irène finds life boring. Fortunately, there is swing music which illuminates her days. So when, one day, Raymond Serre and his swing orchestra come to Angoulême, she seizes the opportunity to slip the copy of a song she has written into the pocket of one of the musicians. The trouble is that while she is doing so, the train she has boarded pulls out.
Bedu
The everyday life and activity of "La Dernière Heure", a major evening newspaper, seen through the eyes of Hélène Perrin, a cub reporter trained by Pierre Rabaud, a star in his field. Side by side they will investigate several events: an air show that ends tragically, the coming to France of a Hollywood actress, a lightship caught in a terrible storm...
Firmin
The children born from a first marriage of a widower and a widower who have remarried do not get along. Frequent quarrels break out in the household which finally finds calm thanks to the presence of a new little girl.
Wanting to complete the research of her doctor husband, a former actress returns to the stage and therefore abandons her home. Badly supervised, her little boy runs away. We find him ill in the Alps. He is saved by his father and the parents' union is sealed again.
The son of a sailor, who seduced and abandoned the mother, doesn't get along with the new man, a clockmaker, the woman weds. He turns to delinquent behavior and smuggling and leaves on a ship, just like his father.
Louis Martet
Despite a perfect marriage and a superb career as a singer, Jean Dupray cheats on his wife. She dies while listening to the song he dedicated to her, "Maria". He then retired to the south where he led a life in complete anonymity. But his best friend's fiancé recognizes him and seduces him. Following a fight with his best friend, he decides to return to order by becoming a monk.
Some, like Ravier de l'Orne are born... masters, but ,like him, do not live up to their rank. Others, like Gustave Morillon, are... born masters, even if, like him, they are valets. Morillon will indeed prove better at bridge than his master and will eventually win the affection of Antonia, a lively foreigner Ravier also coveted.
Delobelle
An ambitious and perverse adventurer sows dissension and ruin in a wealthy family of industrialists.
Monsieur Jourdain is a dangerous madman : he wants to share his fortune! His relatives do what any sensible fellow on earth would do: they have him committed to a mental hospital. But Jourdain manages to escape and decides to make everybody happy except... his heirs!
Milou
The romantic relationship between a sports journalist and a cyclist during the Tour de France.
Specialist
Jean Vernet, an unselfish banker, feels fine : he has a charming mistress, Jacqueline ; a godson, Fernand, that he took in when he was a child and that he has brought up and cherished ever since ; a faithful friend, Lamblin ; and an adorable dog. But things are not so rosy as they look. Adrienne, Jean's sister, hates Jacqueline and is prepared to do everything to separate the couple. Worse, it looks as though Fernand has betrayed his godfather by sleeping with Jacqueline. To know more about those around him, Jean, a modern Volpone, decides to fake deafness.
Boisselot
A little bank employee wins a plane in the lottery and amazes his companions with his audacity.
Le père Éternel
French version of the Selma Lagerlof story, most famously filmed in 1921 by Victor Sjostrom, about a poor sinner who only realizes what misery he's wrought when he dies on New Year's Eve and is collected by Death in his carriage.
Il padrone della pensione
Caesar, a senior French colonist returned home after many years of absence, knows a girl, Marcella, who is in full depression because she was abandoned by her lover. Caesar welcomes her into his home and surrounds her with paternal attention so that he can quickly forget the past. Slowly his feeling turns into a love that Marcella seems to reciprocate. However, when Cesare realizes that the girl feels only gratitude for him and is in love with a younger man, he loses control. Blinded by jealousy, he plans to kill Marcella's lover but, in the face of the girl's vulgarity and indifference, he realizes that he has been teased and turns his anger towards her.
Blain
An employee at a jewelry store falls in love with a woman who secretly plans to rob the store.
Le concierge
After committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events the led him to the killing.
Le vieux professeur
The young Suzy is a nightclub hostess in a cabaret in which Frehel is the star. Because one night she gets propositions from a rich widower who would like to have her as his girlfriend, Suzy wishes to leave this place, where she has no future, for a better one. Abandoned by her protector, a young hoodlum named Robert, she gets the occasion to get away from it. She decides to go on vacation on the Riviera and stay at the Chateau des Cedres, the former residence of a noble family that has been transformed into a bourgeois guest house by the baroness Saint-Leu. Shy and elegant, in her modest suit, Suzy stays there under the name of Suzanne Michelet and soon makes new friends among the young people of very wealthy families.
