Marcel Mouloudji

Marcel Mouloudji

Born: September 16, 1922
Died: June 14, 1994
in Paris, France
Marcel Mouloudji, born September 16, 1922 in the 4th arrondissement of Paris and died June 14, 1994 in Neuilly-sur-Seine is a French-Algerian singer, songwriter, painter and actor. His songs, alternately committed and sentimental, evoke love, war, nostalgia between sadness and loneliness. He has notably interpreted texts by poets such as Boris Vian, Louis Aragon and Philippe Pauletto.

Marcel Mouloudji was born in 1922 in Paris to a bricklayer father and a housekeeper mother. His father, Saïd Mouloudji was born in 1896 in French Algeria in the Kabyle village of Leflaye (tribe of Aït Waghlis, daïra of Sidi-Aïch), and his mother, Eugénie Roux is a Breton born in Paris in 1901. The family knows serious problems: when Marcel was only ten years old, his mother was hospitalized for a mental disorder and his illiterate father, housed in a maid's room, had trouble raising his two sons, the eldest of whom, André, was gravely ill and the second, a gentle dreamer who finds accommodation by chance encounters.

During his adolescence, Marcel enrolled with his brother in a left-wing youth movement, the Faucons Rouges, close to the SFIO. In 1935, he met Sylvain Itkine, director and member of the October Group, an organization affiliated with the Fédération des Théâtres Ouvriers de France. Marcel Maillot, director of a Syndicat du livre summer camp, encouraged him to sing with his brother. He was soon noticed by Jean-Louis Barrault. During this period, Marcel was thus hosted by Jean-Louis Barrault, who introduced him to the artistic milieu of Paris. He participated in the artistic life associated with the Popular Front in 1936. In 1936, he appeared in the film La Guerre Des Gosses by Jacques Daroy. In 1937, for the film Claudine À L'École by Serge de Poligny, the screenwriter Jacques Constant, around Blanchette Brunoy, created the character of "Petit Moulou"... soon to be Mouloudji. In 1938, Marcel played one of the three young heroes in Disparus De Saint-Agil by Christian-Jaque. In 1939, Marcel played the role of Louis in Christian-Jaque's film L'Enfer Des Anges, a film selected for the 1939 Cannes Film Festival which did not take place, and released in February 1941. In 1942, he played the role of 'Ephraïm Luska in Henri Decoin's film, The Strangers in the House, after Georges Simenon...

Jacques Canetti, famous artistic agent. He will offer him to record "Comme Un P'tit Coquelicot" thanks to which Mouloudji obtains the Grand Prix du Disque 1953 and the Charles-Cros Prize in 1952 and 1953. He repeats with "Un Jour Tu Verras" the following year. He reappears in films like Henri Calef in 1949 or We Are All Assassins three years later. His last roles, he did in Rafles sur la ville by Pierre Chenal then in Llegaron Dos Hombres in 1958.

After recording a disc with accordionist Marcel Azzola in 1976 called "And it was turning", he released "Unknown Unknowns" thanks to which he went on tour throughout the country. Exhausted, he decides to devote more time to writing and painting. He partially lost his voice due to pleurisy in 1992 but was still working on a new album. He died on June 14, 1994 and is buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

Movies for Marcel Mouloudji...

Boris Vian, un cœur qui battait trop fort
Title: Boris Vian, un cœur qui battait trop fort
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: March 13, 2020
Type: Movie
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Title: La Chance aux chansons
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: March 26, 1984
Type: TV
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Title: La Chance aux chansons
Character: Self
Released: March 26, 1984
Type: TV
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Title: Champs-Elysées
Character: Self
Released: January 16, 1982
Type: TV
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Title: Numéro un
Character: Self
Released: April 5, 1975
Type: TV
A French variety show.
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Title: Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
Character: Self
Released: January 12, 1975
Type: TV
A talk show presented by Michel Drucker
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Title: Apostrophes
Character: Self
Released: January 10, 1975
Type: TV
Apostrophes was a live, weekly, literary, prime-time, talk show on French television created and hosted by Bernard Pivot. It ran for fifteen years (724 episodes) from January 10, 1975, to June 22, 1990, and was one of the most watched shows on French television (around 6 million regular viewers). It was broadcast on Friday nights on the channel France 2 (which was called "Antenne 2" from 1975 to 1992). The hourlong show was devoted to books, authors and literature. The format varied between one-on-one interviews with a single author and open discussions between four or five authors.
