Jean Durand

Based on a novel by José Pérez de Rozas. In Seville, Angel Caal, a Parisian businessman, escapes blindness after a car accident, thanks to the dedicated care of Mercédès, intended for the convent. They fall in love and Mercedes soon discovers the temptations of Paris.

Based on a novel by José Pérez de Rozas. In Seville, Angel Caal, a Parisian businessman, escapes blindness after a car accident, thanks to the dedicated care of Mercédès, intended for the convent. They fall in love and Mercedes soon discovers the temptations of Paris.

Nadia de Hock breaks her engagement to another man because of her love to the marquis d'Areghi. She lives a life of pleasure until Areghi reveals he is just an adventurer who has just killed his brother. He asks her to sign a letter so he can use her as his alibi. Some time later, Areghi is attacked by Nadia's guard dogs as he tries to see her. He dies as she forgives him for the pain he caused her.

Nadia de Hock breaks her engagement to another man because of her love to the marquis d'Areghi. She lives a life of pleasure until Areghi reveals he is just an adventurer who has just killed his brother. He asks her to sign a letter so he can use her as his alibi. Some time later, Areghi is attacked by Nadia's guard dogs as he tries to see her. He dies as she forgives him for the pain he caused her.

When he was a child, François Gérard got to know Antiope, a little foreigner, in a Paris park. As an adult, he sees her again in her native country, Mingrelia, which is on the verge of revolution. He is then the host of Count of Antrim, who is also Antiope's father. However, once in the presence of François, the young woman does not seem particularly moved, which somewhat puzzles him.

Much to his annoyance, Onésime's relatives arrive to stay with him, and the family resemblance is striking.

Anarchy and madness result when a plague of rabbits overrun the country home of an unrepentant hunter, in this “day of the lepus” farce.

Calino's uncle leaves him an inheritance, but only if he can uncover it hidden in his uncle's house. Detective Onésime is called in to help, and is soon tangling with some criminals after the treasure too.

Looking after his aunt and uncle's house when they're away, animal lover Onésime turns it into a hospital for sick animals.

Onésime becomes enamoured of a girl and sends a messenger to her on a motorcycle.

An early Gaumont short

An early Gaumont short.

French parody western.

Ernest Bourbon -- that's Onesime -- has decided to learn to box, for some reason, and also fight an American fighter who's touring France.

Users of the postal service aren't very happy that Onésime spends his work time writing love letters to a lovely lady. Understandably, the woman's husband doesn't take it very well either. To escape his wrath, Onésime can think of nothing better than slipping into the mail duct. And it's pneumatic.

Difficulties ensue when Calino and Onésime get married on the same day, in the same registry office.

When Onésime gets declared dead by drowning, the supposed-widow consults a private detective specialized in missing persons.

Onésime came down and threw himself on stage, starting into the great aria at which he excelled. We must say, in respect for the truth, that he earned what critics calls "the estimated success": Onésime, who has the voice of a barrel salesman, sings like the pulley in a well.

While accompanying his lady to a fashionable casino, Onésime hears someone playing an overpowering waltz on a mandolin, and he starts dancing with his lady. Everyone, from the kitchen hands to the chef, dance until their out of breath.

Rugby players play the game throughout the city streets.

Onésime short

Onésime short

An early Gaumont short

A mine owner discovers a vein of gold but unfortunately dies. His wife doesn't want to sell the mine and so the forman decides to lock her up in a cottage with a dangerous and hungry leopard.

Calino is left in charge of a railway station.

An Indian maiden wishes to marry her lover, but her father refuses because he does not have the requisite bride price.

In an effort to secure a promised inheritance, Onésime invents a time machine that speeds up activity on earth, hyper-animates men and machines, and telescopes the human life-cycle.

When the train workers go on strike, Zigoto terrorizes the town in a hijacked locomotive.

When gold is discovered the first man there gets to stake his claim. Joe and another man race each other, which involves a thrilling episode on a train.

Calino goes politely around to three or four people from the bourgeois class, trying to sell them a lightning rod: but due to a factory defect, the apparatus attracts lightning instead of driving it away.

