|
Gloria (1931)
Character: Robert Nourry
Mother of a young boy, Jackie, Véra Latour asks her husband, Pierre, a famous aviator, to stop performing stunts where he risks death for pleasure. Pierre reluctantly agrees, and it is his friend Bob Deschamps who wins a trophy during a meeting. However, Vera, who never wanted to experience her first flight with her husband, allows Bob to take her up in his plane. When Pierre finds out, he immediately sets off with his loyal mechanic Robert Nourry on a long flight across the Atlantic. After hours of anxiety, Vera learns that her husband has successfully reached New York. Upon his return, she welcomes him as a victor.
|
|
|
La foule hurle (1932)
Character: Joe Greer
French-language version of Howard Hawks' The Crowd Roars (1932): A race car driver vies with his younger brother, who he'd hoped to keep away from the track, both in competition and for a girl who hangs out with the men. Tragedy results.
|
|
|
L'Étoile de Valencia (1933)
Character: Pedro Savedra
Because a sailor once told Pedro Savedra his wife, Marion, cheated on him, he left her. Learning later that it was nothing but a practical joke, Pedro decides to find her and win her back. He finally traces her in Palma de Mallorca, where she has become a cabaret singer. To set her free, he needs money and accepts a job. But Palesco, the nightclub owner, does not agree to let Marion go and will not shy about throwing a wrench in the gears.
|
|
|
Adieu les beaux jours (1933)
Character: Pierre Lavernay
After she has abused the confidence of the young engineer Pierre Lavernay, the beautiful thief Olga, who has fallen in love with him, wants to break with her criminal past. Unfortunately, by the awkwardness of her former accomplices, Olga is extradited to the police and, sadly, her young lover turns back to Paris.
|
|
|
Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song (2002)
Character: Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
The films, affairs and struggles of the iconic star of The Blue Angel as told by Rosemary Clooney, Roger Corman, Deanna Durbin and many more.
|
|
|
Mireille Darc, la femme libre (2018)
Character: Monsieur (archive footage)
On August 28, 2017, Mireille Darc passed away at the age of 79. She was Audiard and Lautner's favorite actress, the sex symbol of the pop years, a photographer, a woman in love, and a documentary filmmaker. The artist was also the patron of La Chaîne de l'espoir, an association that helps disadvantaged children. Mireille Darc tells her story through a selection of her most intimate interviews. Her loved ones also talk about her: her husband, Pascal Desprez; Anthony Delon; Véronique de Villèle, her personal assistant and friend; writer Lionel Duroy; Professor Deloche; and photographers Richard Melloul and Francis Giacobetti, who made her their model...
|
|
|
Jean Moncorgé, la face cachée de Jean Gabin (2010)
Character: Self (archive footage)
On November 15, 1976, a legend of French cinema passed away. The public was deeply moved, as Jean Gabin was such an integral part of the collective memory. Born in 1904, the star had played every role, from the young leading man in Gueule d'amour to the tough guy in Touchez pas au grisbi to the retiree in Le Chat. But what do we really know about the private life of this popular star, whose modesty condemned him to silence? Behind the face of the "lovable rogue" and "tough guy" lay a man with his flaws, worries, and wounds. You will discover how Petty Officer Moncorgé found himself among the soldiers storming Adolf Hitler's hideout at the end of the war. How did the man who, throughout his life, dreamed of being recognized as a farmer, end up being taken hostage by 600 farmers on his estate in Orne?
|
|
|
Varieté (1935)
Character: Georges
Annabella, Jean Gabin and Fernand Gravey star as a trio of circus trapeze artists. Both Gabin and Gravey love Annabella, but she has eyes only for Gravey. Seething with jealousy, Gabin plots revenge against his rival. He "accidentally" drops Gravey into a net during rehearsal -- but does he plan to do the same during a performance, when the trio works without a net?
|
|
|
French Cancan (1955)
Character: Henri Danglard
Nineteenth-century Paris comes vibrantly alive in Jean Renoir’s exhilarating tale of the opening of the world-renowned Moulin Rouge. Jean Gabin plays the wily impresario Danglard, who makes the cancan all the rage while juggling the love of two beautiful women—an Egyptian belly-dancer and a naive working girl turned cancan star.
|
|
|
Le Clan des Siciliens (1969)
Character: Vittorio Manalese
An ambitious mobster plans an elaborate diamond heist while seducing the daughter-in-law of a ruthless mob patriarch as a determined police commissioner closes in on all of them.