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Title: Midi trente
Character: Self
Released: March 6, 1972
Type: TV
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Title: Le Grand Échiquier
Character: Self
Released: January 12, 1972
Type: TV
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Title: Le Grand Échiquier
Character: Self - Main Guest
Released: January 12, 1972
Type: TV
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Title: Samedi soir
Character: Self
Released: January 9, 1971
Type: TV
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Title: Dim Dam Dom
Character: Self
Released: March 7, 1965
Type: TV
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The Hideout
Title: The Hideout
Character: Georges
Released: September 21, 1962
Type: Movie
Set during World War II in France, the story begins when a resistance fighter is given shelter in an asylum by a friend who manages the institution. Soon after, the manager is arrested by the Gestapo, which gets the resistance fighter involved. He finds the informer who set his friend up and kills him. But then no one will believe his story about the informer and he becomes desperate enough to start losing his own mental balance. A young doctor and the daughter of one of the inmates help him keep it together, but he knows he cannot continue like this for long.
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Two Men in Town
Title: Two Men in Town
Character: Angel Garcia
Released: June 22, 1959
Type: Movie
In the darkness gunfire is heard. On a road near a Spanish city an abandoned prison-van is parked. Next to the van lies two dead guards. The two prisoners they transported have escaped.
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Title: Discorama
Character: Self
Released: February 4, 1959
Type: TV
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Sinners of Paris
Title: Sinners of Paris
Character: Jeannot Donati
Released: January 15, 1958
Type: Movie
Michel Piccoli plays a police inspector whose best friend is murdered on the orders of gang boss Charles Vanel. The inspector knows full well that Vanel is too crafty and well-connected to ever stand trial for his crime, so he carefully lays a subtle trap for his adversary. Unfortunately, both Piccoli and Vanel are thwarted by a pair of scheming females.
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58.2/B
Title: 58.2/B
Released: January 1, 1958
Type: Movie
In this leftist short named after a French military unit in the Algeria War, a youth who had been called up returns to his hometown and tries to enjoy life and love but is haunted by his memory of tortures and executions.
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Until the Last One
Title: Until the Last One
Character: The fairground Quedchi
Released: March 20, 1957
Type: Movie
Just released from prison after serving a six-month sentence, Fernand Bastia goes into hiding. He has indeed double-crossed his gang by keeping part of the product of a robbery for himself. Thanks to his sister Marcella, Fernand has taken refuge in a small circus where she works. There, he falls in love with Gina but also arouses the jealousy of Quedchi, a fairground stall-holder who has seen him hiding the stolen money. After a while, Fredo Riccioni, the boss of the gang and his men, manage to trace him...
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Until the Last One
Title: Until the Last One
Character: Quedchi
Released: March 20, 1957
Type: Movie
Just released from prison after serving a six-month sentence, Fernand Bastia goes into hiding. He has indeed double-crossed his gang by keeping part of the product of a robbery for himself. Thanks to his sister Marcella, Fernand has taken refuge in a small circus where she works. There, he falls in love with Gina but also arouses the jealousy of Quedchi, a fairground stall-holder who has seen him hiding the stolen money. After a while, Fredo Riccioni, the boss of the gang and his men, manage to trace him...
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The Indiscreet
Title: The Indiscreet
Released: March 16, 1956
Type: Movie
A dying man entrusts 25 million to a young girl's care, but she's afraid of being suspected of theft.
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Tout chante autour de moi
Title: Tout chante autour de moi
Character: Georges
Released: November 1, 1954
Type: Movie
Georges works in a small-town drugstore. Passionate about music, he writes songs. When Anne-Marie, whom he loves, loses her parents, he leaves with her for Paris, protecting her because she is blind. His friends Paul and Marthe put them up in the vacant apartment of the publisher Recordier. When he returns, he's irritated, but Anne-Marie sings Georges' songs so well that he makes her a radio star. Georges flies into a rage, slamming doors. An upset Anne-Marie has an accident. Operation restores her sight. All that's left for good Paul to do is reunite the brave Georges with the sweet Anne-Marie.
