Noël Schoudler, founder of an empire built on three foundations - sugar, banking and the press - reigns like an absolute sovereign over his business and his family. But someone is about to challenge this authority: his son François...
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...
Two industry managers from Milan are in Rome to get the contract to build a YMCA hostel. They get in touch with a masseuses ring and one of the masseuses is introduced to the president of the catholic association as the wife of one of the managers. During a vice squad roundup, the president is...
Alain is the only son of a wealthy bourgeois couple. He takes violin lessons in Ménilmontant, where he is spotted by Fleur, a poor girl: she is going to kidnap him and demand a ransom from the young man's parents, money which will be used to pay for a good lawyer for her brother accused of killing...
In occupied France during the WWII, a German officer is murdered. The collaborationist Vichy government decides to pin the murder on six petty criminals. Loyal judges are called in to convict them as quickly as possible.
A young, talented and ambitious journalist, Louis heads off to try his luck in Paris. He's spotted by Walter, editor-in-chief for a major daily newspaper, who takes to him and furthers his career. What he doesn't realise is that Louis is ready to betray anyone to achieve his ends...
Henri Chatelard is well into his forties, owns a restaurant and a cinema in the city, and appreciates women. When he meets Marie, an 18-ish strong-head who just lost her father in a small fishing village, it is not clear who is the hunter and who is the prey.
A provincial ingenue leaves her mother’s tobacco shop with dreams of a life in the Parisian theater, only to become entangled in relationships with a lecherous aristocrat, his starry-eyed nephew, and an old ham actor.
In the reign of king Louis XV,a handsome student,Des Grieux, meets his charming cousin,Manon,just when she goes to the convent of Amiens,to take the veil.
A well-off young woman decides to become a nun, joining a convent that rehabilitates female prisoners. Through their program, she meets a woman named Thérèse who refuses any help because she says she was innocent of the crime she was convicted for. After being released from prison, Thérèse...
Based on a venerable Legend of the Sea, the story concerns a pliable prostitute named Bella (Romance) who is all things to all men. No matter what sort of woman her client wants, she will become that woman -- at least for the night. When a middle-aged man named Jean insists that Bella is his...
The lucky Baron wins a boat in a card game and takes off with his former lover to find new adventures. Adverse circumstances land them in a small town, where the Baron's seafaring companion leaves for more attractive scenery offered by a wealthy local man. Meanwhile, there is a certain charming...
At 73, a former President of the French Council reflects on his political career while writing his memoirs, delving into his relationships with key figures, including the one set to become the next President.
In November 1942, American troops landed in Tunisia. German paratroopers were immediately launched and occupied Tunis. A French squadron of chasseurs d'Afrique was sent to Medjez-el Bab with the mission of occupying the bridge over the Medjerda. But the captain is mute and the cavalrymen don't know...
Life in a one-parent family with a focus on the parent, Henri Neveu (Jean Gabin), is the topic of this standard drama with a dash of comedy. While Henri was a POW during the war, his wife passed away and he returned to face the challenges of bringing up three children alone. Henri may get drunk and...
During the German occupation, Jeanne Moncatel, pretty but complexed, has to put up with her mother, a cantankerous old woman who keeps telling her she's ugly, which she also believes. She takes in Pierre Ségur, who was fleeing the Germans and had his eyes burned out. His life is turned upside down.
The Donadieu family lives in the Provençal sun in a happy letting go, The father, the mother, the son and the three daughters. One of them, Claire, falls in love with a mountain dweller, Chapus, whom she marries Chapus, rough and austere, undertakes to educate the Donadieu family. The joy...