|
|
|
Le Tatoué (1968)
Character: Count Enguerand de Montignac,aka 'Legrain'
An art dealer wants to buy a Modigliani, which is tattooed on the back of an old soldier.
|
|
|
Sous le signe du taureau (1969)
Character: Albert Raynal
Albert is an eccentric inventor of missiles who comes under fire from his investors when his first prototype explodes. Even his sympathetic mistress has her doubts, as Albert lashes out in a verbal tirade condemning those of little faith in his genius.
|
|
|
Quand Jean devint Renoir (2017)
Character: Self (archive footage)
The fascinating story of a man destined to be only a son of and who sought all his life to become "someone" by getting rid of the overwhelming image of his genius as a father, the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
|
|
|
Cœurs joyeux (1932)
Character: Charles
A silent film theater projectionist is kidnapped by a gangster group, so he can show them footage of a Dutch jewel dealer they want to steal from. The head gangster's sister helps foil their plan.
|
|
|
Le Chat (1971)
Character: Julien Bouin
Julien Bouin, a former typographist, and his wife Clemence, who used to perform in a circus, hardly talk to each other in their small house, soon to be demolished. His cat Greffier being the only one he still gives affection to, he becomes the object of Clemence's anger.
|
|
|
Razzia sur la Chnouf (1955)
Character: Henri Ferré dit 'Le Nantais'
Henri, the Man from Nantes, comes back to his country after a successful stay in the United States, where he was working for Liski, the drug dealer. With the fame of being a tough guy preceding him, he sets himself to the task of knowing why the French operations were not so profitable - and soon he is master of all links of the organization. He can now get it honed to perfection - or destroy it. Only... the Police are following his every step.
|
|
|
Un singe en hiver (1962)
Character: Albert Quentin
During World War II, an innkeeper vows to abstain from alcohol for the sake of his family. Years later, as they thrive in Normandy, his resolve is tested by a charming advertising professional who loves to drink.
|
|
|
Le rouge est mis (1957)
Character: Louis Bertain/Louis le blond
Louis Bertain is the owner of a Paris garage which is the front for a robbery gang. He and his accomplices are careful to keep up a civic veneer by day, indulging in criminal activities only when "the red light is on" at night. This status quo is upset when one of the gang members becomes convinced that Louis' younger brother is a police informer.
|
|
|
La Minute de vérité (1952)
Character: Dr Pierre Richard
After attending to a suicidal young man, Dr Richard learns that his wife has been unfaithful for years. This comes as a shock after 10 years of supposedly happy marriage. Back home, he demands answers from Madeleine. A long night of explanations ensues.
|
|
|
Au-delà des grilles (1949)
Character: Pierre Arrignon
A French fugitive arrives in Genoa, where he becomes entangled with an Italian woman and her daughter.
|
|
|
Martin Roumagnac (1946)
Character: Martin Roumagnac
The local building-contractor Martin Roumagnac is fascinated by the fashionable Blanche Ferrand. To impress Blache, Martin presents her with a villa. However, this ruins him financially. Despite Martin's many efforts for the now femme-fatal Blanche, she is not able to chose between him and the rich consul De Laubry.
|
|
|
Du haut en bas (1933)
Character: Charles Boulla
The intersecting lives of neighbors in a courtyard apartment building in Vienna,including a football player related to the concierge,a new blonde maid hired by the wife of a baron,whom both the athlete and a baron flirt with,and a deadbeat tenant who fakes his suicide.
|
|
|
Jean Gabin, une âme française (2015)
Character: Self (archive footage)
With testimonials from Mathias Moncorgé, Costa-Gavras, Marc Lemonier, Michel Wyn, Yannick Yéhée, Ginette Vincendeau, Brigitte Hernandez, Patrice Gélinet, and Bernard Stora. The kid from the suburbs, unloved by his parents, little Jean Moncorgé, moved to Montmartre in 1914. A rowdy street urchin, he ended up working as an usher in a music hall. In 1927, he met Mistinguett at the Moulin Rouge. She was 52, he was 25, and they fell madly in love. Many others would follow. The most famous were Marlène Dietrich and Michèle Morgan. A man of the people who became a landowner in Normandy, an anarchist, and a horse breeder, Gabin had several lives. Before the war, he was the star who celebrated the rebellious working class. During the war, he left Hollywood, reverted to Moncorgé, and enlisted in the navy.
