French cinema: 1950s
La P... respectueuse (1952)
Charles Brabant
Whilst taking a train journey in the southern United States, Lizzie McKay, a nightclub hostess, witnesses the killing of a black man by a drunken white man...
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Charles Brabant
La P... sentimentale (1958)
Jean Gourguet
Paty, a college boy, has fallen in love with Linda. The only problem is that she is a prostitute and Paty's father is outraged when he learns that his son is involved with a member of her profession...
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Jean Gourguet
Papa, maman, la bonne et moi... (1954)
Jean-Paul Le Chanois
Robert Langlois, a trainee lawyer, still lives with his parents in their modest Montmartre apartment. Robert loses his job when his employer catches him flirting with a female colleague...
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Jean-Paul Le Chanois
Paris, Palace Hôtel (1956)
Henri Verneuil
Françoise Noblet is a young manicurist who works at a high class hotel in Paris. One Christmas Eve, she meets Monsieur Delormel, a wealthy businessman who offers her an evening she will never forget...
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Henri Verneuil
Le Passe-muraille (1951)
Jean Boyer
When he is locked out of his home by his sister and her husband, a humble civil servant Léon Dutilleul discovers he has a peculiar talent: he can walk through walls...
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Jean Boyer
Patrouille de choc (1957)
Claude Bernard-Aubert
During the Indochina War in the late 1940s, Lieutenant Perrin is in charge of a small battalion of French troops at a remote outpost in Vietnam... [More...]
Claude Bernard-Aubert
During the Indochina War in the late 1940s, Lieutenant Perrin is in charge of a small battalion of French troops at a remote outpost in Vietnam... [More...]
Le Pays, d'où je viens (1956)
Marcel Carné
One Christmas Eve, a carefree young man, Eric, arrives in a small provincial town. Here, he meets Julien, a bar pianist who is his exact double... [More...]
Marcel Carné
One Christmas Eve, a carefree young man, Eric, arrives in a small provincial town. Here, he meets Julien, a bar pianist who is his exact double... [More...]
Les Pépées font la loi (1955)
Raoul André
Flora finds she has to take the law into her own hands when her daughter Nathalie is kidnapped one day. Her first thought is that her precious offspring has managed to get herself mixed up in a bothersome drugs trafficking operation, so rather than get onto the police she decides to deal with the matter by herself, assisted by her other three daughters: Elvire, Christine and Elisabeth... [More...]
Raoul André
Flora finds she has to take the law into her own hands when her daughter Nathalie is kidnapped one day. Her first thought is that her precious offspring has managed to get herself mixed up in a bothersome drugs trafficking operation, so rather than get onto the police she decides to deal with the matter by herself, assisted by her other three daughters: Elvire, Christine and Elisabeth... [More...]
Le Père de Mademoiselle (1953)
Marcel L'Herbier
Françoise Marinier refuses to allow her parents, a respectable bourgeois couple, to decide whom she should marry. So she leaves home and moves to Paris, where she is soon engaged as a secretary to the popular actress Edith Mars... [More...]
Marcel L'Herbier
Françoise Marinier refuses to allow her parents, a respectable bourgeois couple, to decide whom she should marry. So she leaves home and moves to Paris, where she is soon engaged as a secretary to the popular actress Edith Mars... [More...]
Pickpocket (1959)
Robert Bresson
As he stands in the crowds at a horse race, a solitary young man named Michel yields to an uncontrollable impulse to steal from a woman's handbag... [More...]
Robert Bresson
As he stands in the crowds at a horse race, a solitary young man named Michel yields to an uncontrollable impulse to steal from a woman's handbag... [More...]
Pigalle-Saint-Germain-des-Prés (1950)
André Berthomieu
With work hard to come by, musician Jacques Hélian and his orchestra end up working in an unpopular night club in the Pigalle district of Paris... [More...]
André Berthomieu
With work hard to come by, musician Jacques Hélian and his orchestra end up working in an unpopular night club in the Pigalle district of Paris... [More...]
