Claude Autant-Lara

An innkeeper and his wife have a second career involving the robbery and murder of stagecoach travellers staying at their isolated inn. And it’s up to a monk to stop the mayhem…Read More »

Synopsis:
At the end of World War II, a French pacifist is arrested for refusing to fight. In prison, he befriends a German priest arrested for murder of a French Resistance fighter. They discuss morality, obedience, and religion.Read More »

Christmas 1887. In a Parisian mansion, Douce, the bored daughter of an aristocratic family, nurtures a secret passion for Fabien, who manages the estate. But Fabien is the lover of Irène, Douce’s governess, and plans to elope with her using money stolen from the family. Meanwhile, Douce’s father, a widower, has also fallen in love with Irène, and his proposal of marriage sets in motion a train of events with tragic consequences…Read More »

Quote:
In the third episode, an earl reads the announcement of a widow looking for a husband and hosts her at the castle to marry her, only to discover that it is death. He offers her, in exchange for his own, the life of his governess; death accepts as long as she is consenting and untouched. By marrying her and with a trap, the count manages to voluntarily cause the housekeeper to die but is hit by the hearse carrying his wife’s remains. The driver, to the protests of the death, replies: dead certain hora incerta. Suddenly the count wakes up and discovers that it was only a dream but he hears a car ringing, he looks out the window and sees that the widow who appeared in the dream has just arrived saying that she is the woman from the announcement.Read More »

France, 1942. During the Nazi Occupation, the Ardennes falls in the “forbidden zone” between the German Occupied North and the Vichy governed South. Its inhabitants face starvation as movement of people and supplies into the area are strictly controlled. To save his family, Clovis risks his life crossing the boundary to get hold of potatoes which he intends to plant in a patch of unused land. Knowing that his family’s survival depends on the success of his scheme, Clovis becomes increasingly obsessed with his crop of potatoes…Read More »

Two delinquent young women, Yvette and Noémie, attempt to break into a jeweller’s shop, but are caught red-handed by the owners. To defend her in court, Yvette turns to a respectable middle-aged lawyer, André Gobillot, offering herself as a prostitute to pay his fees.Read More »

Two ten-year-old children, Gloria and Jacques, meet at the former’s birthday party. It is love at first sight and they vow eternal love. Unfortunately, the First World War breaks out and they are separated. The people around them do not understand the deep feelings that link them to each other. When they meet again after the war, Gloria has become a cabaret dancer whereas Jacques has married in the USA. Nothing seems possible between them any longer…Read More »

A feud between families in 1870’s rural France.

A few years after their successful collaboration on La Traversée de Paris (1956), director Claude Autant-Lara and the popular comic actor Bourvil worked together on this light-hearted farce, based on a best-selling novel by Marcel Aymé. One of Autant-Lara’s more cheerful films, La Jument verte benefits from an exceptionally talented cast, which includes such big names as Francis Blanche, Yves Robert, Georges Wilson and Marie Déa, as well as the great Bourvil (who, needless to say, gives great value). Read More »

Comedy of the complications caused by a young man passing cheques on the strength of his mother, a village grocer, being rich.Read More »