Julien Verdier

Maigret

maître Orin

The pragmatic, reserved and refined Maigret investigates murders in his singular unhurried manner and inevitably discovers the truth.

Black Dossier

In the 1950s, in a small provincial town, a young inexperienced judge clashes with an influential notable during an investigation into a suspicious death. His perseverance to get to the truth will cause a huge scandal.

La Poupée sanglante

Mr. Gaillard, Christine's father

Paris, 1925. Bénédict Masson, bookbinder and poet, is secretly in love with his neighbor, Christine. Christine works at the strange Coulteray mansion where the marquise accuses her husband of being a vampire. But Bénédict has other preoccupations: six of his apprentices have disappeared without a trace.

Muriel, or the Time of Return

Le loueur de chevaux / The Stableman

In the seacoast town of Boulogne, antique furniture saleswoman Hélène lives with her stepson, Bernard, who's back from military duty in Algiers. An old lover of Hélène's comes to visit, Alphonse, with his niece Françoise; he too is back from Algiers, where he ran a café. Bernard speaks of his fiancée, Muriel, whom Hélène has not met. The past is obscured by guilt, misperceptions, and missed possibilities. Appearances deceive, things change. As Hélène and Alphonse try to sort out a renewal, everyone seems off-kilter just enough to hint that all cannot end well.

Weekend at Dunkirk

L'infirmier

In June 1940, during the Dunkirk evacuation of Allied troops to England, French sergeant Julien Maillat and his men debate whether to evacuate to Britain or stay and fight the German troops that are closing-in from all directions.

Ardéchois, cœur fidèle

Salembières

In 1822, Toussaint Rouveyre, a former captain in Napoleon's army, returned to his village in the Ardèche after the defeat at Waterloo and a seven-year stay in America. There, he reunited with his family, persecuted by the Restoration regime. In order for his father to give him his share of the inheritance in advance of his permanent move to America, he needs the consent of his younger brother Antoine, a carpenter who is on the Compagnons' Tour de France. When Toussaint learns that his brother, a member of the Compagnons du Devoir (Devoirants) association, has been killed by a companion from the rival association, the Compagnons du Devoir de Liberté (Gavots), he is determined to find the murderer, a certain Tourangeau Sans-Quartier, and avenge his brother. To find this man, he joins the Compagnons du Devoir de Liberté incognito.

Pillaged

Lebuisson

Over the course of one night, a gang of twelve criminals carry out a commando-like raid on a small town.

Follow That Man

Mr. Guy Couvoisier, jeweler

While celebrating his birthday, police inspector Basquier recalls two of his most celebrated cases. The first involves duplicitous moneylender Olga. The second concerns the brutal broad daylight murder of innocent young Yvonne.

The Dialogue of the Carmelites

(uncredited)

This drama about the Carmelite order of nuns is set during the French Revolution. A young woman seeks refuge with the Carmelites because she is terrified of dying during the upheaval. The longer she associates with the nuns the more she is transformed by their faith and devotion. 

Anatomy of a Marriage: My Days with Françoise

Un portier (uncredited)

The story of the couple from the very first meeting to break up told from a view of a woman, Francoise. The film shares the same plot with "Jean-Marc ou La vie conjugale", that tells the same story from another perspective.

We Are All Murderers

Bauchet

Originally titled Nous Sommes Tout des Assassins, We Are All Murderers was directed by Andre Cayette, a former lawyer who detested France's execution system. Charles Spaak's screenplay makes no attempt to launder the four principal characters (Marcel Mouloudji, Raymond Pellegrin, Antoinine Balpetre, Julien Verdeir): never mind the motivations, these are all hardened murderers. Still, the film condemns the sadistic ritual through which these four men are brought to the guillotine. In France, the policy is to never tell the condemned man when the execution will occur--and then to show up without warning and drag the victim kicking and screaming to his doom, without any opportunity to make peace with himself or his Maker. By the end of this harrowing film, the audience feels as dehumanized as the four "protagonists." We Are All Murderers was roundly roasted by the French law enforcement establishment, but it won a special jury prize at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.

The Bear and the Doll

A quiet cellist living in the countryside has his life disrupted when he accidentally bumps into a wealthy, temperamental woman in a Rolls-Royce. Angered by his indifference to her charm, she attempts to seduce him, but he resists her attempts to invade his peaceful life.

Tamango

Fernando

A Dutch slave captain, on a voyage to Cuba, faces a revolt fomented by a newly captured African slave, Tamango. The slaves capture the captain's mistress, forcing a showdown.

The Wreckers

In 1852, the famine on a desolate Britanny's island named Blaz-Mor, off the coast of Finistère. Some residents exalted hold responsible the young Moira, equivalent to a witch. The old Marnez, "head" of the island, is trying to restore calm and opposes Yann Le Heart, the fiancé of his daughter Louise Kermelen, who wants causing a shipwreck to save the island from famine.

Dom Juan

Un pauvre

This telefilm in black and white is diffused on the first French chain the November 6th 1965. It undoubtedly remains the most known adaptation of the Dom Juan of Molière.

Paris Pick-Up

On Christmas night, an ex-convict meets a beautiful, married Italian woman who has a lot of things to hide.

Anatomy of a Marriage: My Days with Jean-Marc

Un portier

The story of the couple from the very first meeting to break up told from a view of a man, Jean-Marc. The film shares the same plot with "Françoise ou La vie conjugale", that tells the same story from another perspective.

I'll Get Back to Kandara

Lachaume

One evening, professor André Barret sees the author of a murder in the darkness; cafe owner Cordelec is the victim. From then on, his suspicions fall on one of his students who had just arrived in his class, Bernard Cormiere.

Before the Deluge

Le veilleur de nuit

The title of this French "reality" drama, which translates to Before the Deluge, is a play on Louis XVI's famous prognostication, "Apres moi, le deluge." Set in 1950, the film concentrates on five Parisian adolescents. Certain that the next war will herald the apocalypse, the youngster make plans to run off to a desert island and set up a new society. This, however, will require money, which is why the boys decide to pull off a "necessary" robbery. Idealism collapses in the face of cold reality, as the five youths suffer from the consequences of their actions. Avant le Deluge was one of a group of films cowritten by director Andre Cayatte and Charles Spaak which endeavored to explore the touchy social issues of the day: others in the Cayatte-Spaak canon include the euthanasia-themed Justice est Faite and the capital-punishment tract Nous sommes tous des assassins.

The Ragpickers of Emmaus

Bastien

The Emmaüs community opened and functioned thanks to the generous impetus of Abbé Pierre Groues, bringing together a cross-section of the underprivileged: unemployed truck drivers, former paratroopers, young people leaving prison, etc., and underprivileged families. The "ragpickers" manage to make a bit of money by practicing the art of "chine", while the abbé tries his hand at winning radio games. The accident and death of one of them will unite the Emmaus companions even more.