Self
Edited from 4½ hours of unused material left over from the shooting of Jean Renoir's 1936 PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE (A Day in the Country) and donated by the producer Pierre Braunberger to the Cinémathèque Française. Re-edited for a new version, much of the film is shot with synchronised sound with Renoir's voice instructing and guiding the actors.
Le directeur
Pierre Robinhoude
Pétepan learns that his money has been lost by Robinhoude brothers.He asks his assistants to withdraw his amount from the bank.
Two scientists have invented a kindness serum which can turn the fiercest human being into the sweetest kindest person. Testing the product on a wild lion proves successful. The "vaccination " becomes compulsory in the whole France, then in Europa. Mrs Durand ,who was a sour-tempered shrew, becomes tender and pampers her husband, happy as he has never been. The bossy colonel of the fourth floor surrounds his neighbors with attentions .But new problems appear, caused by this universal goodness:for instance, Mr Durand's boss's lover does not want to tell him she does not love him anymore for fear he may be grieved.Besides, a country in which people were not inoculated against nastiness becomes aggressive.
Eugène
Yes, Doudou (or, more respectfully, Edouard Doucin) is both heir to a big sugar refinery and its managing director but he is also an incorrigibly bashful bachelor, which just exasperates his aunt Agatha. Summoned to marry as soon as possible, Doudou is fortunate enough to meet Babette , an elegant young lady who wishes to introduce him to her parents. When he comes to visit them, he mistakes the floor out of nervousness. In fact,he finds himself at the Lautiers' not the Olivaros'. Now, chance has it that this couple of shopkeepers also have a marriageable daughter. And as Poupette is romantic, passionate and adorable, Doudou can't find the nerve to disappoint her. As a result the young man gets engaged...twice ! How the devil will he cope ?
Jean-Luc
A bossy count has trouble marrying off any of his six sons. When one of them, Adam, finally makes wedding arrangements, something happens to his bride to be: she develops amnesia after an accident.
Gendarmerie Brigadier Bonardan
The marchioness of Botarin secretly exchanges passionate letters with Jean, a young sailor. What Jean doesn't know is that the lady of his heart is twice as old as he thinks, for the photo she has sent her was one of her young niece Jacqueline, instead of her. Things get complicated when Jean turns up at the Botarin manor, escorted by two other sailors. The young man immediately falls under the spell of Jacqueline, which drives the marchioness crazy. The latter resorts to various subterfuges to separate the lovebirds, but to no avail. She will end up marrying a gendarme who has been her suitor for years while Jean weds his beloved Jacqueline.
Fernand
(uncredited)
le patron de la brasserie
One Christmas Eve, a carefree young man, Eric, arrives in a small provincial town. Here, he meets Julien, a bar pianist who is his exact double. Julien is in love with Marinette, a pretty waitress, but he is too shy to make any romantic overtures. Eric decides to give the course of true love a helping hand by pretending to be Julien. Meanwhile, Eric’s fabulously wealthy uncle has sent his minions out to bring him back home, so that he may celebrate Christmas in the bosom of his family.
le grand ménestrel
France, the beginning of the XIV century. Every night, Queen Margaret of Burgundy and her two sisters arrange orgies, to which beautiful nobles are invited. The young men were brought blindfolded, and after a night of love they were killed and their corpses thrown into the river, because the queen was afraid that her husband would learn about her adventures. One of her lovers managed to escape death. He knows the secrets of the queen, knows that she once gave birth to a son from him, claims that he has evidence that Margarita wanted to kill her father and blackmails her.
Mr Bombardon
Self
In the early 1950s, the popular radio show "La Kermesse aux Étoiles", hosted by the famous Jean Nohain, mixing lottery games and performances of various artists, will be disrupted by the adventures of a man and his fiancée seeking to recover a dangerous bottle of perfume (explosive) which was unfortunately mixed with the prizes to be won ...
Berthelin
Unfairly accused of her husband's murder, a woman is imprisoned.
The rivalry between Albert Gambier, head of the municipal brass band, and the jazz band, led by Jacques Hélian, provokes many comic adventures in this small provincial town. Everything will end in songs, thanks to the love uniting Jimmy, the band's composer, and Nicole, Gambier's daughter.
An officer brings to him in Morocco a dancer he loves.
Brigadier
In order to inherit her husband's old aunt more quickly, a greedy peasant woman engages in various dishonest maneuvers.
Innkeeper
The young Mathilde de Marsan, believes she is in love with a singer, Philippe Mazières, and steals his photo. This one, who had written a song start, searches for this photo as far as the castle of Geoffroy and Estelle de Marsan, where Mathilde's uncle and aunt take him for the husband of one of their guests, Claude Cartier. and will finally marry her while Georges, Claude's ex-fiancé will fall in love with his hosts' niece, Mathilde.
Lui-même cherchant Maurice Escande
Raymond Corbier, a sculptor, has a wonderful wife, Sylvia, whom he adores. To save a passionate admirer who simulates suicide because she does not respond to her advances, Sylvia, an irreproachable wife, is forced to lie for the first time to Raymond.
