Jacques Duby

L'Âge d'or de la pub

55 years ago, on October 1 1968, the first brand advertising spot appeared on the French television screen. Over the next three decades, thousands of creative little films would seduce and build our collective memory. Kitschy or cult spots, humor, slogans, music, stars, gimmicks, grand spectacle or sex appeal: during its golden age, how did advertising convince? Thierry Ardisson has brought together almost 400 advertising clips to relive the era of the conquest of minds and wallets.

I'm Staying

A self-centered engineer tries to win back his wife after she takes a new lover.

The Elegant Criminal

On 9 January 1836, Pierre Lacenaire goes to the guillotine, a murderer and a thief. He gives Allard, a police inspector, his life story, written while awaiting execution. He also asks Allard to care for Hermine, a lass to whom he has been guardian for more than ten years. In flashbacks, from the prison as Lacenaire writes, from Allard's study as he and Hermine read, and from other readers' memory after the book is published, we see Lacenaire's childhood as he stands up to bullies, including priests, his youthful thieving, his first murder, his brief army career, his seduction of a princess, and his affair with Avril, a young man who dies beside him.

Feu sur le candidat

Robert Cavaillon is the king of the pet food industry. After he sold the factory to his workers, he decided to run for office. His campaign in support of animal rights gives him a lead in the opinion polls - which worries the main political parties. Since his past is unassailable, his political opponents decide to give the job of getting rid of him to a bizarre couple - a professional killer called Jean and a high-class call girl named Clara. The pair has to ruin him with scandal and then eliminate him for good. Jean's first attempt at his task is a failure: instead of a killer he ends up looking like Cavaillon's savior and friend. Clara is forced to play the role of the killer's tender wife, because their victim sees them as a kindly pair not interested in using him for his position like everyone else. Between one bungled assassination attempt and the next, the three are enmeshed in an intense relationship in which their roles all change.

La vie en couleurs

Laura, 35 years old, is married to Ricardo, an Argentinean cameraman, political refugee in France. They have two little girls, Ariane and Amélie. Laura works in a printing company, as a machine operator. When democracy is re-established in his country, Ricardo wants to return with his wife and daughters. But Laura refuses and the couple separates. Three years later, the young woman meets Didier Caillaux-Lalande, a young man who comes to print a book on Gustave Doré.

Pleine Lune

Cinq-Mars

In the 17th century, under Louis XIII, the policy of Cardinal de Richelieu aimed at the definitive establishment of a monarchic power, and gave rise to a struggle against the great feudal lords, who favored a weak central power. Numerous conspiracies against the Cardinal were led by the high nobility. The one led by Henri Coiffier de Ruzé d'Effiat, marquis de Cinq-Mars, was the last and most famous of them.

Les Fiancées de l'empire

The Adventures of Arsène Lupin

An adaptation of the novel 813, in which the gentleman burglar competes to steal state papers and tries to uncover the identity of a terrifying murderer.

Arsène Lupin Joue et Perd "813"

An adaptation of the novel 813, in which the gentleman burglar competes to steal state papers and tries to uncover the identity of a terrifying murderer.

The Kick of Sirocco

A shady Parisian tries to take advantage of a family of French-descended Algerians forced to move to France.

Claudine

A coming-of-age miniseries based on the well-known "Claudine" stories by the French bisexual actor and author Sidonie Gabrielle Colette.