Cinema - French films - 1940s

French cinema: 1940s (Page 5 of 8)

L’Idiot (1946)

Georges Lampin

After a long stay in Switzerland, where he has been receiving treatment for epilepsy, a Russian prince, Muychkine, returns to Saint Petersburg. Impoverished and alone, the only person he can turn to is his distant relative, General Epantchine. The latter is presently preoccupied with his daughter Aglaé’s imminent marriage to the wealthy Totsky – the main worry being that Totsky has a mistress, the beautiful Nastasia Philipovna... [More...]

Impasse des deux anges (1948)

Maurice Tourneur

Marianne is about to give up her successful career as a stage actress so that she can marry a wealthy aristocrat and live the life she has always aspired to. On the eve of her wedding, her fiancé gives her a priceless diamond necklace, a rare piece of jewellery which immediately draws the interest of a gang of professional crooks... [More...]

Les Inconnus dans la maison (1942)

Henri Decoin

Since his wife left him, almost twenty years ago, the once brilliant lawyer Loursat has slumped into a life of despondency and drunkenness. He lives in a vast empty house with his teenage daughter, Nicole, with whom he hardly communicates. One fateful day, something happens which pulls Loursat back from the abyss: he discovers a dead body in his house... [More...]

Les Jeux sont faits (1947)

Jean Delannoy

Eve Charlier is poisoned by her husband, an unscrupulous state official, so that he can marry her younger sister. At the same moment that she dies, a political agitator, Pierre Dumaine is shot dead by a police informer on the eve of an uprising against the state. Eve and Pierre meet up in the afterlife, where they can observe the world of the living but cannot alter anything... [More...]

Jour de fête (1949)

Jacques Tati

Once a year, the fair comes to the sleepy French country town of Sainte- Severe- sur- Indre. The locals poke fun at their postman, François, and, having got him drunk, they lead him to a tent to watch a short educational film. The film is promoting revolutionary methods of improving mail delivery in the United States... [More...]

Le Journal tombe à cinq heures (1942)

Georges Lacombe

Having neither money nor family, Hélène Perrin is grateful when she receives a job offer from François Marchal, the proprietor of la dernière heure, a well-known newspaper. With help from Pierre Rabaud, a journalist, she embarks on her first assignment, which concerns a tragic accident at an aviation meeting at Saint-Germain... [More...]

Lumière d’été (1943)

Jean Grémillon

Michèle, a young dress designer from Paris, arranges to meet up with her boyfriend Roland, a temperamental artist, at a mountain resort in Provence. When Roland fails to keep the rendezvous, Michèle attracts the attention of two men - local chatelain Patrice and a young dam engineer, Julien... [More...]

Macadam (1946)

Marcel Blistène

The Hôtel Bijou in Montmartre, Paris, shares the seedy reputation of its owner, Madame Rose, a woman who killed her husband because he was too honest. Rose’s daughter, Simone, disapproves of her mother’s shady dealings and tries to live a more honest life. One of Rose’s less reputable accomplices, a crook named Victor, arrives at the hotel, accompanied by his mistress Gisèle... [More...]

Macao, l’enfer du jeu (1942)

Jean Delannoy

In the late 1930s, an apparently wealthy German, Werner von Krale, is involved in trafficking arms in the Far East. He agrees to supply a large consignment of arms to a Chinese General, arms which he intends to buy from an important dignitary in the town of Macao, Ying Tchaï. Unfortunately, Ying Tchaï expects to be paid in advance and von Krale does not have the money... [More...]

La Main du diable (1943)

Maurice Tourneur

A man arrives at an isolated mountain inn clutching a small box. The man is panic-struck when, during a sudden blackout, the box disappears. To the assembled guests at the inn he tells his tragic story. The man, Roland Brissot, was once a penniless artist who, one day, bought a talisman from the owner of a restaurant for one franc... [More...]

