Jean Grémillon

The wife of a mechanic and former fighter pilot falls in love with the idea of flying herself. This soon becomes an obsession and she undertakes a lofty feat: the longest solo flight ever made by a woman. (imdb)

Lyrical drama about a doomed, decadent society, exploring the torrid sentimental turmoil of its central characters against the luminous Provençal landscape and against social relations in the world of work. (bfi.org.uk)

An extraordinary work, Maldone manages to presage so many of the dominant themes in French cinema of the following decade. The cinematography, which includes a great deal of location work, is predominantly neo-realist in style, whilst the narrative has strong elements of poetic realism. As in many of Grémillon's later films, Maldone alternates between moments of great dramatic intensity and moments of calm, poignant reflection.

A lady killer meets his match.

The film starts by a visit to bucolic Normandy before the events. This peaceful atmosphere is shattered by Operation Overlord, minutely described in the second part of the documentary. The landing on D-Day and the ensuing battles and bombings martyr the peaceful area giving the earth thousands of body instead of seeds.

Andre Laurent, the captain of a tugboat, married Yvonne ten years ago. She has a heart disease but does not want to tell him. She dreams he quits the job for they can live quietly. One night, during a sea rescue, he meets Catherine. She wants to leave her husband, the captain of the rescued ship. She is a beautiful and unusual woman. (imdb)

An man seeks to reconnect with his daughter after he's released from prison.

A young woman becomes pregnant by an uncaring man and drives to the priesthood the one who truly loves her.

After three weeks and a long, hot voyage across the Pacific, an ocean liner finally arrives at its destination, Ecuador. That evening, the event is marked by a masked ball and a magic show. Dainah, a liberated young woman who does not seem to have much affection for her husband, goes up on deck alone for a breath of fresh air. Here, she encounters the ship's engineer, Michaux (mubi.com)

Odette, an attractive young woman, arrives in the fishing town of Saint-Brieuc in Brittany and becomes the mistress of Jock, the owner of the local inn. Jealous of this new intrusion, Jock's waitress Mimi starts to visit a bankrupt aristocrat, Julien, who lives the life of a hermit in his old family castle. (KG)

Can a person really lead a double life? It looks as though Irène can. On the one hand, she is the wife of Jacques Voisin-Larive, a big name in the publishing world. On the other hand she pretends to be a simple chambermaid when she is with Etienne, a handsome young cabinetmaker. But what will happen when Irène gets pregnant? (imdb)

Two lighthouse keepers (the father and the son) are to spend one entire month in the middle of the sea near the coasts of Brittany; a series of bizarre flashbacks reveals us that the young man has been bitten by a rabid dog. He remembers things of his past, his fiancée, the attack of the dog and he's seeing things too, sometimes his visions become mad. As his condition gets worse, he and his father, prisoners of their islet, inaccessible because of the raging sea, begin to panic. (imdb)

The film is a short documentary about alchemical engravings. (KG)

This one and its follow-up "Haute- Lisse" are about craft industry art. (imdb)

Raimu, one of the greatest French actors, plays the "strange" title hero, a respectable Toulon merchant who secretly operates as a fence for local thieves; after he murders a potential blackmailer, an innocent local shoemaker (Pierre Blanchar) is sent to prison for his crime. Seven years later the fall guy escapes, returns to Toulon to see his son, and, unaware of Victor's guilt, persuades the merchant to shelter him, then becomes involved with his wife.... (Jonathan Rosenbaum)

The slight plot has a girl, left pregnant by a seducer, setting off to look for him when the child is born (the latter eventually proves a most amiable kid); she is befriended by a couple of ex-soldiers, even taking her in when they open a drugstore. Rubio falls for her and, though she reciprocates his affection, still hopes to rejoin her former lover.

'Marie Prieur is a 28-year-old, recently qualified doctor who is about to take up her first post at Oudessant, a small island off the coast of Brittany. She receives a lukewarm welcome from the locals; in fact, the only person who seems pleased to see her is the old schoolteacher, Mademoiselle Leblanc... (Willems Henri)

A young millionaire and his secretary attempt to woo the niece of a wealthy man.

A handsome Austrian officer is in love with a (chic) pastry cook, but, in the wake of a misunderstanding, he is forced to marry her sister. (dbdumonteil)

A presentation on Chartres, the cathedral and its surroundings

The film presents the art paintings of Rochegrosse, Comerre, Falero, Bouguerau, Nola, Bonnat, Penot, and other turn-of-the-19th-century artists who, with their treatment of the poetic way to show the feminine body, have had an influence on the birth of an erotic line of movies.