Le Plaisir (1952)
Max Ophüls
The writer Guy de Maupassant recounts three of his short stories to show that pleasure should not be confused with happiness... [More...]
Max Ophüls
The writer Guy de Maupassant recounts three of his short stories to show that pleasure should not be confused with happiness... [More...]
Plume au vent (1952)
Louis Cuny
Although he is a veterinary by trade, Claude Magazelle has the soul of a poet, and as such has earned himself the nickname 'Plume au Vent' because of his resemblance to a feather in the wind... [More...]
Louis Cuny
Although he is a veterinary by trade, Claude Magazelle has the soul of a poet, and as such has earned himself the nickname 'Plume au Vent' because of his resemblance to a feather in the wind... [More...]
Le Plus joli péché du monde (1951)
Gilles Grangier
After losing her job Zoé soon finds she hasn't enough money to pay for her next meal. She sees only one way out of her predicament - she must find a herself a rich lover... [More...]
Gilles Grangier
After losing her job Zoé soon finds she hasn't enough money to pay for her next meal. She sees only one way out of her predicament - she must find a herself a rich lover... [More...]
La Poison (1951)
Sacha Guitry
After thirty years of married life, Paul and Blandine Braconnier have grown to hate each other so much that each contemplates murdering the other... [More...]
Sacha Guitry
After thirty years of married life, Paul and Blandine Braconnier have grown to hate each other so much that each contemplates murdering the other... [More...]
Poisson d'avril (1954)
Gilles Grangier
Emile Dupuis, a garage mechanic, has been setting aside some money each month to buy his wife Charlotte a washing machine... [More...]
Gilles Grangier
Emile Dupuis, a garage mechanic, has been setting aside some money each month to buy his wife Charlotte a washing machine... [More...]
Le Port du désir (1955)
Edmond T. Gréville
As a sunken ship risks blocking the entrance to the port of Marseille, Captain Le Quévic is instructed by the naval authorities to raise the vessel and tow it away... [More...]
Edmond T. Gréville
As a sunken ship risks blocking the entrance to the port of Marseille, Captain Le Quévic is instructed by the naval authorities to raise the vessel and tow it away... [More...]
Porte des Lilas (1957)
René Clair
A guitar player who calls himself "The Artist" strikes up a friendship with a dim-witted slob named Juju, who drinks too much and who has taken a fancy to Maria, the daughter of his pub landlord... [More...]
René Clair
A guitar player who calls himself "The Artist" strikes up a friendship with a dim-witted slob named Juju, who drinks too much and who has taken a fancy to Maria, the daughter of his pub landlord... [More...]
Pot-Bouille (1957)
Julien Duvivier
Paris, 1865. Octave Mouret is a young man filled with great ambitions. He is also a consummate Don Juan and it his talent for seducing members of the opposite sex which he intends using to make a rapid ascent of the social scale... [More...]
Julien Duvivier
Paris, 1865. Octave Mouret is a young man filled with great ambitions. He is also a consummate Don Juan and it his talent for seducing members of the opposite sex which he intends using to make a rapid ascent of the social scale... [More...]
Pourquoi viens-tu si tard? (1959)
Henri Decoin
Catherine Ferrier is a well-known lawyer who specialises in cases involving alcoholism. One evening, she meets photographer Walter Hermelin, who has just been involved in a minor car accident... [More...]
Henri Decoin
Catherine Ferrier is a well-known lawyer who specialises in cases involving alcoholism. One evening, she meets photographer Walter Hermelin, who has just been involved in a minor car accident... [More...]
Premier mai (1958)
Luis Saslavsky
Jean Meunier, a low-paid electrician, cannot afford for his wife Thérèse to give birth to their second child in hospital so it is agreed that she will have a home birth, attended to by her sister Annie and her mother... [More...]
Luis Saslavsky
Jean Meunier, a low-paid electrician, cannot afford for his wife Thérèse to give birth to their second child in hospital so it is agreed that she will have a home birth, attended to by her sister Annie and her mother... [More...]
