Louise Fouquet

1948. Madeleine is the headmistress of a kindergarten in Ménilmontant. Dr Libois, the school doctor, is very close to her heart. When Rose, a new helper comes to the school, Libois is impressed at once by her understanding of the little ones and her dedication to them. Little by little, Libois grows fond of Rose while becoming estranged from Madeleine. He eventually marries Rose.

A provincial, Julie Moret, is hired as a servant in a Parisian bourgeois residence. She is courted by one of the Bouquinquant brothers, Léon, who does not take long to ask her to marry him. Alas, Léon turns out to be violent, alcoholic and lazy. Faced with her misfortune, Julie gets closer to her brother-in-law Pierre, the opposite of Léon, serious and hardworking, and they become lovers. The drama will rush when Julie becomes pregnant with Pierre.

Michel has stolen from his employer, Mr Bellanger, for the love of Juliette. He is now in jail. One night, while sleeping in his cell, he wakes up all of a sudden, the gates open and he finds himself in a strange village where all the inhabitants have lost their memory. There, meets Juliette again who seems to agree to marry a powerful man, who might well be Bluebeard...

Henri Chatelard is well into his forties, owns a restaurant and a cinema in the city, and appreciates women. When he meets Marie, an 18-ish strong-head who just lost her father in a small fishing village, it is not clear who is the hunter and who is the prey.

A man, a sort of wandering lyrical or melodious tramp, goes into the countryside. He stops at a farm, disturbs the farmer's wife, turns the heads of the young girls and ends up following his path.

A bungling thief is threatened by one target with blackmail, unless the thief will kill his own cousin, a wealthy eccentric who is considered the village idiot.

1938, France, Paris, at the Superior Conservatory of Dramatic Art ("Conservatoire Supérieur d'Art Dramatique"). The first-year entrance exams are in full swing. Many applicants, few accepted. Isabelle (Janine Darcey) is one of the few chosen. She joins former students from the second and third years, including François (Claude Dauphin) and Cécilia (Odette Joyeux). They attend the drama class run by Professor Lambertin (Louis Jouvet). The young people, passionate and eager to become comedians, clash in tumultuous love affairs, because by dint of acting, they imagine that life is a farce. François, for example, is in love with Isabelle, who also loves him, but is pursued by Cecilia, his former mistress... "Put art in your life and life in your art!"

A proud femme fatale who works at a mountainous farm property manages, after being prodded by her lover, to become the heiress, but she plays the rival men against each other.