The director
Jacques Hélian, an attractive charm singer, too stifled by the jealousy of the radio director's niece, flees with his orchestra, on the advice of his secretary Bob. They fail in a small village, where there is a boarding school for young girls. Bob responds to the love letters the teacher sends to the handsome singer.
Commissioner Germain
A merchant, without audacity with women, is dragged by a friend into the worst marital complications. His setbacks will ultimately pay him off.
le capitaine Edgar Morgan
Passing for crazy and locked up, the CEO of a company escapes from the asylum and claims that he is the captain of a troop of pirates. To the disappointment of the director of the company and in the company of three employees, he accomplishes many extravagances which will be beneficial for his acolytes.
Eugène, who works for Radio-Europe, is a bit dim-witted. He lives in a block of flats whose caretaker is Madame Motte, and the lady is in love with the young man. Just for laughs, Eugène's friends circulate on the air the rumor that Eugène has inherited millions of francs. It does not take long before a swarm of 'friends' start mixing with him. After a while, considering that the joke has lasted long enough, the jokers reveal the truth. Eugène immediately loses all his 'friends' but not he girl he loves. Even better, Eugène actually inherits a big sum of money. He who laughs last laughs best!
Sparadra
The eccentric characters of a street from the comic designs of Andre Dubout are brought to life with human performers instead of drawings.
Argenteuil
Agnès de Louvigny, aviator, crashes with her plane on the villa of Martial Simonet, a fashion designer nicknamed La Patronne. But tourists are busy in front of the villa.
Le marquis André Berbezieux de Saint-Rozay
For the Marquis Barbezieux de Saint-Rosay, nobility is important. If anything can comfort her, it's her family tree. In order to erase any doubt he invites in his castle a cousin of his established in Scotland, whom he instructs to bring him his titles of nobility. A first person introduces himself, calling himself his cousin, but it's not him. Then one, then two, then three false cousins appear in turn. Will the real Saint-Rosay of Scotland eventually present itself?
Gaston Bernod is a Parisian bus driver. Honest, upright and hard-working, he is held in high esteem by his superiors. Gaston has always pampered "his" bus, going as far as to equip it with a fuel-saving device of his invention. Very close to his vehicle, he may have somewhat neglected his wife Paulette, who lets herself got round by the smooth words of Pierrot. The gigolo has indeed managed to persuade her to follow him to the Mont Saint-Michel, "a wonderful nest for their burgeoning love" as he says. The trouble is that Gaston, while driving his dear 84, catches sight of the car, and suddenly aware of his misfortune, sees red. He immediately sets off in pursuit of the culprits, involving his load of helpless passengers in the chase.
Le spectateur qui a trop chaud
In this sketch comedy compared to the American film Hellzapoppin, a spectacle is put on to celebrate the wedding of a nobleman, but the results are disastrous.
Le maire de Villeneuve
A typographer makes a mistake by printing the winning number of the national lottery. Many people believe they have won the jackpot. Pursued by his newspaper editor, the worker appears in court where all mystified people are invited to testify.
Poireau, drunkard
During Christmas night, two police officers make their nocturnal rounds, in their round they meet tramps, brawlers in a café, a naked man, a concierge, a sexton, revelers in a nightclub, and end by signing in their report to the police station.
Vincent
In Paris, three models are murdered, being one of them the mistress of the fashion designer Dominique Airelle. It is the young inspector who is in charge of the affair.
Caldebrousse
Sylvain is the town clerk of the small Provençal village of Coursoul. He is the darling of all the girls in the country. His brother, Désiré, a disabled carpenter, secretly loves Toinette, the lumber merchant's daughter. She falls in love with Sylvain. This one, convinced by the director of a traveling circus of the excellence of his voice, is about to leave everything to follow his career. But Désiré learns from Toinette that she is expecting a child from Sylvain. He goes to inform his brother, who reconsiders his decision. But Désiré will leave in his place, not to sing, but with his bruised heart to play Paillasse.
François Venay
A very Parisian author cannot finish a comedy. It is ruin for the director of the theater, who has the idea of taking his foal to the coast. There, recruited actors will perform a series of variations on the theme of heartaches to inspire him. After a number of misunderstandings, the operation succeeds.
Charles
Commissioner Malaise investigates a strange crime: a mannequin, stolen from the window of a tailor, is found stabbed... But his face of wax has the features of a certain Gilbert, who died a year earlier in a family, all of whose members will become more or less suspicious to the Commissioner. He thinks that, in spite of Dr. Furnelle's conclusions, Gilbert's death was not natural. But finding the cause of death and the identity of the possible culprit will require more than a mere intuition.
Hector
Two paintings are stolen. Amateur private detective Roland Gautier investigates.
Pivolot
Roger Laroque is now a rich man. He returns to France under the name of William Farnell. There, he discovers that on the one hand his wife has died of a broken heart and on the other that his daughter Suzanne is in love with Raymond de Noirville, the son of his former mistress. With the help of a few friends, Roger coldly prepares his revenge.
