Marcelle Barry

Léonce Vavin, an entomologist, marries Cecile Debienne, but the parents of the bride quickly realize that he's not just ugly but also a complete ignorant of all sexual matters.

Married to Karl Ammer, the station master of Thaya, a Hungarian quiet village, Anita is a pretty young peasant who feels deeply bored. She dreams of another life while watching the daily express trains to Budapest. An incident will force her to leave her province: she has to go to Budapest to attend the funeral of an aunt and receive a share of the inheritance. After completing the formalities, Anita misses the train to go back home and then she finds herself alone in the capital.

Based on a play by Pierre Wolff, about a wronged husband’s revenge on his wife and her lover, La belle de nuit is a major find, a work of uninhibited stylistic imagination that ranges from Sirkian stylization (an elaborate play of mirrors and doubles) to brutal realism (a tour of the bordellos of Marseille suggests the contemporary photographs of Brassaï).

A young man is hit by a car on a zebra crossing. The pretty driver drives him home, takes care of him and falls in love with him. She has a fat, selfish, boorish husband whom she abandons to her imaginary illnesses to marry her nice wounded man.

Arlette, a young orphan girl, is taken in by four spinster cousins, the eldest of whom, Telcide, is very authoritarian. Arlette befriends Marie, and arranges her sentimental affairs, which were at an impasse.

Now that their parents are ruined, Jacques Eyssette and his younger brother Daniel, are driven to fend for themselves. Jacques becomes the secretary of a marquis who exploits him by making him work so hard that his health gets damaged. Daniel, on his part, is hired as a supervisor and Latin teacher in a school in the province. It soon happens that he is in a bad situation too as, after being subjected to repeated harassment, he ends up being fired. Daniel then decides to join Jacques in Paris, hoping to embark on a literary career. Unfortunately, Irma Borel, an actress, sets her sight on him and drags him into a life of vice.

Auguste Chantilly leads a well-regulated life in the countryside, watching over his ward, the young Arlette. But in the city, he becomes Hubert, and leads a much happier life. Arlette is very keen to get to know this Hubert whom she thinks is her tutor's brother, and things get complicated.