|
|
|
Le Sang à la tête (1956)
Character: François Cardinaud
François Cardinaud is one of the richest shipowners in the region. But this success arouses resentment and jealousy. When Marthe, his wife, leaves the home without warning, Cardinaud sees her life cracking little by little.
|
|
|
L'Affaire Dominici (1973)
Character: Gaston Dominici
In August 1952, a family of British tourists is found by the roadside in Haute Provence, brutally murdered. In the ensuing, very public, investigation a local landowner, 75 year old Gaston Dominici, is arrested for the murders, having been denounced by his sons. Under police interrogation, Dominici confesses to have killed the family and it looks certain that he will be charged, tried and sentenced to death. But then the case begins to collapse. The old man retracts his confession and the lack of evidence against him becomes apparent…
|
|
|
Alain Delon, l'ombre au tableau (2019)
Character: Self (archive footage)
A childhood in boarding school, volunteered at 17 for the war and dismissed for indiscipline, thug in Marseille turned gigolo in Paris, he became actor thanks to some inspired women. Then flying high, fast and far, thanks to his director masters René Clément, Luchino Visconti & Jean-Pierre Melville.
|
|
|
L'Âge ingrat (1964)
Character: Émile Malhouin
Antoine and Marie decided to introduce their parents before the wedding. Summer vacation looks like a good time, so the Lartigue family prepares to host Malhouin family. But it turns out that the harsh Emil Malhouin is not too happy to get acquainted with his future relatives...
|
|
|
La Belle Équipe (1936)
Character: Jean dit Jeannot
Five unemployed workers win 100,000 Francs in the national lottery. Instead of sharing the money, they buy a ruin and build an open-air cafe. But difficulties come to split their friendly group apart.
|
|
|
Le Tonnerre de Dieu (1965)
Character: Léandre Brassac
Veterinarian Léandre Brassac lives with his wife Marie on a remote estate. One day, he decides to shelter a young woman with no bearings.
|
|
|
Gueule d'amour (1937)
Character: Lucien Bourrache, dit 'Gueule d'Amour'
Lucien Bourrache, a good looking non-commissioned officer at the Spahis, is used to charm many women. He met Madeleine Courtois at Cannes. She is beautiful and lives in luxury. He lends her a large amount of money, which she loses gambling. Then she drops him. But Lucien is now in love, and once demobilized, he goes to Paris to find her again. But he's not so sexy without his uniform, and Madeleine and him do not belong to the same milieu.
|
|
|
Le pacha (1968)
Character: Comissaire Joss, le Pacha
Six months before his retirement from the criminal police, inspector Joss finds his colleague Gouvion dead, in a poorly faked suicide attempt. Joss loses his temper, and investigates on his own, which leads him through the bas-fond of Paris...
|
|
|
Moontide (1942)
Character: Bobo
After a drunken night out, a longshoreman thinks he may have killed a man.
|
|
|
Cœur de Lilas (1932)
Character: Martousse
Also known as Lilac, this early Anatole Litvak-directed talkie was based on a play by Tristan Bernard and Charles Henry Hirsch. The story bears traces of the Bertold Brecht-Weill piece The Threepenny Opera, with heroine Lilac (Marcelle Romeo) consorting with the criminal scum of Paris. Lilac falls in love with a handsome detective (Andre Luguet), but he doesn't let his emotions stand in the way of his duty, and in the end he reluctantly turns her over to the authorities. At $120,000, Coeur de Lilas was one of the most expensive movies to come out of France in 1931, but it more than made back its cost at the box-office.
|
|
|
Napoléon (1955)
Character: Marshal Jean Lannes
The film follows the life of Napoleon from his early life in Corsica to his death at Saint Helena. The film is notable for its use of location shooting for numerous scenes, especially at the French estates of Malmaison and Fontainebleau, the Palace of Versailles, and sites of Napoleonic battles including Austerlitz and Waterloo.
|
|
|
La Grande Illusion (1937)
Character: Le lieutenant Maréchal
A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.
|
|
|
Le jour se lève (1939)
Character: François
After committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events that led him to the killing.
|
|
|
Rue des Prairies (1959)
Character: Henri Neveu
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 angry at times, but he also has a better side that will not stay buried.