Le curé
Reine, a young woman, meets for the first time a cousin of hers, Paul. She falls in love with him but she soon leans that Paul is engaged to Blanche, the beautiful daughter of Reine's uncle.
Roméo
Modeste is a timid watchman at an automobile factory which is run with an iron hand by its owner, Roger Drapeau. One evening, Modeste leaves his post to visit a fairground, where he meets the attractive Aline. Having glimpsed his employer, Modeste makes a hasty return to the factory. When Monsieur Drapeau appears, Modeste explains that it must have been his twin brother that his boss saw at the fairground, a nasty piece of work named Raphaël. Not only does Drapeau fail to see through this unconvincing lie, but it gives him an idea to win a marathon car race. Modeste and Raphaël will take alternate turns in the stages of the race and, because they are so similar, no one will be any the wiser. Unable to admit that he has no brother but afraid of losing his job, Modeste allows himself to be coerced into taking part in the race...
Guesthouse Proprietor
Middle-aged Georges of the "old school" who offers shelter and comfort to Marcelle. Despite his own reservations, Georges falls in love with the much-younger girl, remaining faithful to her even after he realizes that she cares only for his money.
Le concierge du ministère
Jeune Filles en Detresse (Young Girls in Distress) was director G. W. Pabst's last French production before his (ill-timed) return to Nazi-occupied Austria in 1941. Somewhat reminiscent of Maedchen in Uniform, the story is set in a private girl's school, populated almost exclusively by children from broken homes. Among the few students who can claim family stability is Micheline Presle, but even her happiness is threatened when her lawyer father Andre Luguet inaugurates an affair with stage actress Jacqueline Debulac. With the help of Debulac's daughter Louisa Carletti, Presle is able to break up her father's romance and deliver him into the open arms of her mother Marcelle Chantal. On the whole, the performance by the younger cast members are more convincing than those rendered by the film's so-called adults.
A middle-aged Parisian lawyer meets a young girl and falls in love with her. The girl's mother discovers the affair and the couple must flee.
In a café, sitting around a table, a journalist is explaining to three fellow-compatriots what he saw on the Maginot Line at the borders between France and Nazi Germany.
Le prêtre
Driven by necessity, Jean Larcher, a young agricultural engineer, accepts the degrading mission of leading to ruin, under cover of administering it, a huge cocoa plantation on the island of São Tomé. His employers, a financial coalition, indeed plan to dispossess its owner, an inexperienced young woman who has just inherited it, of her property. But when Jean comes into contact with her, he recognizes Francesca, a girl he had fond feelings for when he was a student.
Le contrôleur
A seasoned con-man devises an elaborate plan to relieve a rich socialite of a hefty chunk of her fortune but her falling in love with him complicates matters.
The Doctor
Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean, an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, as acts of both revenge and kindness render him front-page news.
The mistress of an engineer meets the man's pregnant wife and decides to give up the liaison.
Donnadieu, prof. de musique
In a college, three friends form a secret society. Their objective - going to America. One night, after one of their secret meetings, one of them sees a man coming out from a wall. The next day, after he talks about it, he disappears. Then, the second one vanishes. Are they gone to their dreams? That's when the art teacher is murdered. Suspicions now are too high so the third one decides to investigate.
Vicar
Ramuntcho is a young man who has fallen in with a gang of smugglers, led by Itchoua, who carry their contraband across the border into Spain. He is in love with Gracieuse whose mother, Dolorès, bitterly dislikes Ramuntcho because he was born an illegitimate child. His smuggling activities force him to join the army and he is sent to Saigon and, because of her mother's desire to marry her off to someone else, Gracieuse joins a convent.
No overviwe found
A florist in a nightclub in Montmartre, a good, naive man is manipulated by a gang of gangsters who use him to smuggle drugs.
Le balayeur
A French farce set in Victorian London where a botanist and his wife get into trouble when they pretend to go missing in order to hide from their sanctimonious cousin - an Anglican bishop who is leading a campaign against such writing.
le balayeur
A French farce set in Victorian London where a botanist and his wife get into trouble when they pretend to go missing in order to hide from their sanctimonious cousin - an Anglican bishop who is leading a campaign against such writing.
After the death of her husband, Christine realizes she has possibly wasted her life by marrying him instead of the man towards whom, in her youth, she had a stronger inclination. To overcome these dreary thoughts, she decides to find out about him and the other men who danced with her during a ball that was a turning point in her life, many years ago. She pays a visit to those forgotten acquaintances one after the other; Christine is not only surprised to see how they have fared, but also discovers the impact she had, unknowingly, on the feelings and the destiny of these persons. Duvivier's American film Lydia (1941) is, to some extent, a remake of this one.
