Jean Dréville

Paris, 1940. German occupation forces create a new film production company, Continental, and put Alfred Greven – producer, cinephile, and opportunistic businessman – in charge. During the occupation, under Joseph Goebbels’s orders, Greven hires the best artists and technicians of French cinema to produce successful, highly entertaining films, which are also strategically devoid of propaganda. Simultaneously, he takes advantage of the confiscation of Jewish property to purchase film theaters, studios and laboratories, in order to control the whole production line. His goal: to create a European Hollywood. Among the thirty feature films thus produced under the auspices of Continental, several are, to this day, considered classics of French cinema.

Reel 16 of Gérard Courant's on-going Cinematon series.

Paris, the middle of the XIX century. Young Marius Petipa is going on a long journey to St. Petersburg, where he is invited to become the first dancer. He doesn't know that his life will develop both happily and dramatically, and his work will be the glory and pride of Russian ballet.

A certain number of French fighter pilots who will not accept the Second Armistice at Compiègne nor Vichy's orders decide to join the USSR. Once they have reached Moscow they resume training and form a squadron they call "Normandie". Reinforced in 1944, the squadron wins many victories. Following the acts of valor displayed by its pilots during the Battle of the Nieman River, it becomes the "Normandie-Niemen" squadron for the rest of times...

A French animal lover protects a dog and a mouse wanted by Soviet scientists for their space program.

Georgina comes to see her sister Gladys in Paris in order to dissuade her from becoming attached to Rigo, a gypsy conductor. When she meets the latter, it is love at first sight. Louis, Georgina’s husband, does not accept this situation.

Commissaire Perrache, the chief of the D.S.T., the French domestic intelligence service, tries to neutralize a group of terrorists named the Partisans de la Métropole. He sends one of his best agents, inspector Louis Vignon, incidentally the husband of his charming secretary Lucette, on the trail of an illegal transmitter. But Vignon gets kidnapped by the gang and held captive on a boat off the shores of Monaco...

Commissaire Perrache, the chief of the D.S.T., the French domestic intelligence service, tries to neutralize a group of terrorists named the Partisans de la Métropole. He sends one of his best agents, inspector Louis Vignon, incidentally the husband of his charming secretary Lucette, on the trail of an illegal transmitter. But Vignon gets kidnapped by the gang and held captive on a boat off the shores of Monaco...

The life story of famed French aviatrix Helene Boucher is detailed in Horizons sans fin (Endless Horizons). Giselle Pascal stars as Boucher, who is first seen in 1930, leaving her millinery shop behind in favor of the wild blue yonder. Though the world of aviation was still essentially an all-male one (despite England's Amy Johnson and America's Amelia Earhart), Boucher perseveres, eventually breaking all existing male and female speed and height records. A bit slow on the uptake in the dramatic scenes, the film soars (no pun intended) during the aerial sequences. Horizons san Fin was the winner of the Catholic Award at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.

Pietro Ponz lives a happy life in the mountains on the Swiss-Italian border with his mother Lamberta. No one but his mother knows that Pietro is a girl, a deception that Lamberta was forced into by a series of tragedies almost twenty years previously. Not long after her husband Joseph Ponz died, Lamberta also lost her fragile infant son, Pietro. Whilst mourning this double loss, she began an affair with Bolzano, a notorious smuggler. After Bolzano was killed by the customs men, Lamberta gave birth to his child, a little girl that she decided to pass off as her son Pietro, in the hope of securing an inheritance from her husband's wealthy parents. Now that Pietro is fast coming of age, his tutor and grandmother are adamant that he should be sent to a religious school. Pietro escapes from the school and joins a gang of smugglers...

The daughter of a notorious smuggler is raised as a boy by her foster mother.

A French/Italian motion picture drama covering the seven deadly sins in seven separate sections.

One of the first victories against the Nazis in World War II is when Parisians help allied forces drive the enemy out of occupied French Algeria.

In France in 1946, the difficult return to civilian life of five deportees and prisoners of war after having lived through the hell of the Second World War.

A series of vignettes, in which Noel-Noel appears as the moderator, lecturer, commentator and leading actor, that examine the bores and pests of everyday life much like Pete Smith and Robert Benchley had done for years in American short subjects. Among those are the Practical Joker who will do anything for a laugh; the Party Entertainer who never stops singing; the Talkative Neigbor who forgets the time; the noisy neighbors who dance the tango all night; and women drivers, people who telephone at meal time, the friend you never saw before and amatuer medical experts. Much use of trick photography, montages, puppets and animation along with some adult Gallic wit and gentle satire.

A factual reconstruction of the sabotage events which took place to prevent Hitler's Germany from getting the heavy water needed to make an atomic bomb during the Second World War.

A smooth criminal, who turns to be Manuel Ismora, and his gang successfully and peacefully pull off con after heist. Elsewhere a timid office worker, Gabriel Dupon, is pressured by his boss...