La Première nuit (1958)
Georges Franju
One evening, a ten year old boy follows a little girl home from school and loses himself in the Paris Métro. The crowds gradually disperse and eventually the boy finds himself alone in the seemingly endless subterranean tunnels... [More...]
Georges Franju
One evening, a ten year old boy follows a little girl home from school and loses himself in the Paris Métro. The crowds gradually disperse and eventually the boy finds himself alone in the seemingly endless subterranean tunnels... [More...]
Les Premiers outrages (1955)
Jean Gourguet
In her exercise book, Bichette, a girl in her mid-teens, records her first amorous experience. The object of her juvenile infatuation was a handsome lad named Kiki, the son of the innkeeper in the little village where she spent her summer holidays... [More...]
Jean Gourguet
In her exercise book, Bichette, a girl in her mid-teens, records her first amorous experience. The object of her juvenile infatuation was a handsome lad named Kiki, the son of the innkeeper in the little village where she spent her summer holidays... [More...]
Quai de Grenelle (1950)
Emil E. Reinert
Jean-Louis Cavalade is an impetuous young man who likes nothing better than to hunt snakes in the Forest of Fontainebleau... [More...]
Emil E. Reinert
Jean-Louis Cavalade is an impetuous young man who likes nothing better than to hunt snakes in the Forest of Fontainebleau... [More...]
Quand la femme s'en mêle (1957)
Yves Allégret
Henri Godot, the head of a Parisian-based criminal gang, has begun an amorous liaison with Maine, the former girlfriend of one of his equally ruthless rivals, Bobby... [More...]
Yves Allégret
Henri Godot, the head of a Parisian-based criminal gang, has begun an amorous liaison with Maine, the former girlfriend of one of his equally ruthless rivals, Bobby... [More...]
Les Quatre cents coups (1959)
François Truffaut
Antoine Doinel is a 13-year-old boy who lives with his parents in a cramped apartment in Paris. Neglected by his mother, misunderstood by his father, he starts to rebel against authority... [More...]
François Truffaut
Antoine Doinel is a 13-year-old boy who lives with his parents in a cramped apartment in Paris. Neglected by his mother, misunderstood by his father, he starts to rebel against authority... [More...]
Rafles sur la ville (1958)
Pierre Chenal
The Parisian police are pleased with themselves when they manage to arrest the notorious gangster Le Fondu. But the crook has no intention of being brought to justice... [More...]
Pierre Chenal
The Parisian police are pleased with themselves when they manage to arrest the notorious gangster Le Fondu. But the crook has no intention of being brought to justice... [More...]
Razzia sur la Chnouf (1955)
Henri Decoin
Paul Liski runs the biggest drugs trafficking operation in France but things are not going well. He needs someone he can trust to restructure his entire organisation so that it can expand its reach whilst evading the forces of law and order... [More...]
Henri Decoin
Paul Liski runs the biggest drugs trafficking operation in France but things are not going well. He needs someone he can trust to restructure his entire organisation so that it can expand its reach whilst evading the forces of law and order... [More...]
La Reine Margot (1954)
Jean Dréville
Paris, 1572. Ostensibly to settle decades of enmity between Protestants and Catholics, King Charles IX of France agrees to marry his sister Margot to the Huguenot prince Henri de Navarre... [More...]
Jean Dréville
Paris, 1572. Ostensibly to settle decades of enmity between Protestants and Catholics, King Charles IX of France agrees to marry his sister Margot to the Huguenot prince Henri de Navarre... [More...]
Le Rendez-vous des quais (1955)
Paul Carpita
Marseilles, 1953. Robert Fournier is a young dock worker who wants to marry Marcelle, an employee in a biscuit factory. But times are hard and the couple are unable to afford an apartment, so they have no choice but to go on living with their parents... [More...]
Paul Carpita
Marseilles, 1953. Robert Fournier is a young dock worker who wants to marry Marcelle, an employee in a biscuit factory. But times are hard and the couple are unable to afford an apartment, so they have no choice but to go on living with their parents... [More...]