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The Secrets of the Bed
Title: The Secrets of the Bed
Character: Ricky
Released: May 19, 1954
Type: Movie
Four-episode Franco-Italian omnibus film. Four men from different national and cultural background take refuge in a cabin after being sidetracked by bad weather on their way to conference.
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Boom on Paris
Title: Boom on Paris
Character: Self
Released: February 19, 1954
Type: Movie
In the early 1950s, the popular radio show "La Kermesse aux Étoiles", hosted by the famous Jean Nohain, mixing lottery games and performances of various artists, will be disrupted by the adventures of a man and his fiancée seeking to recover a dangerous bottle of perfume (explosive) which was unfortunately mixed with the prizes to be won ...
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The Virtuous Scoundrel
Title: The Virtuous Scoundrel
Released: February 18, 1953
Type: Movie
La Vie d'un honnête homme English: The Virtuous Scoundrel, is a French comedy drama film from 1953, directed by Sacha Guitry, written by Sacha Guitry, starring Michel Simon and Louis de Funès.
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Three Women
Title: Three Women
Character: Raoul (segment "Mouche")
Released: August 13, 1952
Type: Movie
The short stories of Guy de Maupassant enjoyed a renaissance in the early 1950s, thanks in great part to the Max Ophuls production Le Plaisir. In Trois Femmes, three De Maupassant stories are dramatized, each conveying the central theme of women falling in love. In the first, a black female carnival entertainer causes an uproar when she falls in love with a white soldier. In the second, a young bride is pressured into having a baby to collect a huge inheritance. And in the final episode, a pregnant girl is "adopted" and protected by a small circle of friends. In standard De Maupassant fashion, each of the three stories in Trois Femmes is capped by a surprise twist.
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We Are All Murderers
Title: We Are All Murderers
Character: René Le Guen
Released: May 21, 1952
Type: Movie
Originally titled Nous Sommes Tout des Assassins, We Are All Murderers was directed by Andre Cayette, a former lawyer who detested France's execution system. Charles Spaak's screenplay makes no attempt to launder the four principal characters (Marcel Mouloudji, Raymond Pellegrin, Antoinine Balpetre, Julien Verdeir): never mind the motivations, these are all hardened murderers. Still, the film condemns the sadistic ritual through which these four men are brought to the guillotine. In France, the policy is to never tell the condemned man when the execution will occur--and then to show up without warning and drag the victim kicking and screaming to his doom, without any opportunity to make peace with himself or his Maker. By the end of this harrowing film, the audience feels as dehumanized as the four "protagonists." We Are All Murderers was roundly roasted by the French law enforcement establishment, but it won a special jury prize at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.
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The Bonnadieu House
Title: The Bonnadieu House
Released: November 27, 1951
Type: Movie
Felix is a middle-aged bourgeois husband. Much to his discomfort, he learns that his wife Gabrielle is carrying on with a young man--a very young man. Rather than express outrage, Felix decides that there's something lacking in him. He spends the rest of the picture trying to keep his wife by altering his own personality and outlook.
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The Bonnadieu House
Title: The Bonnadieu House
Character: Le chanteur des rues
Released: November 27, 1951
Type: Movie
Felix is a middle-aged bourgeois husband. Much to his discomfort, he learns that his wife Gabrielle is carrying on with a young man--a very young man. Rather than express outrage, Felix decides that there's something lacking in him. He spends the rest of the picture trying to keep his wife by altering his own personality and outlook.
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Gigolo
Title: Gigolo
Character: Ernest
Released: November 8, 1951
Type: Movie
Back from the war, Marceau Le Guern remembers. Educated in an orphanage run by Dominican brothers, he fell into misery when he left it. His only asset was his good looks, which did not escape the attention of Madame Alice, a shady woman who persuaded him to pose for pornographic photos meant for lonely aging women. Marceau also served as a gigolo before the war and captivity put an end to this juicy business. Now he wants to start a new life, all the more as ha has found love in the person of a pure young lady named Dominique. But Madame Alice won't hear of it...
