In this French psychological drama, a bank robber is finally released after serving 10 years. His being paroled is due to the influence of his old friend, a social worker. The ex-convict returns to his wife and begins living an honest life. Unfortunately, his old crook friends begin trying to lure him back to crime. Following a prison riot, the social worker ends up living in the same town as the ex-con. They become close friends until the ex-con’s wife is killed during an accident. He finds a new wife, but their happiness is marred by the cop who keeps harassing him.

With: Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Mimsy Farmer.

Trailer:

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A reconstruction of the true story of the Dominici affair: on the night of the 4-5th August 1953 an English couple and their daughter were murdered in their tents. The old farmer Gaston Dominici was accused, and sentenced to death in 1954.

With: Jeanne Allard, Max Amyl, Michel Bertay, Gérard Depardieu, Jean Gabin, Gérard Darrieu, Paul Crauchet, Jean-Pierre Castaldi.

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In Ferreri’s decadent and depraved masterpiece, four friends hole up with three prostitutes and a local schoolteacher in a Parisian villa to eat themselves to death.

With: Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, Ugo Tognazzi.

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Known to English-speaking audiences as Day for Night, La nuit americaine was director Francois Truffaut’s loving and humorous tribute to the communal insanity of making a movie. The film details the making of a family drama called ‘Meet Pamela’ about the tragedy that follows when a young French man introduces his parents to his new British wife. Truffaut gently satirizes his own films with ‘Meet Pamela’s overwrought storyline, but the real focus is on the chaos behind the scenes. One of the central actresses is continually drunk due to family problems, while the other is prone to emotional instability, and the male lead (Truffaut regular Jean-Pierre Leaud) starts to act erratically when his intermittent romance with the fickle script girl begins to fail. In addition to all this personal drama, the film is besieged by technical problems, from difficult tracking shots to stubborn animal actors. The inspiration for future satires of movie-making from Living in Oblivion to Irma Vep, La nuit americaine was considered slight by some critics in comparison to earlier Truffaut masterworks, but it went on to win the 1973 Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

With: Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, Dani.

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Victor Pivert is a very tolerant man, provided you are white, Catholic, and French. To everyone else, he is a shameless racist, who believes foreigners should go back where they came from. On his way to his daughter’s wedding, Victor uncovers a group of scheming Arab revolutionaries. After Victor is discovered, he hides himself by dressing up as a rabbi, leading to one madcap scene after another. The mad adventures of Rabbi Jacob is an extremely entertaining film – fresh, funny, and powerfully poignant.

With: Louis de Funès, Suzy Delair, Marcel Dalio.

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