One day, Calino has the bold and imprudent idea to follow a woman down the street. The woman leads him all the way to the traveling lion cage run by her husband. To avoid her husband's jealous anger, the woman introduces Calino as an apprentice lion tamer.

The short by Jean Durand begins with his frequent character, Zigoto (Lucien Bataille) reading a boring book. So, instead he goes on an outing in his new car with his friends. The captioning says it's a new '101 horsepower car'--this, during an age when the horsepower of cars actually was between 4-30 horsepower! So, in other words, it's supposed to be a super-fast car.

Early short comedy

Pétronille, a maid, borrows one of her employer's dress to go out with her boyfriend Onésime but the outfit is ruined during the meeting.

A Sioux tribe, led by their great chief, wreaks revenge on the palefaces by setting fire to a nearby village. But the cowboys fight back and mortally wound the great chief.

For some time now, Sosthène, clerk at the Grand Laundromat of Papillon-sous-Bois, has been in love with Alphonsine, the girl who brings the laundry. One evening, he decides to win the heart of his beloved, who until now has been cruel and deaf to his fiery declarations, and if necessary, he'll kidnap her. Hidden at the edge of the woods, when Alphonsine goes by, Sosthène rolls through the grass until he lands at the beauty's feet, proclaiming his love in a deranged voice: "Be mine, or die!", "You idiot!". Blood rushes to Sosthène's head. His breath becomes so ragged that it can be heard a mile away, catching the attention of the famous detective Zigoto who was walking Bouboule, his no less famous police dog.

Onésime needs to take care of an infant and does everything he can to avoid that responsibility.

In the grip of passionate foreplay, Zigoto and his lover are oblivious to an escalating series of interruptions and catastrophes going on around them. (MoMA)

Not having enough money to pay his drink bill, Onésime sells his soul to the Devil.

His double behaves very badly, while the real Onésime suffers the consequences.

While the costume maker Onésime is absent, his mannequins begin to play...

Early Calino short

Joe is about to be hung for his crimes but he's going to reveal the whole truth first.

An early Gaumont short

A device using radio waves can make machines and people move from a distance.

Poor Eugénie! She's humpbacked and everyone wants to straighten her out, but when success finally comes, she's too tall not to cause disasters. To solve the problem, the help of a sword swallower is urgently needed.

Calino decides to take a boarder. The gentleman turns out to be a huntsman. All goes well until pay day when the roomer refuses to get out of bed to pay his bill. He says that his pocketbook is in one of his trunks in the garret. Up goes the anxious Calino and his officious mother and sister only to find, upon ransacking each trunk, a furious African lion emerge. The hungry beasts pursue the trio in full haste and the complications and situations encountered are unusually comical. Calino never pays the board bill.

A French comedy short with Zigoto.

The film begins with the Count giving an actress a necklace. However, after her performance, the valuable necklace is missing and so the actress goes to hire some detectives to find it. I loved the strange detective agency in the film. The place had a sliding door, chains on the wall and detectives seem to magically appear out of the floor. It was very kooky but fun.

Calino wants to live the cowboy life and travels to America to see the West.

An old Gaumont movie.

An early Gaumont short.

Just as the streets to hell, to hear it from the travelers, are paved with good intentions, the illustrious police officer Zigoto's brain is full of the most commendable initiatives. While passing before a door, he sees a piece of rope underneath and thinks it his duty to bend down and pick it up. But he's amazed to see that the more he pulls, the longer the cord becomes: "For a thousand prefects - that was his favorite exclamation - do they take me for a pulley?" Upon the arrival of two officers, the men open the door, when all of a sudden a black, horned mass crashes into them.

A couple buy what is advertised as a Rembrandt painting, but a wild slapstick chase ensues after a woman sits on it.

A short Calino film.

Julius wants to marry Nelly, but her uncle forbids that. An attempt to court her failed, but the second attempt with the help of an aircraft might work.

Henri and Pierre, railroad engineers, are both in love with Jeanne. When Pierre refuses to give her up, a fight breaks out in the engine, imperiling everyone aboard the train.

A woman enters a room with a man. She creates a duplicate of him and changes his personality by throwing his clothes from one man to the next.