|
|
|
Verdict (1974)
Character: Leguen
A desperate woman, whose son is on trial for murder, blackmails the judge and kidnaps his wife.
|
|
|
Le Président (1961)
Character: Émile Beaufort
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.
|
|
|
Archimède le clochard (1959)
Character: Joseph, Hugues Guillaume Boutier-Blainville dit : Archimède
Bum Archimède wants to spend the winter in prison, but to get there proves not to be that easy.
|
|
|
Belmondo l'incorrigible (2022)
Character: N/A
Charismatic and resourceful, seducer and daredevil, Jean-Paul Belmondo has always played his roles as he lived, at a thousand miles an hour. He had only one passion: to entertain the public with his smile, his naturalness, his energy, his stunts. But contrary to appearances, his destiny was full of pitfalls. This film lifts the veil on a founding childhood that allowed him to overcome many obstacles throughout his life thanks to the tutelary figures of his father and mother. Told from the inside with the help of his autobiography, interviews and unpublished archives, this epic story traces the career of this turbulent young actor who launched the New Wave in Breathless before becoming the popular Bebel, an indestructible and provocative vigilante. From film to film, this documentary paints an intimate portrait of a man who built himself up to reach the top: his triumphs but also his trials, his doubts, his secrets, his angers, his clowning, his disappointments or his personal dramas.
|
|
|
L'Année sainte (1976)
Character: Max Lambert
Two bank robbers, an old and a young, escape from prison to get to the hidden loot.
|
|
|
Les Grandes Familles (1958)
Character: Noël Schoudler, le patriarche financier
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...
|
|
|
Le Plaisir (1952)
Character: Joseph Rivet
Three stories about the pleasure. The first one is about a man hiding his age behind a mask to keep going to balls and fancying women - pleasure and youth. Then comes the long tale of Mme Tellier taking her girls (whores) to the country for attending her niece's communion - pleasure and purity. And lastly, Jean the painter falling in love with his model - pleasure and death.
|
|
|
Pour un soir (1932)
Character: Jean
In a chic nightclub, a navel officer admires his new love, the singer Stella Maris. A fellow officer warns him not to get involved with this woman and tells the tragic story of a sailor who lost everything because of his love for her. Some years before, in the port of Toulon, a sailor, Jean, met Stella in a bar. The two danced and instantly Jean realised he was love. The sailor later traced Stella to her home in St Tropez where, having forced his way into her bedroom, he spent the night with her. Some days later, Jean saw Stella in the company of another man. Driven by jealousy, he deserted his post and decided to put an end to his days…
|
|
|
Chiens perdus sans collier (1955)
Character: Julien Lamy
Judge Julien Lamy regularly deals with the welfare of children, namely down on their luck delinquents. When an orphan named Alain Robert burns down a barn belonging to his abusive foster family, Judge Lamy has no choice but to send him to a juvenile jail. There he meets an older boy named Francis Lanoux, who is desperate to escape and be reunited with his girlfriend Sylvette. The boys eventually flee the institution, as Francis goes in search of his lost love and Alain continues looking for his parents. Unfortunately, the little rebels run into some big problems once on the outside.
|
|
|
Le Baron de l'écluse (1960)
Character: Baron Jérôme Napoléon Antoine
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 cafe owner that the Baron finds irresistible -- at least for awhile.
|
|
|
Crime et châtiment (1956)
Character: Commissaire Gallet
Former student Raskolnikov is pushed to murder when struggling to pay the rent on his apartment. When the murder is being investigated by the police, Raskolnikov struggles between trying to hide his guilt and the pressure to confess.
|
|
|
Golgotha (1935)
Character: Ponce Pilate
The final days of Jesus from the time he enters the city of Jerusalem. Viewed as a threat, it is decided that he must be captured, tried, and executed as a criminal, a plan aided and abetted by disciple Judas Iscariot.
|
|
|
La nuit est mon royaume (1951)
Character: Raymond Pinsard
After an accident, Raymond has gone blind. His family treats him like a child, but fortunately a nun comes to his rescue. She works in a center where blind people learn to read using the Braille alphabet.