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Justice Is Done
Title: Justice Is Done
Character: Amadeo, le valet de ferme des Malingré
Released: September 20, 1950
Type: Movie
Elsa Lundenstein is accused of having murdered her lover. The jury discusses the case vividly. All members are somehow prejudiced because of personal life experience and subsequently each member reads something different into the presented facts.
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Tête blonde
Title: Tête blonde
Character: Bernard
Released: September 1, 1950
Type: Movie
When he finds a package in the metro, given this period of restrictions, Mr. Truche thinks it may be a good deal, he takes it home but discovers a woman's head inside. A friend of Mr. Truche having just disappeared, the superintendent accuses her of having murdered her and discovers the head buried in his cellar. But the girlfriend, whom Mr. Truche loves platonically, returns from the countryside and at the same time we spot the assassin of the unknown woman.
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Sorceror
Title: Sorceror
Character: Mouton
Released: January 27, 1950
Type: Movie
A young rogue kills an old lady to rob her. Arrested, he believes it is for this crime, hides nothing from his lawyer, who soon tells him that he is only accused of another theft prior to his crime. Sentenced to six months suspended prison sentence, he will also have to answer for the crime of the old lady.
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Troubled Waters
Title: Troubled Waters
Released: August 26, 1949
Type: Movie
A woman returns to her hometown along the French coast, seeking answers about the death of her brother.
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Kindergarten
Title: Kindergarten
Character: Paulo
Released: May 20, 1949
Type: Movie
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.
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Bagarres
Title: Bagarres
Character: Angelin
Released: November 5, 1948
Type: Movie
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.
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The Chips Are Down
Title: The Chips Are Down
Character: Lucien Derjeu
Released: July 1, 1947
Type: Movie
"Les jeux sont faits," is a fantasy film based on a screenplay by French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. A society heiress and a resistance fighter are tragically killed at the same moment and meet in the afterlife. They are offered a second chance at life if they can prove their love is real or be doomed to roam the earth as ghosts.
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Sky Battalion
Title: Sky Battalion
Character: Le Canaque (as Mouloudji)
Released: March 5, 1947
Type: Movie
Film in two eras.1st era: They are not angels. Chronicle of a Free French parachute training camp during the Second World War. 2nd era: Terre de France. A group of paratroopers landed in Brittany sabotages the German installations.
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Les Cadets de l'océan
Title: Les Cadets de l'océan
Character: Passicot
Released: November 14, 1945
Type: Movie
In the harbor of Toulon, on the “Ocean” training ship, the apprenticeship of the cabin boys and experts of the Navy is punctuated by permissions in town, friendships, bullying, and loves.
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Angel and Sinner
Title: Angel and Sinner
Released: October 17, 1945
Type: Movie
During the stagecoach trip of a frightened group of inhabitants of Rouen, Elisabeth Rousset, known as "Boule de Suif", renders these people a signal service, but comes up against their stupidity and their sufficiency. A little later, Boule de Suif assassinates the formidable Prussian lieutenant whom his friends had nicknamed Fifi and who shamelessly displayed his taste for pillage and his sadistic tendencies.
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Angel of the Night
Title: Angel of the Night
Character: Un étudiant (uncredited)
Released: January 19, 1944
Type: Movie
A young sculptor presides over the destinies of a student club where a miserable young girl ends up one evening. The treasurer of the association falls in love with the young girl who returns the favor. The war. The sculptor comes back blind. Out of gratitude, the young girl marries him and restores his confidence in his talent; out of discretion, the treasurer steps aside.
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Vautrin the Thief
Title: Vautrin the Thief
Character: Calvi (uncredited)
Released: December 13, 1943
Type: Movie
A famous convict Jacques Collin, alias Trompe la mort, or abbot Carlos Herrera, also called Vautrin, escapes from prison. Chance makes him meet Lucien de Rubempré, an impetuous and eternal lover who, when he is dismissed, collapses. Moved by this fragility, he takes him under his wing, and will do everything possible to ensure that his creature reaches happiness, even if it means imagining the worst shenanigans and other scams, with the help of a band of clever villains.
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Adieu Léonard
Title: Adieu Léonard
Character: Chimney sweep (uncredited)
Released: September 1, 1943
Type: Movie
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.