Manon (1949)

Henri-Georges Clouzot

A cargo ship leaves Marseilles loaded with Jews, survivors of the Holocaust who hope to begin a new life in the recently founded state of Israel. Aboard the ship, the crew discover two stowaways: a young man named Robert Desgrieux and his fiancée Manon Lescaut. When the captain learns that Robert is wanted for murder, he realises he has no choice but to hand him over to the authorities... [More...]

La Marie du port (1949)

Marcel Carné

Odile le Flem returns to the Normandy town where she grew up, Port-en-Bessin, to attend the funeral of her father. She is accompanied by her boyfriend, Henri Chatelard, who runs a thriving brasserie and cinema in the nearby town of Cherbourg. After the funeral, Henri falls under the spell of Odile’s younger sister, Marie, who, with her withdrawn and unpredictable nature, is almost the complete opposite of Odile... [More...]

Martin Roumagnac (1946)

Georges Lacombe

In a small provincial town, Blanche Ferrand and her uncle own a shop which sells seed and birds. Blanche resents her drab milieu but has no difficulty attracting male suitors who might offer her an escape. One of these is Martin Roumagnac, a building contractor who falls passionately in love with Blanche as soon as he sees her... [More...]

Les Maudits (1947)

René Clément

At Oslo in 1945, a French doctor, Guilbert, is abducted by a group of Nazis and taken aboard their submarine. The Germans plan to evade capture by the Allies by steering a course for South America. Guilbert finds himself in the company of several unsavoury fugitives, including a Gestapo chief, a German general, an Italian industrialist and a French journalist who collaborated with the Nazis... [More...]

Menaces (1940)

Edmond T. Gréville

France, 1938. Despite the Munich Agreement, the outbreak of war seems imminent. In a small Parisian hotel, several disparate individuals take refuge from the storm clouds that are gathering over Europe. Denise, an attractive young dress vendeuse, hopes soon to marry Dick Stone, an English journalist... [More...]

Mission spéciale (1946)

Maurice de Canonge

May 1940. Commissioner Chabrier, a National Security operative, is about to capture a gang of spies who, under a cover of respectability, have been supplying secrets to the German High Command. One of the spies is Emmy de Wilder, the seemingly blameless director of a hospital in Rouen. The debacle at Dunkirk prevents Chabrier from fulfilling his mission but he refuses to admit defeat... [More...]

Monsieur Hector (1940)

Maurice Cammage

The vicomte de Saint-Amand, a skiing champion, sends his valet Hector ahead of him to prepare his apartment in Nice. Whilst his master is away, Hector dresses up in one of the vicomte’s suits and meets and falls in love with Suzanne, a washroom attendant who has herself borrowed the fur coat of one of her clients... [More...]

Monsieur Vincent (1947)

Maurice Cloche

In plague-ravaged 17th Century Europe, Saint Vincent de Paul devotes himself to his mission of persuading the wealthy to improve the fortunes of the poor. From humble beginnings (having lived the early part of his life in captivity and slavery), Saint Vincent de Paul starts out as a humble priest. Struck by the suffering of the poor and the indifference of the nobility, he takes it upon himself to convince the latter of their obligation to help those who are worse off than themselves..... [More...]

Le Mystère Saint-Val (1945)

René Le Hénaff

Désiré Le Sec works for an insurance company owned by his uncle but has aspirations of being a great detective. When the owner of a grand château dies in mysterious circumstances, Désiré is sent to investigate and soon concludes that foul play is at work. If the dead man was murdered, there is certainly no shortage of suspects... [More...]

Naïs (1945)

Raymond Leboursier

Toine, a modest farm labourer, is in love with Naïs, the daughter of a proud farmer, Micoulin. Toine’s humble status, and the fact that he is a hunchback, make it unlikely he will ever win the woman he adores. Her attentions have been captured by Frédéric, the handsome son of a wealthy landowner, Rostaing... [More...]

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