Raymond Rouleau
Normandy 1850. A stagecoach drives along a road in the middle of the countryside. Inside, the passengers are all asleep except two men who are talking. Suddenly the coach stops: an axle has just broken. When one of the two men leans out of the window to see what is going on, his gaze lingers on the front a provincial abode, which seems to upset him. He soon starts remembering facts that took place forty years earlier...
Returning late from a romantic date, a man searches for every possible and unimaginable excuse to explain his lateness to his wife. His guilt turns on him when he finds out she's not home. The character created by Sasha Guitry in 1915, eaten away by jealousy, then imagines all her adventures.
Prosecutor Maillard can rejoice: he has just obtained the death sentence of an accused accused of murder. It is the third head he gets at the assizes. There followed an evening of rejoicing with his wife and friends, including the prosecutor Bertolier. The latter's wife is Maillard's mistress. The lovers left alone, the condemned man, Valorin, burst into the room. He managed to escape during his transfer to the remand center. Valorin immediately recognized Bertolier's wife. And for good reason: at the time of the crime, they were together in a brothel. Stunned by the miscarriage of justice he has just committed, Maillard then tries to rehabilitate Vallorin while trying to avoid a scandal in the judiciary. He then calls Bertolier to the rescue. Valorin is opportunely killed "accidentally" and ... everything will go back to "order".
This puzzling experimental film is written and directed by Raymond Rouleau, who uses effects like changing color tones and masks to put across a drama within a dance drama. The set is a sound stage and the actors in this film are dancers on the stage, performing a mime-ballet derived from one particular legend. Both the enacted legend and the actual events affecting the dancers are parallel. The lead dancer Isa (Ludmila Tcherina) is still nursing her wounds after her first love left her to stand alone at the altar. Now one of the dancers wants to expand his relationship with Isa -- and soon after, the cad who jilted her suddenly shows up again. Tragedy follows closely behind.
Salem, 1692. Industrious farmer, John Proctor, has twice made love to 17-year-old Abigail, a youth he and his wife have taken in. (His wife Elisabeth has rebuffed him for seven months; she is puritanical and cold.) When she finds John and Abigail embracing, she sends the lass from her home and John, feeling damned, agrees. Abigail vows revenge. Her chance comes when she accuses Elisabeth of witchcraft and manipulates younger girls to support her claims of seeing spirits. The town's minister and politicians want a cause: ridding the town of witchcraft is the ideal repression.
The renowned theatre manager, Paul Rémy, is accused by his general secretary Andrieux of having killed his partner. On the advice of his wife Mona, Paul goes into hiding in a psychiatric hospital to escape from the police. But Andrieux seduces Mona who then turns against her husband.
Anthology film with three shorts each featuring a famous detective: Monsieur Wens, Lemmu Caution and Maigret.
Cock-eyed reporter Georges Masse enjoys a peaceful vacation in Venice. Which does not please his boss as he is not supposed to be... in vacation! P'tit Louis, Georges' blundering but faithful photographer, is sent to Venice with a mission: pull up his socks. But Georges is not so dormant as he appears. Behind the scenes, he investigates the activities of a gang that cleans out Venice. Quite logically, he soon finds himself face to face with a bunch of shady brutal characters, among whom Zélos, a Greek nightclub owner, and Alessandro Cassidi, a powerful motor manufacturer married to the alluring Clara, twice younger than he is...
Raymond Corbier, a sculptor, has a wonderful wife, Sylvia, whom he adores. To save a passionate admirer who simulates suicide because she does not respond to her advances, Sylvia, an irreproachable wife, is forced to lie for the first time to Raymond.
During the Second World War, Georges Masse undergoes a dangerous mission by taking secret documents from Tangiers to London.
Diavalo is the popular hero of French serials circa 1912. Diana is an actress who falls in love with Diavalo. Diavalo is forced to wear a series of disguises to elude the police so he can attend a Gala for the President.
Philippe Clarence, a famous Parisian dressmaker, seduces his friend's fiancee. But, for the 1st time in his life, this is for real. The film is also a sharp picture of the fashion world.
A man is shot In the hotel of an imaginary South American country. Clarence and Montès, two inspector students, must solve this murder, but they don't know that dead guy is the USA public enemy No.1.
Claude is a young man whose girlfriend has just broken up with him. Feeling unable to overcome the pain, Claude has no other idea than to end his life. Back home, he finds five middle-aged or elderly men sitting at the dinner table but he refuses to join the guests and goes upstairs to his bedroom. The worst is prevented thanks to a servant who has caught sight of Claude's revolver. Claude 's uncle joins his nephew and manages to persuade him not to take action. He takes him downstairs to the dining room where each in turn, the five guests start telling their own story. For it happens that they too once had their heart broken and that they too once wanted to die for love.
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).
Based on true facts, a news item which was widely talked about in the nineteenth century, this is the story of a wife who might have poisoned her husband .
A Russian emigrant sings in a Shanghai nightclub under the assumed name of Kay Murphy. All she dreams of is a peaceful life with her daughter Vera. But this is only a pipe dream as she has been forced by her former lover Ivan to work for a secret criminal organization, "The Black Dragon". Vera, who studies in a Hong Kong boarding-school, knows nothing about her mother's past. When Ivan, who is also Vera's father, resurfaces and blackmails Kay, the young woman is determined to fight back...
Sylvie, a rich girl, learns at the same time the death and the ruin of her father. Forced to find work in Paris, she is given shelter by a medical student who soon falls for her. Another young man falls in love with her. When her benefactor gets ill and finally dies, Sylvie refuses to give the other man her heart out of faithfulness for the dearly departed. But youth commands and after a time love -but not oblivion - triumphs.
Lieutenant Orloff, a recently graduated Russian officier, is making his way across the snow-covered steppes to the garrison where he is to be stationed. He comes across a man who has lost his way in the blizzard and takes him to the safety of an inn. Arriving at the garrison, Orloff meets and falls immediately in love with Macha, the daughter of his commander. The town is suddenly attacked by a hoard of bandits who claims to be the true Tsar of Russia.
The North Sea. Rain is falling. Two young people take shelter under a bathing hut. The sun returns, and sand, sea and shells all figure in their amorous games.
Hedda and Tesman have just returned from their honeymoon and the relationship is already in trouble. Trapped but determined, Hedda tries to control those around her, only to see her own world unravel.
