In a moment of madness a middle-aged, married and respectable pharmacist kills a young woman who is sun-bathing by a lake. Unable to take in what he has done, he flees from the scene of the crime and behaves as if nothing has happened. Eventually her boyfriend is charged with the crime and, in a...
In France during World War I, Marthe waits for her husband, Jacques, while he fights on the front lines. Marthe then begins a tempestuous affair with 17-year-old François, with whom she had a dalliance before marrying Jacques. Jealous François struggles with the fact that Marthe is married, while...
Captain Joris Kniper believes so strongly that he is "skipper next to God" that he is used to playing God on his ship. Tough and bossy, he gives orders which are not to be discussed. But, some day, he is driven to accept on board several German Jews fleeing the nazis and who are refused asylum...
The title of this French "reality" drama, which translates to Before the Deluge, is a play on Louis XVI's famous prognostication, "Apres moi, le deluge." Set in 1950, the film concentrates on five Parisian adolescents. Certain that the next war will herald the apocalypse, the youngster make plans...
This drama about the Carmelite order of nuns is set during the French Revolution. A young woman seeks refuge with the Carmelites because she is terrified of dying during the upheaval. The longer she associates with the nuns the more she is transformed by their faith and devotion.
The Marquis de Villemaur reunite strange visitors in his Castle, to meet a survivor of the Third Reich. There is an Italian fascist, Heinrich; a German, Matthias; a Russian; and Dromard, a blind French war hero with a black monocle.
Pursued by the police, Saget usurps the identity of a man who was returning to his town after having made his fortune in the United States. Under this new name, he deceives his compatriots with the exception of a doctor and the savage Isabelle. During an explanation Saget understands that Isabelle...
Michel Piccoli plays a police inspector whose best friend is murdered on the orders of gang boss Charles Vanel. The inspector knows full well that Vanel is too crafty and well-connected to ever stand trial for his crime, so he carefully lays a subtle trap for his adversary. Unfortunately, both...
In Paris in 1887, Irène works as a governess to Douce, the grand-daughter of the dowager Countess de Bonafé. Douce believes she is in love with Fabien, the handsome manager of the estate. However she cannot hope to marry him because of their class difference. Douce's widowed father, the Count de...
A bungling thief is threatened by one target with blackmail, unless the thief will kill his own cousin, a wealthy eccentric who is considered the village idiot.
The Martin family is shopping in a department store. Tiennot is responsible for looking after his little brother, Bébert, but he prefers to chase girls. On the train home, Tiennot leaves Bébert alone. On arrival, Bébert has disappeared. The Martin family sets out to find him.
It was the reign of Louis XV and, in 1750, France was at war all the time, and the people, suffocated by taxes, liked their beloved Louis less and less. When the governor of Dauphiné arrived in Saint-Étienne-de-Saint-Geoirs, he had to deal with opponents of the regime who had gathered around...
Raymonde Chandebise suspects her husband Victor-Emmanuel of cheating on her. She received a package from the hotel "Le minet galant". The package contained a pair of suspenders belonging to her husband. Her best friend, Lucienne, advises her to find out for sure and to use a stratagem. They both...
An off-beat, uneven tale about a man intent on suicide and the three people who try to talk him out of it, Pantalaskas stars American Carl Studer in the title role of the morose, would-be suicide. Set in Paris and taking place over an entire night, the story has a complication in that the trio who...
A young man comes back to his hometown to be confronted with a bourgeois obnoxious family who has always despised his -now dead - parents because they were music hall artists, "entertainers". But because he's the sole legatee of an uncle's fortune, his relatives become friendly with him.. at least...
