Assassin's Check

An off-beat, uneven tale about a man intent on suicide and the three people who try to talk him out of it, Pantalaskas stars American Carl Studer in the title role of the morose, would-be suicide. Set in Paris and taking place over an entire night, the story has a complication in that the trio who want to prevent the suicide do not speak the man's language -- he is Lithuanian and speaks no French. So the protagonists comb the underbelly of a nighttime Paris, looking high and low but mostly low for anyone who speaks Lithuanian. Depending mainly on dialogue for its impact, the verbose drama reveals how the protagonists undergo a transformation as the night wears on.

This comedy short subject satirizes the Hollywood genre which the French had given the name to of Film Noir.

Based on Coq's press cartoons, this series of 16 sketches (2'30" each) is packed with gags and twists of all kinds. The series features the character of Mam'zelle Souris, played by Annie Fratellini, against a backdrop of family vacation scenes in Brittany, on the beach and by the sea.

ORTF adaptation of a work by Tawfiq al-Hakim.

In a settlement in the northern mining country. The Marles, Bréhard and Gohelle families wake up and prepare for a new day at work. The young engineer Larzac, newly appointed to the mine, will soon oppose the authoritarian and conservative methods of his superior Dubard. Georges Gohelle would like to marry Marie Bréhard, but housing difficulties thwart their plans. Brezza, a Polish immigrant, who must return to his country, would like to hate his marriage to Louise Gohelle. Roger, Marie's little brother, has just turned 14. He does not want to go down to the mine as his elders have always done. He will however have to resign himself to it. Marles evokes for him the social struggles of 1906. Roger is injured during a landslide. In front of his family and his friend Marles, who had come to the hospital, he announced his decision to continue his profession. Larzac, invited to the Marles, reveals that he refused a quiet position at the Charbonnages de Paris. He too stays.

One of the first filmed portraits of a jazz musician.

Chris Marker’s travel essay Sunday in Peking transforms a long-held childhood dream into a cinematic journey through Beijing. Blending documentary observation with reflective narration, Marker captures the city’s rhythms, traditions, and everyday life in mid-1950s China with his signature curiosity and lyricism.

Educational short about the films of the Lumière-Brothers.