Monsieur Dufour
1860年、夏のフランス。パリで金物商を営むデュフール(アンドレ・ガブリエロ)は、妻ジュリエット(ジャヌ・マルカン)、義母(ガブリエル・フォンタン)、まな娘アンリエット(シルヴィア・バタイユ)、そして彼女の婚約者で婿養子となる予定のアナトール(ポール・タン)とピクニックに出掛ける。馬車を走らせて田舎にやって来た彼らは、太陽の光や草木の匂いを楽しみながら穏やかな一日を過ごそうとする。そんな中アンリエットは、舟こぎの青年アンリ(ジョルジュ・サン=サーンス)から舟で川に出ないかと誘われる。
Roger Laroque, an honest industrialist, is the victim of a criminal machination by Julia de Noirville, his possessive and jealous mistress allied to the perfidious Paul Luversan, meant to make Roger take responsibility for the crime he himself committed. Laroque is sent to prison, from where he escapes by sea. When he is reported missing, it looks like he drowned. But he reappears with revenge as his objective. He also wants his daughter Suzanne back. For his wife, it's too late, she died of grief.
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.
L'inspecteur Lucas
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.
Lucas (as Gabriello)
Cecile, a young girl who goes to the offices of the Judicial Police several times in a row to complain about nightly visits to the apartment she occupies with her aunt, is not taken seriously by the police until she the day she is found murdered.
Nortier
Adrien Moulinet, a modest encashing agent in the Nortier bank, is also an inventor in his spare time. His latest revolutionary creation is the motorized roller skate. His problem is to be able to market them. Jules Petitpas, a jobless adman, is the right man for that.
Latripe
Bastien and Furet are a journalist and a photographer working together as a team on the newspaper 'L'Echo du Jour'. Just as they are about to go off on a weekend break with Micky, their boss's secretary, they are sent to a crime scene to report the murder of a Russian named 'le Moujik'.
Blondel
Comedy about an older man wanting to marry a younger woman who must make sure first that the woman is not by chance his own daughter.
Le dîneur
A struggling artist buys a talisman that gives him love, fame and wealth. The talisman is a severed left hand, and it works perfectly, in fact, magically. But of course there is nothing free in this world, and after one year the devil comes and asks for his due.
Lucas
Picpus is a street and a subway stop where a number of murders have been committed. Maigret tries to find the killer.
Loustalec
Pierre, who is a Fine Arts student, and Denise, who is a chemistry student, work for a department store where, wearing wedding suits, they distribute flyers to passers-by. The store manager, Bernard, falls in love with Denise and arranges to take her to an inn not far from Paris, run by the handsome Robert. This one opens Denise's eyes who ends up returning to her home. After a fight between Pierre and Bernard, Denise ends up choosing to stay with Pierre.
Gavard
An unconsummated marriage to fool the father who wants his heir to be wed.
Guy Carbonnel, a rich industrialist, has more eyes for rugby than for his wife Hélène. René Rivals, his long-time pal, takes advantage of it to court her but Guy is becoming suspicious so René has to find a way to deflect his friend's suspicion. He finally has an idea: he asks Lilian, a circus acrobat, to pose as his mistress. Lilian accepts and they embark on a series of eventful moments.
Pussot, agent de police qui arrête Turlot
Inspector Wens moves into a Paris boarding house to catch a serial killer.
Caprices tells the story of two young rich people. A famous actress poses as a poor florist, and a distinguished society man camouflages himself as forger and swindler. This game leads them to make close relations in a series of adventures.
Mario
Evelyne, a woman of bourgeois origin, now reduced to dancing in a sleazy nightclub, is reunited with her first love, who has become a successful doctor.
L'homme volé
Town trollop Safia, much against her better judgment, falls in love with Matteo, a beggar and mystic in the native quarter of Sirocco. She flees to France, first as the mistress and then wife of a wealthy archaeologist, and bears him Matteo's child, whom he believes to be his own. Complications arise years later when Matteo finds Safia, and a ring of blackmailers uncover her past and exposes her to her husband.
Rogue
Based on true facts, a news item which was widely talked about in the nineteenth century, this is the story of a wife who might have poisoned her husband .
Story of the Siberian monk Gregory Rasputin and the hold he exerted over the court of the last Russian czar, Nicholas.
Pô
Based on a novel by Maurice Dekobra, the film is set in the Yoshiwara, the red-light district of Tokyo, in the nineteenth century. It depicts a love triangle between a high-class prostitute, a Russian naval officer, and a rickshaw man.
le commissaire Toptoum
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.
Favrolles
Director Rosé and his opera company travel to Monte Carlo where they expect an engagément to perform at the opera house. During the boat trip Mario, the cheerful tenor, meets a girl hidden in his cabin. He helps her singing for her passage and soon Nicole is adopted by the whole troupe. Then at Monte Carlo the opera director has no intention to sign them. But he has an eye for beautiful women, so Nicole will try to persuade him to reconsider the offer.
An Arabian prince falls in with a group of downtrodden rebels and faces the wrath of an unsympathetic sultan whose wife he is also romancing.
Bancroft
In this fast-moving fantasy, an unsophisticated student escapes from a boarding school to become, after many trials and tribulations, the "toast of Paris."