|
|
|
Le Jardinier d'Argenteuil (1966)
Character: M. Martin dit « Le père Tulipe »
Tulipe, is an old man who lives alone in an old railway carriage in the Argentueil region of Paris. His main passions are gardening and oil painting, but he also has a secret source of income. His godson discovers that Tulipe is actually a master forger, producing perfect copies of 10 franc notes. His godson’s girlfriend sees this as an opportunity to get very rich – but she must persuade Tulipe to forge 500 franc notes. Assuming Tulipe’s agreement, his godson and his girlfriend buy an expensive new car and luxury villa in provincial France – but there is a cruel turn of fate in store for them when Tulipe strikes up a friendship with a millionaire playboy.
|
|
|
La Traversée de Paris (1956)
Character: Grandgil, artist painter
Two unlikely companions must smuggle four suitcases filled with contraband pork across Nazi-occupied Paris.
|
|
|
Le drapeau noir flotte sur la marmite (1971)
Character: Victor Ploubaz
Victor, grocer and tyrannical boss, never stops telling his family about his seafaring past, although they never believe him. When his nephew wins a model-boat contest and is commissioned to build a full-scale boat, Victor tries to make his mark.
|
|
|
La Vierge du Rhin (1953)
Character: Martin Schmidt, alias Jacques Ledru
Reported missing in 1940, Jacques Ledru comes back to Strasbourg as Martin Schmidt. He tracks down his wife Genevieve, but she's remarried and has taken the head of his shipping company. She and her husband will do anything to get rid of Jacques and keep his company.
|
|
|
The Impostor (1944)
Character: Clément / Maurice Lafarge
A condemned murderer named Clement is "liberated" when the Nazis bomb the French jail that holds him. During his escape, Clement comes across the body of a French soldier; he steals the dead man's uniform and identification papers, then hides from the law by joining the Resistance movement. Clement's new identity and purpose in life reforms him, and in due time he has sacrificed himself in service of his country.
|
|
|
Maria Chapdelaine (1934)
Character: François Paradis
A young woman has three suitors on her father's logging ranch on the Quebec frontier.
|
|
|
Le Gentleman d'Epsom (1962)
Character: Richard Briand-Charmery
The story takes place in the racecourses around Paris. A so-called major sells his tips to naive characters.
|
|
|
Miroir (1947)
Character: Pierre Lussac
Portrait of a two-faced man. By day he is rich, brilliant and respectable financial officer Lussac; at night, he becomes "Mirror", a ruthless gang leader in Marseilles.
|
|
|
Victor (1951)
Character: Victor
Secretly in love with Françoise, the companion of his best friend Marc, Victor decides to go to prison in his place.
|
|
|
Jean Gabin, le dernier des géants (2015)
Character: Self (archive footage)
Jean Gabin took his first steps in cinema in the 1930s and quickly rose to fame thanks to his striking naturalness. Having become a star, he made his mark in the most famous French films, first by playing magnificent thugs or characters with tragic destinies, then by imprinting his characters with his aura, his legendary wit, and his charisma that commanded respect. An exceptional actor, he became one of the great names of French cinema and continued to build his legend, working with the greatest filmmakers (Grangier, Verneuil, Delannoy) and alongside prestigious actors (Bernard Blier, Lino Ventura, Louis de Funès, Alain Delon, Jean-Paul Belmondo).
|
|
|
Zouzou (1934)
Character: Jean
Zou Zou tries to help her childhood friend prove his innocence after he's accused of murder.
|
|
|
Les Misérables (1958)
Character: Jean Valjean / Champmathieu
In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.
|
|
|
La Bandera (1935)
Character: Pierre Gilieth
Pierre Gilieth has committed a murder in Paris. He flees to Barcelona, where he runs out of money. So he joins the Spanish Foreign Legion. He meets there two fellow countrymen, Mulot and Lucas. He tries to forget his fault... but Lucas's friendship soon appears to be less unselfish...
|
|
|
La Bête humaine (1938)
Character: Lantier
Returning by train to the French port of Le Havre, Jacques Lantier, a tormented railwayman, meets by chance the impulsive stationmaster Roubard and Séverine, his wife.
|
|
|
Maigret tend un piège (1958)
Character: Commissaire Maigret
Four women were murdered, each was knifed and, though they had their clothes torn, they weren't molested. As the famed police inspector Jules Maigret pieces the clues together, he comes to realize that for the elusive man that he suspects to be unmasked, he has to set him a trap.
