André Reybaz

In the forest, knight-errant Hans meets and falls in love with Ondine, a water-sprite who is attracted to the world of mortal man.

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.

Byzance uses a text by Stefan Zweig to describe the Ottoman conquest of the city in 1453. Before he turned to feature filmmaking in 1968 with Naked Childhood, Pialat worked on a series of short films, many of them financed by French television. Byzance is one of Pialat’s six Turkish shorts.

An election campaign becomes more interesting when anonymously published photographs depict the wife of a candidate, Dr. Peyrac, attending a sex party. Are the photographs fake or genuine ?

A love story between a teacher, Danièle, 32 years and one of her students Gérard, 17 during the heated atmosphere of May 68. Danièle is a fiery young woman, very involved politically. Gérard's parents accuse Danièle of statutory rape and complain. Danièle is trapped and the drama begins...

Two prisoners in complete isolation, separated by the thick brick walls, and desperately in need of human contact, devise a most unusual kind of communication.

Micheline Chevassu is a young, naive woman living in an orphanage. Through classified ads, she has a date with an unknown man. She escapes from the orphanage to go to it, dreaming of the Prince Charming. But comes Nicolas Rougemont, an unattractive middle-aged man... He pretends not to be the author of the letters, who could not come...

A chronicle of the life of Bertrand du Guesclin, grand officer of the French army in the 14th century.

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.

French director Frederic Rossif presents this historical documentary that coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Stock footage from both World Wars are included with 30 minutes of new scenes filmed especially for the project. The historical timeline is traced from the time Czar Nicholas II is crowned. The emergence of Lenin, his death in 1924, and the later contributions of Trotsky and Stalin give the viewer a sense of death, betrayal, and ideological devotion to the communist agenda. Rossif effectively uses scenes from the landmark 1929 film The Man With A Movie Camera by celebrated director Dziga Vertov. Rossif researched the film archives from several countries in his meticulous gathering of materials for this timely historical feature.

Athanase Pernath is a gem cutter in the Prague ghetto. In spite of himself, he becomes embroiled in the lives of his neighbors. Family feuds, swindles, jealousies and revenge lead Pernath to prison, while the threat of the Golem, a monster created by a rabbi and awakening every thirty-three years, hangs over the city.

Loursat, a lawyer, lives with his daughter Nicole in a sinister and vast bourgeois residence. Abandoned for nearly twenty years by his wife, the brilliant lawyer has sunk into alcoholism and his relationship with his daughter is virtually non-existent. However, one day the corpse of a stranger is discovered in the residence of Loursat. Nicole, who frequents a gang of young people who escape boredom by stealing cars and other objects, is immediately suspected.

The struggles of a small business owner come to light in this film by director André Cayatte. The proprietor of a fabric shop, M. Baudu faces stiff competition when a department store moves in across the street, the first of its kind in 1860s Paris. On top of the stresses associated with the rival retailer, Baudu’s niece and two nephews take up residence with him after recently being orphaned. The niece, Denise Baudu, sees the writing on the wall for her uncle’s business so she takes a job as a shop girl with his competitor and despite her success the decision does not register well with the family.

Cecile, a young girl who goes to the offices of the Judicial Police several times in a row to complain about nightly visits to the apartment she occupies with her aunt, is not taken seriously by the police until she the day she is found murdered.

During the German occupation, Jeanne Moncatel, pretty but complexed, has to put up with her mother, a cantankerous old woman who keeps telling her she's ugly, which she also believes. She takes in Pierre Ségur, who was fleeing the Germans and had his eyes burned out. His life is turned upside down.

A few years after the revocation of theEdict of Nantes, the Camisards, Protestants from the Cévennes region, mostly peasants and silk workers, formed groups following Gédéon Laporte and fought Louis XIV's dragoons.

Comedy about an older man wanting to marry a younger woman who must make sure first that the woman is not by chance his own daughter.

Noël Bienvenu, owner of a career, is a widower and lives with his parents. His son Bastien, whom he despises, was sentenced to six months in prison for theft. Noël goes to see a dying friend, Romieux, who asks him to take care of his daughter Marthe, who has settled in Paris (Batignolles district). Noël goes there and discovers that Marthe is destitute (her lover Gaston being an incarcerated mobster): he then offers her to come and live with him and soon, marries her.

A young pianist is shocked when she witnesses a strange chess tournament with a robot. Could there be a gruesome secret behind this exhibition?

Maître Galip is the most poetic and powerful of Pialat's Turkish Chronicles, using the poems of Nazim Hikmet to accompany a series of evocative images of ordinary working class people in Istanbul. This was the film that Pialat himself claimed was the most complete realization of what he was aiming for with his Turkish documentaries. It's not difficult to see why this was his favorite: here he abandons the historical commentary and documentary observation of the other shorts in favor of an emotional emphasis on the lives of the poor and the unemployed.

La Corne d'or is mostly concerned with religious ritual, examining the mosque (and former cathedral) discussed in Byzance. As a contrast against Istanbul's status as a center of historical religious conflict, Pialat — drawing here on texts by the French poet Gérard de Nerval — also describes the city as a place of strange ethnic and religious harmony, with representatives of various cultures and religions living in close contact. He emphasizes the city's hybrid culture, its blend of Southern European and Arab influences, reflected in both its people and its very construction.

Historical documentary about the life of Victor Schoelcher, a French politician and abolitionist active from 1848 to 1893.

The series follows the adventures of lighthearted Jean-Paul Moulin, a police Commissaire, and his team as they solve crimes.

Molière pour rire et pour pleurer recounts the life of Jean‑Baptiste Poquelin, from his childhood in an artisan family to his rise as Molière, a central figure of French theatre. The series shows his difficult decision to abandon the family trade and join Madeleine Béjart to found L’Illustre Théâtre, marked by debts and repeated setbacks. While touring the provinces, he shapes his style and discovers the power of comedy. Back in Paris, he makes a name for himself with Les Précieuses ridicules, but his sharp satires provoke fierce opposition, especially during the Tartuffe scandal. Supported by Louis XIV, he continues despite attacks, literary rivalries, and tensions within his troupe, particularly with Armande Béjart. The miniseries also follows his growing exhaustion, his determination to perform at any cost, and his final breath after Le Malade imaginaire, the ultimate symbol of an artist who lived — and died — for the stage.

The series Mazarin (1978) recounts the rise of Jules Mazarin, first an Italian diplomat and later France’s chief minister after Richelieu. The story shows how he earns the trust of Anne of Austria and becomes the political mentor of the young Louis XIV. Over the course of the episodes, Mazarin faces court intrigues, the hostility of powerful nobles, and the turmoil of the Fronde, which threatens royal authority and forces him into several periods of exile. Despite pamphlets and conspiracies, he manages to restore order and prepare the emergence of the future Sun King. The series thus portrays a skilled statesman, often contested but essential in shaping absolute monarchy.