Héléna Manson
In the summer holidays, a group of women stay behind in Paris whilst their husbands and children take a vacation on the sunny Island of Ré. The women – wives, frustrated spinsters and adolescents – profit from their new-found freedom to sort out their love lives and the men indulge their earthy passions with no less enthusiasm. Only the children seems capable of rising above this infantile summer madness...
The story of Jean Valjean, a Frenchman convicted of minor crimes, who is hounded for years by an unforgiving and unrelenting police inspector, Javert.
Prof. Henri Laborit uses the stories of the lives of three people to discuss behaviorist theories of survival, combat, rewards and punishment, and anxiety. René is a technical manager at a textile factory and must face the anxiety caused by corporate downsizing. Janine is a self-educated actress/stylist who learns that the wife of her lover is dying and must decide to let them reunite. Jean is a controversial career-climbing writer/politician at a crossroads in life.
This is a film which was made in Belgium in the early '60s and was never released. However, it somehow got included in the American Oscar category for "Best Foreign Film," and was finally released in its home country in 1971. It explores the issues of prejudice and superstition in the Belgian countryside through the troubles of a middle-aged farmer whose mother has been accused of being a witch. In French, this picture is based on a true story which took place in the late 1920s and early '30s.
A group of people visit a weird old man who is a student of the black arts. The man lives in an ancient, cursed castle. Soon people in the group start being killed off.
Picked up by a beautiful motorist, jobless hitchhiker Pierre (Hossein) is subsequently romanced by the girl. Immediately thereafter, however, she dumps him, attempting to run him over as a final insult. Memorizing her license number, Pierre pursues the enigmatic motorist. Arriving at her home, Pierre is met by two young ladies (Marina Vlady and Odelle Versois), either one of whom might be the woman he's looking for.
A young Italian fugitive and his older protective brother hide among the grape pickers at a vineyard in Provence.
"Thieves We Are" - In flashback, the audience learns why 104-year-old Amedee steals the watch belonging to the town mayor. The story develops into a history of the watch-thievery business, told in anecdotal fashion.
Lola Montes, previously a great adventurer, is reduced to being the attraction of a circus after having been the lover of various important men.
After his wife's death, a man discovers that his daughter may not be his.
An ambitious girl (Micheline Presle) uses a sea captain (Errol Flynn) to climb the social ladder in old New Orleans.
Follows a murder trial during the reign of Charles X. Winner of the Golden Leopard at Locarno.
Remy Germain is a doctor in a French town who becomes the focus of a vicious smear campaign, as letters accusing him of having an affair and performing unlawful abortions are mailed to village leaders. The mysterious writer, who signs each letter as "Le Corbeau" (The Raven) soon targets the whole town, exposing everyone's dark secrets. This allegorical film was highly controversial at the time of its release, and was banned in France after the Liberation.
A village in the French Alps is rocked by a series of crimes, including the theft of a sacred ring and the murder of a man dressed as Père Noël (Father Christmas).
Caesar, a senior French colonist returned home after many years of absence, knows a girl, Marcella, who is in full depression because she was abandoned by her lover. Caesar welcomes her into his home and surrounds her with paternal attention so that he can quickly forget the past. Slowly his feeling turns into a love that Marcella seems to reciprocate. However, when Cesare realizes that the girl feels only gratitude for him and is in love with a younger man, he loses control. Blinded by jealousy, he plans to kill Marcella's lover but, in the face of the girl's vulgarity and indifference, he realizes that he has been teased and turns his anger towards her.
Helene is based on Helene Wilfur, a novel by Vicki (Grand Hotel) Baum. Madeleine Renaud essays the title role, a young medical student in love with aspiring musician Pierre Regnier (Jean-Lous Barrault). Pierre's father, a noted surgeon, puts pressure on his son to give up music in favor of medicine. Unable to withstand his father's remonstrations, Pierre kills himself, prompting the grieving Madeleine to forget all about romance and dedicate her life to the cause of healing others. Wilfur avoids the usual soap-opera goo by offering realistic performances and credible dialogue (the English-language subtitles were composed by erudite film critic Herman G. Weinberg).
Soon after the death of his first wife (whose dowry was inadequate), Charles Bovary, a country doctor in Normandy, marries Emma Rouault. In her new home, Emma finds conflict with her mother-in-law, a husband uninterested in the social whirl, and general discontentment; thereby proving an easy conquest for philanderer Rodolphe. Other lovers follow. Does tragedy await?
The picture tells of a mine disaster where German miners rescue French miners from an undergound fire and explosion. The story takes place in the Lorraine/Saar region, along the border between France and Germany.
