Hubert Daix

The rise of a canning maker and then his abandonment of the factory because his ideal of social progress for his workers is undermined by the Board of Directors.

A young couple go to the carnival. After some savage heavy petting they meet a sinister fakir who offers to sell them Truth for six sous. A set of uncanny events follow. At worst 'avant-gardist' in the extreme, at best the counterpart to Cœur Fidèle's 'fête foraine' sequence after the abolition of melodrama. Excellent black screen cutting and chaotic camera shaking characterize the style.

The film is based on the bitter rivalry of two pigeon racers, Fred, the bell-ringer of Bruges and Neel, the fiancé of Fred's partially sighted sister. Following a major tournament, won by Neel's bird, Fred's resentment drives him to mount an attack upon his rival so ferocious that he believes he has killed him. Seized by remorse, he intends to throw himself from the belfry, but his disabled sister risks her own life to mount to the tower and try to save him.

Dr. Holk leads an isolated and lonely existence in a small, Dutch colony in the tropics. Having fled from love and civilization, his only companions now are alcohol and his work, which takes him to villages ravaged by dirt, fever and a strange illness which turns innocent people into madmen: Amok. One day, he is called on by Helene Haviland, who asks him to abort her lover's child before her husband returns from abroad. Even though Holk is enchanted by her seductive beauty, he haughtily refuses her request. Rejected, the woman turns to a Chinese practitioner. When Holk tracks her down in a dirty dive, it's already too late for the two of them.

Gribiche, a young boy whose mother is a war widow, gets adopted by a rich woman. She wants to turn him into a perfect gentleman, but soon he feels unhappy.