Louberger, director of an orphanage, is full of praise for a former boarder, Mr. Sauval, who has become their benefactor. One night he arrives and he does not seem to be exactly the man described by Louberger. He has in fact become a crooked lawyer and he is wanted for a crime he has just committed. Despite his efforts he will not escape the police but he will manage to remain, in the eyes of the children, at the height of his legend.

In the harbor of Toulon, on the “Ocean” training ship, the apprenticeship of the cabin boys and experts of the Navy is punctuated by permissions in town, friendships, bullying, and loves.

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.

A large farm in Vendée. The father is dying and the three brothers and sister swear not to marry not to break up the field. Months pass. Francis, the eldest, took things in hand. For him, the promise to their father is sacred. So he does everything for his brothers and his sister Amanda are not tempted. However, the latter lets himself courted by a young man from the neighboring village ...

In a lost village in Lapland, Gérard comes to the aid of his friend Anders, in conflict with his father, a rich owner of gold mines.

France, 1880. Francois Roquevillard is a respected lawyer in Chambery and the head of a family that prides itself on its impeccable morals. Francois's world rapidly begins to fall apart when his son Maurice elopes to Italy with Edith Frasne, the wife of an esteemed notary.

France, 1880. Francois Roquevillard is a respected lawyer in Chambery and the head of a family that prides itself on its impeccable morals. Francois's world rapidly begins to fall apart when his son Maurice elopes to Italy with Edith Frasne, the wife of an esteemed notary.

Isidore Lechat is a ruthless self-made man whose money allows him to humiliate the others, particularly a ruined noble: he wants his daughter to marry this marquis's son but the girl is in love with a young scientist.

A scatterbrained girl harasses a lawyer in Cannes.

A scatterbrained girl harasses a lawyer in Cannes.

A public prosecutor wants his son to marry an ugly girl(who has a squint) because her mom is very rich.But it's too late for the boy has already fallen in love with another girl who is pregnant by him.Angry dad is to stop his shameless son's allowance .Enter exuberant Betty Brown ,with a delightful slight English accent and lots of joy of life .The old man realizes then that life is passing him by .Is it too late for him to find happiness?

A young American businessman, tired of his hectic life, makes an unexpected inheritance which leads him to Normandy. There he discovers, with the discomfort of an old dusty century-old house, the sweetness of life, the love of a beautiful girl and the pleasure of doing nothing.

The duel between a Czarist general and a lieutenant, over the general's wife, is postponed with war approaching. Years later, the rivals meet again but the general realizes his wife has been faithful to him after all.

A toymaker in Poland specializes in building lifesize mechanical men. He builds a chess-playing "automaton" to hide a pretty young Polish activist who is being hunted by occupying Russian forces.

A toymaker in Poland specializes in building lifesize mechanical men. He builds a chess-playing "automaton" to hide a pretty young Polish activist who is being hunted by occupying Russian forces.

Pozdnycheff, a young party animal, destroyed by his lightness the marital happiness of one of his childhood friends who committed suicide. Since then, he is haunted by the memory.

A middle aged baroness thinks she is still young enough to have an affair with a military man the age of her son.She deserts her family and follows the youth to Algeria.

Wife of an arms trafficker in Poland, Georgina is forced to help him. She will only be able to regain her freedom - and love - after a troika chase during which the trafficker loses his life.

A young girl has left her family and lives as best she can on the generosity of her lovers. A naval officer introduces her to Toulon in a special environment which provides companions to sailors on leave. After some setbacks, she finds love and protection with a doctor who marries her.

In Pisa, chance forces an old bookseller out of his isolation. He unleashes the fury of the tenants of his building, he undergoes the rigors of the law and he is involved in the adventure of two lovers whose marriage he arranges.

A young supervisor is expelled from his high school after misleading his students during an outing. He made his fortune and basked on the Côte d'Azur. A young maid comes to his aid before he loses everything. She reveals to him that she is in fact a successful novelist.

An honest civil servant learns about his wife’s infidelity. He pretends not to be aware of it and decides to start a businessman career. He soon becomes extremely wealthy and thinks he can win her back.

Philippe Lutcher, an anarchist, fires a shot at Clara Stuart, a famous stage and screen actress, but only wounds her. The star, through affectation and curiosity to know his motives, pleads in his favour at his trial, but he rebuffs her pity. After he has served 18 months in prison, they meet and fall in love.

Small rentiers do not want their son to marry a young rich girl. They hijack letters and prevent meetings. But love wins. Defeated, the parents accept this union which shocked their petty bourgeois but honest spirit.

A documentary about the making of L'argent, the epic silent film directed by Marcel L'Herbier. The film shows the details of many of the more complicated moving camera shots.

Paris, France, 1784. After living many tribulations, Joseph Balsamo, known as Count Cagliostro, an infamous adventurer, enigmatic magician and necromancer, experienced physician and ruthless swordsman, triumphs among the members of the decadent French aristocracy. But a bold foretelling about a very prominent noblewoman causes his fall in disgrace… (Partially lost film.)