|
|
|
Des gens sans importance (1956)
Character: Jean Viard
During a stay at a roadside inn, long-distance lorry driver Jean Viard meets a young woman Clothilde who works there. Their friendship soon develops into a passionate love affair, even though Jean is already married and is old enough to be Clothilde’s father. Things take a turn for the worse when Jean loses his job and his wife finds out about his affair. But Clothilde’s predicament is even more distressing...
|
|
|
Le Désordre et la Nuit (1958)
Character: Georges Vallois
Vallois, a vice inspector for the Paris police, takes special interest in the plight of drug-addicted Lucky (Najda Tiller), whom he considers to be more victim than criminal. Taking it upon himself to wean Lucky away from narcotics, Vallois also wins her love -- and, incidentally, smashes the dope ring responsible for her addiction.
|
|
|
Monsieur (1964)
Character: Monsieur
Left heartbroken by the death of his beloved wife, a rich banker tries to commit suicide. When he learns from his former maid that his wife was unfaithful, he fakes his own death and comes back under a new identity.
|
|
|
Le cave se rebiffe (1961)
Character: Ferdinand Maréchal, aka 'le Dabe'
"Le Dabe" retired many years ago and now he lives in the Tropics where he owns stables and horses. He is a very rich man. He was the king of all money counterfeiters. He is contacted from Paris to organize a new job. He says no. But when he finds out the the currency that should be counterfeited is the Dutch florin, he accepts immediately. He retired after having counterfeited 100 florin notes just before the Queen Wilhelmina retired them from circulation. He flies to Paris. But the gang is not to be trusted, at least not all of them.
|
|
|
Port du désir (1955)
Character: Commander Lequévic
Martine is searching for her sister that disappeared mysteriously. Lequévic agrees to help her.
|
|
|
Remorques (1941)
Character: Le capitaine André Laurent
A married tugboat captain falls for a woman he rescues from a sinking ship.
|
|
|
Touchez pas au grisbi (1954)
Character: Max dit Max le Menteur
Gentleman gangster Max and his partner, Riton, pull off their last, most successful heist and find themselves comfortable enough to retire in the style they enjoy. However, Max confides the details of the theft to his younger mistress, Josey -- who has secretly taken up with ambitious young rival gangster Angelo. Angelo then has Riton kidnapped and demands the stash of gold as ransom, which threatens Max's dreams of the perfect retirement.
|
|
|
Les Bas-fonds (1936)
Character: Pepel Wasska
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.
|
|
|
Lino Ventura, la part intime (2018)
Character: Self (archive footage)
The fall of 2017 marked the 30th anniversary of Lino Ventura's death. Whether in the role of tough cops or tough guys - in the 1960s, Lino Ventura was one of the most popular French character actors. The new portrait begins with the actor's childhood. He came to Paris from Parma in Italy as a child with his single mother and faced many humiliations in a xenophobic environment. The documentary explores the man behind the rough exterior and the tough characters he embodied, most of whom were courageous but introverted loners.
|
|
|
Le Messager (1937)
Character: Nicolas Dange
Nick, a Parisian businessman, divorces his rich American wife, marries his new secretary Marie, but is prevented from success in France so travels without his wife to an African outpost. He tells his young assistant Gilbert about his wife. When Gilbert takes sick and returns to Paris, he begins to fall in love with Marie.
|
|
|
La Marie du port (1950)
Character: Henri Chatelard
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.
|
|
|
En cas de malheur (1958)
Character: André Gobillot
Married French lawyer Andre defends succesfully the case of Yvette, who committed a robbery. He falls in love with her, but she isn't true to him.
|
|
|
La Horse (1970)
Character: Auguste Maroilleur
Auguste Maroilleur, an elderly farmer, exploits 400 hectares of crop land with the help of his family, over which he rules with an iron hand. Things go awry the day he discovers one of his grandsons is involved in drug traffic. To make matters worse, the reckless youth has hidden the white powder in the Maroilleur farm. Without a moment's hesitation, Auguste gets rid of the toxic substance but, of course, the mob has different views...
|
|
|
L'Air de Paris (1954)
Character: Victor Le Garrec
Victor Le Garrec, a former boxer, runs a gym in Paris while dreaming of finding an aspiring champion who will reach the goals he was never able to achieve.
|
|
|
Deux hommes dans la ville (1973)
Character: Germain Cazeneuve
A former bank robber is released after 10 years in prison. He gets help from a social-worker, but gets harassed by an old cop from his past.