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The Roquevillards
Title: The Roquevillards
Character: Boy from the Italian Boarding House (uncredited)
Released: July 28, 1943
Type: Movie
France, 1880. Francois Roquevillard is a respected lawyer in Chambery and the head of a family that prides itself on its impeccable morals. Francois's world rapidly begins to fall apart when his son Maurice elopes to Italy with Edith Frasne, the wife of an esteemed notary.
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Strangers in the House
Title: Strangers in the House
Character: Ephraïm (Amédé) Luska (crédité sous Marcel Mouloudjy)
Released: May 16, 1942
Type: Movie
Loursat, a lawyer, lives with his daughter Nicole in a sinister and vast bourgeois residence. Abandoned for nearly twenty years by his wife, the brilliant lawyer has sunk into alcoholism and his relationship with his daughter is virtually non-existent. However, one day the corpse of a stranger is discovered in the residence of Loursat. Nicole, who frequents a gang of young people who escape boredom by stealing cars and other objects, is immediately suspected.
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L'Enfer des anges
Title: L'Enfer des anges
Character: Léon
Released: February 13, 1941
Type: Movie
Abandoned children, left to their own devices and a life of danger, are adopted by a kind man.
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They Met on Skis
Title: They Met on Skis
Character: Pierrot
Released: December 14, 1940
Type: Movie
The owner of the place of Chamonix covets the inn, run by the Michel's uncle, whose business goes bad. Michel decides to participate in a ski competition to help uncle.
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Les Gaietés de l'exposition
Title: Les Gaietés de l'exposition
Released: May 18, 1938
Type: Movie
Set against the backdrop of the 1937 Paris Exposition, a mistaken identity plot where a travel agent from Morocco is confused by the French police with a dangerous swindler.
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Boys' School
Title: Boys' School
Character: Macroy
Released: April 5, 1938
Type: Movie
In a college, three friends form a secret society. Their objective - going to America. One night, after one of their secret meetings, one of them sees a man coming out from a wall. The next day, after he talks about it, he disappears. Then, the second one vanishes. Are they gone to their dreams? That's when the art teacher is murdered. Suspicions now are too high so the third one decides to investigate.
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Mirages
Title: Mirages
Released: January 28, 1938
Type: Movie
A star of Les Folies Bergères has to choose between her career and her love for an engineer.
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Claudine at School
Title: Claudine at School
Character: Moulou
Released: December 15, 1937
Type: Movie
Poorly educated by her father, a wacky researcher, Claudine is a teenager full of life who loves her small village school run by Miss Sergeant. A new teacher, Aimée Lanthenay, arrives at the school. Seemingly awkward, she is actually an arrivist who manages to get the departure of Miss Sergeant.
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In Venice, One Night
Title: In Venice, One Night
Character: Young Toto
Released: November 19, 1937
Type: Movie
Mortal is ready to do anything to obtain a divorce from his wife Nadia. To compromise her, he needs to find her a lover. He thinks he has found the ideal candidate in the person of a manly private detective by the name of Robert Arnaud. But the experience gets out of Mortal's control as, on the one hand, Robert and Nadia fall in love for good, and, on the other hand, Robert, assisted by resourceful young Toto, manages to expose Mortal as the jewel thief he is.
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Ménilmontant
Title: Ménilmontant
Released: November 20, 1936
Type: Movie
Because they brought her back a lost piece of jewelry, a very rich lady accedes to the request of three old people and transforms a vacant lot into a park for the neighborhood children.
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Generals Without Buttons
Title: Generals Without Buttons
Released: October 27, 1936
Type: Movie
Separated by an ancestral hatred, two small villages of the South see their infant population engaging in war, while the teacher of the first village and the mayor of the second love each other.
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Jenny
Title: Jenny
Character: le chanteur des rues
Released: September 18, 1936
Type: Movie
When her fiancé breaks off their engagement, Danielle leaves London and returns to her mother, Jenny, in Paris. With her business partner Benoît, Jenny runs what appears to be a respectable nightclub – it is in fact a place where wealthy men can buy the favours of attractive young women. Oblivious to her mother's professional and personal life, Danielle meets a handsome young man named Lucien, and falls in love with him – not realising that he is Jenny's lover...