Known for Acting
May 1944, in Provence, a young Jewish woman fleeing Nazi persecution, entrusts her three-month-old granddaughter to a stranger, Mathieu, a solitary shepherd who will raise her alone. Once the war is over, he will leave with her, in search of the mother. A research that will last more than twenty years and that will lead them to several European countries.
In eighteenth-century France, a girl is forced against her will to take vows as a nun. Three mothers superior treat her in radically different ways, ranging from maternal concern, to sadistic persecution, to lesbian desire.
A heart stops beating and two others no longer dare to face each other. While an old lady is found poisoned, the two main suspects in the investigation see their mutual love decline behind vile suspicions. 35 years before Les Cordier, judge and cop, Pierre Mondy is already trying his hand at the role of inspector.
Frank Keany is the chief engineer of a uranium mine located under the overwhelming sun of New Mexico and owned by a woman, Moira Warden. She suspects her ex-husband want to take possession of the mine.
Saul De Tarse is a Roman soldier who is making rough all over. He arrives at the Golgotha when the apostles remove the cross. He ruthlessly persecutes the Christians, even though they are his own friends.
With the help of a social worker and Isabelle, Pierre, a delinquent influenced by Marcelle, undertakes a slow and difficult reintegration.
Smuggler's Ball is the English-language title for this French-Belgian seriocomedy. The action takes place along the borders separating Belgium, Holland and France. It is here that the worldly Pierre (J. P. Kieran) carries on a profitable smuggling operation, all the while romancing Siska (Christian Lenier), the daughter of a local customs official. Various subplots and secondary characters weave in and out as the plotline guides the viewer through the WW II years. Towards the end, the story shifts gears when the Benelux Frontier Agreement eliminates all government regulations. The film's screenplay is by Charles Spaak, himself the descendant of a Belgian political family, and thus well-versed in bureaucracy and red tape.
Jacques Hélian, an attractive charm singer, too stifled by the jealousy of the radio director's niece, flees with his orchestra, on the advice of his secretary Bob. They fail in a small village, where there is a boarding school for young girls. Bob responds to the love letters the teacher sends to the handsome singer.
Fates of multiple otherwise disconnected characters intertwine miraculously under the sky of Paris. And it all happens in one day.
Le Havre, France, in 1949. In a town that still shows the scars of war, several friends meet up in Albert's café. One of them, Laurent, has lost his job on the docks and his marriage to Madeleine is falling apart. He knows that his wife wants to start an affair with friend, Jean Sauviot. Jean is a lonely man who is attracted to Madeleine but doesn't want to commit himself to the wife of a friend. On the day that Madeleine tells her husband that she is seeing Jean, Laurent goes looking for Jean to find an explanation. Arriving on the docks in the evening, he attacks an American sailor who looks like Jean, but the man fights back and runs away after killing Laurent accidentally. Madeleine thinks that Laurent was killed by Jean and believes that she can start a new life with her lover. The police have other ideas...
Au Royaume des Cieux takes place in in a dreadful girls' reformatory. A couple of lovers will try to escape from this living hell.