|
|
|
Leur dernière nuit (1953)
Character: Pierre Ruffin
Arriving in Paris, Madeleine Marsan rents a room in a guesthouse where she makes the acquaintance of Pierre Ruffin, a respectable municipal librarian. Through Pierre, Madeleine finds work as a schoolteacher and soon realises that she is in love with him. Then she discovers that Pierre is in truth the head of a band of crooks. Caught by the police after a failed robbery, Pierre manages to escape. With Madeleine’s help, he goes on the run.
|
|
|
Paris-béguin (1931)
Character: Bob
In order not to compromise the great music hall star with whom he spent the night, a man is accused of a murder he did not commit.
|
|
|
Le Livre d'image (2018)
Character: (archive footage)
In Le Livre d’Image, Jean-Luc Godard recycles existing images (films, documentaries, paintings, television archives, etc.), quotes excerpts from books, uses fragments of music. The driving force is poetic rhyme, the association or opposition of ideas, the aesthetic spark through editing, the keystone. The author performs the work of a sculptor. The hand, for this, is essential. He praises it at the start. “There are the five fingers. The five senses. The five parts of the world (…). The true condition of man is to think with his hands. Jean-Luc Godard composes a dazzling syncopation of sequences, the surge of which evokes the violence of the flows of our contemporary screens, taken to a level of incandescence rarely achieved. Crowned at Cannes, the last Godard is a shock film, with twilight beauty.
|
|
|
È più facile che un cammello... (1950)
Character: Carlo Bacchi
After dying in a car accident, wealthy shoe industrialist Carlo Bacchi finds himself in the afterlife, where he is condemned to hell for having committed evil while alive. Defending himself against the accusation in an impassioned plea, however, he succeeds in obtaining to return to earth for a few hours to make reparation for the evil he committed and, above all, for the bad deed that caused Amedeo Santini's suicide attempt. The affair will lead him to make a risky but happy choice.
|
|
|
Gas-oil (1955)
Character: Jean Chape
A trucker encounters a dead body on the road home. He reports the incident to the police, who suspect that Jean was responsible for the death, and his new truck is impounded. To make matters worse, the man's widow accuses him of having robbed her husband, and a gang of sinister crooks are also harassing him.
|
|
|
Belmondo, il était une fois le beau monde (2011)
Character: Self (archive footage)
A profile of Jean-Paul Belmondo by his peers. Besides appearing in over eighty films, the actor also delighted audiences with his dangerous stunts, his laughter, his jokes, and his refreshing ease and impertinence. Cultivating the art of the counterpunch, he spanned half a century of French cinema.
|
|
|
Maigret et l'Affaire Saint-Fiacre (1959)
Character: Commissioner Jules Maigret
Police Commissioner Jules Maigret returns to the small village where he spent his childhood at the request of the Countess of Saint-Fiacre, who has received a disturbing anonymous letter.
|
|
|
Le Récif de corail (1939)
Character: Ted "Trott" Lennard
The adventures of a sailor from Mexico to a lagoon in the Pacific ocean, and the meeting with a lonely girl.
|
|
|
Pépé le Moko (1937)
Character: Pépé le Moko
Pépé le Moko, one of France's most wanted criminals, hides out in the Casbah section of Algiers. He knows police will be waiting for him if he tries to leave the city. When Pépé meets Gaby, a gorgeous woman from Paris who is lost in the Casbah, he falls for her.
|
|
|
Mélodie en sous-sol (1963)
Character: Charles
Charles, fresh out of jail, rejects his wife's plan for a quiet life of bourgeois respectability. He enlists a former cell mate, Francis, to assist him in pulling off one final score, a carefully planned assault on the vault of a Cannes casino.
|
|
|
La Vérité sur Bébé Donge (1952)
Character: François Donge
François Donge, a rich industrialist and womaniser, meets a girl nicknamed Bébé who he marries. Ten years later, poisoned by his wife and dying in hospital, he recalls his married life and understands how his wife who adored him suffered from his many affairs and indifference.
|
|
|
Bufere (1953)
Character: il professore Antonio Sanna
A renowned surgeon becomes involved with an attractive circus trapeze artist with the relationship threatening his marriage and family life.
|
|
|
Michel Audiard et le mystère du triangle des Bermudes (2002)
Character: Self (archive footage)
A documentary about writer Michel Audiard (1920-1985). Contemporary interviews are interwoven with archival footage and clips from his films. It offers a deeper understanding of the career of the man whom Jean Gabin swore by from the mid-1950s onward, and whom films such as "Les Tontons Flingueurs" immortalized.
