Alfred Baillou
1915 - 1982
L'Hypothèse du tableau volé
Raúl Ruiz
Jean Rougeul, Gabriel Gascon
Two narrators, one seen and one unseen, discuss possible connections between a series of paintings. The on-screen narrator walks through three-dimensional reproductions of each painting, featuring real people, sometimes moving, in an effort to explain the series' significance.
The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting
Volpone
Maurice Tourneur, Jacques de Baroncelli
Harry Baur, Louis Jouvet
Volpone, an elderly Venetian, connives with his money-crazed servant to convince his greedy friends that he is dying, knowing that each will try to curry favor with him in order to be named his heir. He is inundated with valuable gifts, and soon finds himself entangled deeper and deeper in a web of lies.
Volpone
Jéricho
Henri Calef
Raymond Pellegrin, Louis Seigner
June 1944, a French town towards the end of the occupation. Following several attacks perpetrated by the resistance, the inhabitants who listen to English radio are rounded up by the Germans in a prison and considered as hostages. In one of the cells are found men from all walks of life: an aristocrat, the Viscount of Saint-Leu, Doctor Noblet, a resistance fighter, Béquille the wanderer with a wooden leg, and a strange character nicknamed "Black Market". The latter arouses mistrust among the prisoners, because it could well have been introduced by the enemy.
Behind These Walls
Sombre dimanche
Jacqueline Audry
Michèle Alfa, Paul Bernard
Shortly before the War, Jan Lazlo, a Hungarian musician who has emigrated to France, falls for a young woman. Alas, the lady forsakes him and the poor man tries to overcome his grief by writing "Gloomy Sunday", a song so desperate that it can drive its listeners to suicide. Max, a music publisher, likes the song and decides to launch it by all means, foul or fair. Bob, his accomplice, manages to talk his mistress Michèle into committing a fake suicide. She obeys him and the scheme is a success as a result. On this occasion, Jan gets to know Michèle and the two young people fall in love. Happiness seems to be in store for Jan again but this is without counting with Bob. Jealous of Jan, the naughty fellow indeed tells him that Michèle's attempted suicide was nothing but an advertising pretense.
Dark Sunday
Cop or Hood
Georges Lautner
Jean-Paul Belmondo, Georges Géret
When the local police inspector was found dead in a prostitute's house, police division commissioner Stan Borowitz is sent to investigate the situation. Posing as the prostitute's long-lost brother "Antonio Cerruti," he discovers a mare's nest of police corruption. In fact, in this comedy thriller the whole town is corrupt. If they were closely examined, Stan's methods for pursuing this investigation might embarrass the police. For instance, he drives into a criminal's house in a fancy, expensive race car. In another incident, he callously blows up a casino owned by Musard , one of the town's crime bosses. On that occasion, he first forces Musard to remove his clothes, and the poor criminal watches his casino explode from across the square while standing naked in a phone booth. Meanwhile, Stan seduces the lovely Edmonde.
Cop or Hood
La Dame d'onze heures
Jean Devaivre
Paul Meurisse, Micheline Francey
Stanislas Oscar Seminario, aka SOS, is a young explorer, just back from Africa, visiting old friends: the Pescara's. But the father keeps receiving anonymous letters. And soon a mysterious murder is committed. SOS begins to investigate...
The Eleven O'Clock Woman
Sans sommation
Bruno Gantillon
Maurice Ronet, Bruno Cremer
A discredited police inspector is given a second chance, in the form of a dangerous assignment. Chosen because of his uncanny resemblance to a Lt. Revere, the inspector impersonates him in order to penetrate a group of mercenaries with orders to assassinate its leader.
Without Warning
Signé illisible
Christian Chamborant
André Luguet, Gaby Sylvia
Strange things are happening in the small town of Breuil-le-Château. Provisions from the black market are stolen regularly and wealthy young men, including the squire's son, start vanishing... Ransom demands are sent but with an illegible signature. The investigation is trusted to Ducreux, the local police brigadier. He is assisted by Carlier, a film director in search of locations for his next movie, who has been mistaken for a police inspector from Paris. The two men will have more than their share of surprises.
Signé illisible
Le destin exécrable de Guillemette Babin
Guillaume Radot
Héléna Bossis, Jean Davy
Being born a witch's daughter did not bode well for your future in the Middle Ages. Guillaumette tries to stay on the straight and narrow with a little help from a priest she visits.
The Execrable Fate of Guillemette Babin
La collection Ménard
Bernard-Roland
Lucien Baroux, Suzy Prim
Renée Ménard, a young mixed-race Indochinese, arrives in France to find her French father, whom she only knows is called Paul Ménard. In the hope of identifying her father, she meets a series of men with that name.
The Ménard Collection
Steppenwolf
Fred Haines
Max von Sydow, Dominique Sanda
In the bourgeois circles of Europe after the Great War, can anything save the modern man? Harry Haller, a solitary intellectual, has all his life feared his dual nature of being human and being a beast. He's decided to die on his 50th birthday, which is soon. He's rescued from his solipsism by the mysterious Hermine, who takes him dancing, introduces him to jazz and to the beautiful and whimsical Maria, and guides him into the hallucinations of the Magic Theater, which seem to take him into Hell. Can humour, sin, and derision lead to salvation?
Steppenwolf
