Cinema - French films - 1940s

French cinema: 1940s (Page 1 of 8)

L’Acrobate (1941)

Jean Boyer

Ernest Sauce is the maître d’ of the up-market restaurant Cochon d’argent. Bored with his mistress and fed up of constantly having to lend money to his boss, Ernest decides to make a clean break. Pretending to have lost his memory, he allows himself to be interned in an asylum... [More...]

Adrien (1943)

Fernandel

Modest bank employee Adrien Moulinet sees an opportunity to achieve wealth and fame, thanks to his revolutionary invention: the motorised roller skate. But, without money and experience, how is he to market his new brainchild? He turns to an out-of-work ad-man Jules to help him. With the support of three women, and a certain amount of good luck, Adrien soon finds himself being propelled up the social ladder..... [More...]

Les Affaires sont les affaires (1942)

Jean Dréville

Through his single-minded pursuit of wealth, Isidore Lechat has become one of the richest men in France, a fact to which his vast country estate is testament. He is renowned and feared for the ruthless way in which he conducts his business deals, never allowing sentiment to distract him from his aim, which is to make as much money as he can without risking a term in prison... [More...]

L’Aigle à deux têtes (1948)

Jean Cocteau

Natasha, the queen of an unhappy kingdom, lives in seclusion in her castle, still mourning the death of her husband, the king, who died ten years ago. One evening, a young man breaks into her quarters and falls at her feet. Struck by his resemblance to her husband, Natasha conceals him from the police who are searching for him... [More...]

Les Amoureux sont seuls au monde (1948)

Henri Decoin

Gérard Favier is a famous composer who has been married to the charming Sylvia for almost 20 years. Still deeply in love, they walk the streets of Paris and, one day, they hear a sonata that Gérard once wrote, played on a piano in a house. Gérard is surprised to find that the piano player is a 20 year-old girl named Monelle... [More...]

Les Anges du péché (1943)

Robert Bresson

A wealthy young woman, Anne-Marie Lamaury, decides to follow her vocation and becomes a nun in a convent which occupies itself with the rehabilitation of female prisoners. During a prison visit, she meets another young woman, Thérèse, with whom she starts to take an interest. Thérèse resolutely claims that she is innocent and rejects Anne-Marie’s attentions... [More...]

Anna Karenina (1948)

Julien Duvivier

Whilst visiting her brother Oblonsky in Moscow, Anna Karenina, wife of a career politician, meets and falls in love with a young solider, Vronsky. In St Petersburg, Anna pursues her illicit affair with Vronsky, to the dismay of her husband who is determined to seek a divorce to avoid a scandal... ... [More...]

Antoine et Antoinette (1947)

Jacques Becker

Antoine and Antoinette are a typical working class couple living in Paris in the immediate aftermath of WWII. He works in a printing works; she is a lowly sales assistant in a busy department store. They live in a cramped garret and their combined income is barely enough to survive on. They dream of owning their own apartment and a motorcycle, but they both know that there is little chance of their dreams ever coming true... [More...]

Après l’amour (1948)

Maurice Tourneur

At a reception in honour of her husband winning the Noble Prize for literature, Nicole Mézaule meets a former lover who has some news for her. She is invited to visit a house outside Paris where she makes a shocking discovery. For the past eight years her husband, François, has been leading a double life – spending his afternoons with another woman who has borne him a son... [More...]

L’Armoire volante (1948)

Carlo Rim

Alfred Pic is a conscientious tax inspector who lives with his authoritarian aged aunt. When, one wintry morning, the redoubtable Madame Lobligeois sets off to collect some furniture from a house in Clermont-Ferrand, her nephew is convinced he will never see her again. He is proven right. On the way back, his aunt dies suddenly, and the removal men put her body into her wardrobe... [More...]

L’Assassin a peur la nuit (1942)

Jean Delannoy

Having pulled off a robbery with his friend Maurice, Olivier leaves his mistress Lola and hides out in a small village in the country. He finds work, thanks to a young man named Gilbert, who introduces him to his sister, Monique. Once the robbery has been all but forgotten, Olivier intends to head back to Paris, but before he goes, he steals money from his employer... [More...]

L’Assassin habite au 21 (1942)

Henri-Georges Clouzot

Inspector Wens is on the trail of a serial killer who has committed four street killings in the space of a few months. The only clue is a visitor’s card signed "Monsieur Durand" found at the scene of each murder. Wens receives an unexpected tip-off that the murderer is living in a boarding house... [More...]

L’Assassinat du Père Noël (1941)

Christian-Jaque

High up in the French Alps, the inhabitants of a small mountain village are busy preparing for Christmas. The toymaker Cornusse is occupied making presents for the children of the village, unaware that his beautiful young daughter, Catherine, is being courted by a mysterious baron. Having recently returned to the village after an absence of several years, the baron lives alone in his chateau and refuses to see anyone, until Catherine visits him out of pity... [More...]

Au bonheur des dames (1943)

André Cayatte

Paris, towards the end of the 19th century. Baudu, an ageing shopkeeper, is none too pleased when a new department store opens on his doorstep and starts stealing his clientele. He responds to the taunts of his competitor, Mouret, by updating his shop and lowering his prices. When this fails, Baudu mobilises his fellow shopkeepers to defy Mouret and sends his niece, Denise, to work as a sales assistant for his rival... [More...]

Au grand balcon (1949)

Henri Decoin

1920. Gilbert Carbot is the driven manager of a small aviation company in Toulouse. He assures his customers that he can deliver letters anywhere quickly, whatever the obstacles, even at the risk of his pilots’ safety. Carbot is a cold and distant man. His pilots, who work under severe pressure, live at Le Grand Balcon, a hotel owned by two sisters Adeline and Françoise... [More...]

Au-delà des grilles (1949)

René Clément

Pierre is on the run from the police, having murdered his lover. He arrives in the Italian port of Genoa where, leaving the safety of his hideaway on a boat, he tries to find a dentist, only to have his money stolen. He meets Marta, a young woman with a teenage girl, who has separated with her crooked husband... [More...]

Aux yeux du souvenir (1948)

Jean Delannoy

A small private aeroplane crashes in the desert, not far from Dakar. It is a miracle that the pilot, Jacques Forestier, and his mechanic, Paul Marcadour, survived, since both were drunk when they lost control of the plane. With the help of a friend, Pierre Aubry, they are able to return to Paris on an Air France flight... [More...]

L’Aventure de Cabassou (1946)

Gilles Grangier

When he discovers that his wife has been unfaithful to him, the architect Cabassou runs away and hides in a cave, leaving the world to think he is dead. He continues to follow what goes on above ground and is amused when his community erects a statue in his memory. Cabassou realises that he now has the perfect opportunity to settle some old scores, before he can resume his place amongst the living..... [More...]

L’Aventure est au coin de la rue (1944)

Jacques Daniel-Norman

A wealthy young man, Pierre Trévoux, is tired of his dull life and yearns for adventure. After spending an evening in a night-club where is inspired by the singer Adria-Adria, he gets the better of a pickpocket, Roulet, forcing him to give him his ill-gotten gains for that evening. These include a woman’s purse containing an ornamental locket... [More...]

Les Aventures des Pieds-Nickelés (1948)

Marcel Aboulker

Three crooks, Croquignol, Ribouldingue and Filochard, succeed in stealing a pink diamond from a princess, only to be robbed in turn by their rival, Jo Papillon. Detective Sherlock Coco sets about recovering the priceless jewel, assisted by the gendarmerie. [More...]

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