|
|
|
Maigret voit rouge (1963)
Character: Commissaire Jules Maigret
Gangsters from the United States try to kill a key government witness whose testimony could help land an influential mobster in jail. It's up to detective Maigret to deal with the FBI and a series of underworld figures to save the life of the witness...
|
|
|
Le quai des brumes (1938)
Character: Jean
Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean, an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, as acts of both revenge and kindness render him front-page news.
|
|
|
Tout ça ne vaut pas l'amour (1931)
Character: Jean Cordier
Tourneur's first film tells the story of a chemist, Jules Renaudin. He welcomes a young pregnant girl, Claire, who enters his pharmacy in despair one evening. He takes care of her and gradually falls in love with her, doing everything for her. But she is attracted by the cheerfulness of young Jean Cordier, whose warehouse is a few steps away from the pharmacy.
|
|
|
Le Soleil des voyous (1967)
Character: Denis Ferrand
An American talks a retired French crook into robbing a bank, but kidnappers demand the loot as ransom.
|
|
|
Chacun sa chance (1930)
Character: Marcel Grivot
When the baroness surprises the baron with his mistress at the music hall, he passes off young Marcel, a clothing salesman, as an important customer.
|
|
|
Le Cas du docteur Laurent (1957)
Character: le docteur Laurent
A Paris-based doctor tries to spread the gospel of Natural Childbirth. Working in a cloistered rural community, Gabin runs up against the stone walls of fear and prejudice. His theories are proven sound when unwed mother Nicole Courcel gives birth within Gabin's methodology. The childbirth sequence is filmed straight-on with a delicate combination of taste and frankness. Nonetheless, the lurid ad campaign of Cas Du Dr. Laurent sensationalized this sequence all out of proportion.
|
|
|
Méphisto (1931)
Character: Jacques Miral
On his wedding night with Hilda Bergmann, the daughter of a swedish chemist, the young and rich american Willy Keanton is stabbed by an unidentified masked man. He kidnaps the young woman, who is found later on by the count Robert d'Arbel. The detective Jacques Miral, nicknamed « the pointed tower's ferret » is put in charge of the case. Soon, he discovers that an international bandit, Méphisto, seeks to seize the formula of a process against asphyxiating gas, invented by professor Bergmann. The struggle is tough between Miral and the uncatchable Méphisto. Monique Aubray, Keanton's secretary and engaged to the detective, the Nostradamus stallholders and the « mastiff of Bordeaux », and the famous novelist Fortuné Bidon are also involved in the case...
|
|
|
Le Tunnel (1933)
Character: Mac Allan
An engineer is hired to plan and oversee the construction of a undersea tunnel between Europe and the US. However, certain interests don't want to see the tunnel built and use every means at their disposal, including sabotage and murder, to stop its construction. French-language version of the 1933 German DER TUNNEL, q.v.
|
|
|
La Belle Marinière (1932)
Character: Le capitaine
A barge captain saves Marinette from drowning and soon marries her. On the wedding day, Sylvestre, the captain’s best friend, falls in love with Marinette.
|
|
|
Les Vieux de la vieille (1960)
Character: Jean-Marie Pejat, bicycle repairer
Three friends leave their village for a retirement home travelling the countryside
|
|
|
Le tueur (1972)
Character: Commissioner Le Guen
Whilst being transferred to a psychiatric hospital, a ruthless serial killer Gassot makes a break and goes on the run. He arrives in Marseilles, intending to escape abroad. Here, he falls for a young prostitute, Gerda.
|
|
|
Du rififi à Paname (1966)
Character: Paul Berger dit Paulo les Diam's
In Paris, a gold smuggler is at war with other local gangsters who want piece of the action. Then the mob shows up and makes things worse. And an undercover US Treasury Department agent is trying to infiltrate the smuggling business.
|
|
|
|
|
Voici le temps des assassins... (1956)
Character: André Chatelin
In the heart of Paris, a restaurateur's mundane life is disrupted by the arrival of his ex-wife's daughter, who claims to be in need after her mother's death. After marrying her, tensions rise when she becomes involved with a young student, leading to betrayal and murder. As secrets unfold, he uncovers the truth about her past and her manipulative nature.
|
|
