Jean Mauvais
This Surrealist film, with a title referencing the Communist Manifesto, strings together short incidents based on the life of director Luis Buñuel. Presented as chance encounters, these loosely related, intersecting situations, all without a consistent protagonist, reach from the 19th century to the 1970s. Touching briefly on subjects such as execution, pedophilia, incest, and sex, the film features an array of characters, including a sick father and incompetent police officers.
Charlie, a forty-something looking for a job, meets two twenty-something girls, Ghislaine and Josiane, who are similarly unemployed. All three decide to take to the road selling oilcloth to pay their way. The harmony reigns within the group until the arrival of Tony, a seller of miniature cathedrals.
During World War One, in a small rural French village far away from the front, a gamekeeper and his wife take in children displaced by the war.
Casti and Trébois, two friends who are workers at the same factory, have developed a common passion for flying. They dream of starting an aviation club. In the meantime they spend all their Sundays restoring an old plane under the supervision of Raf, a former RAF pilot...