Tania, a young girl from Central Europe, leaves her home because of her abusive father. Trained, in spite of herself, in the nets of the secret services, she becomes a renowned dancer who travels the major capitals, in search of military information. In 1917, in Paris, she was arrested and sentenced to death. She will be executed despite the fervent defense of her lawyer who has fallen in love with her.
19th Century Russia. State prosecutor Fedor Andreiev is presiding over the trial of a man who murdered his wife's lover. Despite a robust defence from the brilliant young lawyer Serge Rostoff, the accused man is found guilty and will be deported to Siberia. Having spoken to the condemned man, Fedor Andreiev sees a disturbing parallel with his own life...
A laborer
A rich sugar factory manager wants to marry his daughter to an aristocrat, while the young girl is in love with an engineer, employed in a rival company.
Le second du professeur
A timid young man marries the daughter of the entomologist he works for. On the train for their honeymoon, he takes his young wife in his arms when a customs officer suddenly enters the compartment. The groom is now inhibited.
Cascaroni / L'aubergiste
Honorin is the simple and naive stage manager of a traveling theatre troupe, whose one ambition is to once play the role of the cavalier in the opera "Francis I, or the Loves of the Beautiful Ferroniere". A hypnotist puts him to sleep and in his dreams he is transplanted to the days of the Renaissance. There, among other items, he is made a Duke by Henri VIII, fights a duel and survives a series of medieval tortures, while also bestowing some 20th century blessings on the court of Francis I.
Lukas, le philosophe
Inhabitants of a flophouse struggle to survive under the harsh treatment imposed by the landlord, Kostyleva. One resident, young thief Wasska Pepel, ends his affair with the landlord's wife, Vassilissa, and takes up with her sister, Natacha. Pepel also befriends the baron, a former nobleman fallen on hard times, but Pepel's attempts at happiness are complicated when he's accused of murder by a spiteful Vassilissa.
Slapstick inheritance comedy based on the confusion between twin brothers, both played by the great Raimu who also plays their father.
l'encaustiqueur
Slapstick inheritance comedy based on the confusion between twin brothers, both played by the great Raimu who also plays their father.
le pêcheur du bistrot
When her fiancé breaks off their engagement, Danielle leaves London and returns to her mother, Jenny, in Paris. With her business partner Benoît, Jenny runs what appears to be a respectable nightclub – it is in fact a place where wealthy men can buy the favours of attractive young women. Oblivious to her mother's professional and personal life, Danielle meets a handsome young man named Lucien, and falls in love with him – not realising that he is Jenny's lover...
Madame Dupin is the most influential character in her village. She is at odds with her daughter because the latter married a showman.
Le cabaretier
A journalist takes command of a ship after the crew mutiny against the brutal captain. It was an adaptation of the novel The Mutiny of the Elsinore by Jack London.
L'aubergiste
The banker Marivol looks like a tailor, Lambinet. Gangsters threaten the first, who hires the second as a double. The latter accepts ignoring everything. When he learns that he will be the target of killers, the unfortunate man begins to live in terror.
A man and a woman arrive in a cafe-hotel near the Belgian frontier. The customers recognize the man from the police's description: his name is Amedee Lange, and he murdered somebody in Paris. Lange was an employee in a printing works. His boss was a real bastard, swindling every one, seducing female workers... One day he fled to avoid facing his creditors, and the workers set up a cooperative to go on working. What then made Lange a killer?
le deuxième valet
General Mikailoff once killed a lieutenant he mistakenly believed to be his wife's lover. Subsequently, she meets Henri de Cassel, so different from her drunkard husband, becomes his mistress and agrees to flee with him. She is surprised by her husband who, dead drunk, shoots the young man's reflection in the mirror.
Le maréchal des logis Bellare
The reservist Lafleur, having a wife, a mistress and still running after the first petticoat that comes along, his namesake, an active soldier, finds himself embroiled in the vengeance or intrigues that all these women are plotting. Eventually, the entanglements will unravel in a final party.
Two horsemen are inseparable. One is smart and the other clumsy. A young girl is engaged to the clumsy but she falls in love with the smart one.
L'huissier
The rise of a canning maker and then his abandonment of the factory because his ideal of social progress for his workers is undermined by the Board of Directors.
