Paris, 1865. In a music-hall Manon accidentally kills her partner who was trying take sexual advantage of her. She is condemned to twenty years of hard labor first and then to be deported to marry a released convict. On the ship where she sails with her female fellow-sufferers she gets to know a young doctor and helps to suppress a revolt. Once arrived at her destination, Manon hesitates between her official fiancé and the doctor whose household she does not want to break...

In France, in 1930, a supervisor of a boarding school for young offenders seeks to awaken the music by forming a choir, despite the skepticism of his boarding school director.

The story of how the people of Paris cope with the strains and struggles of war, from the siege of the city by the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian War of 1871 to the invasion by the Germans in World War II.

The wife of a Parisian municipal guardian wins a beauty contest in spite of herself and narrowly escapes more or less honest adventures.

Through the fault of the Leech, Bibi la Puree and her friend Bob find themselves involved in a crime. The judge in charge of the investigation discovers in Bob a relative. He does not send them to prison and welcomes them to his property.

A disillusioned rich American bets with a railroad worker that the latter will not be able to spend the 600,000 francs a month that he will pay him for a year. All the railwayman's attempts to win his bet fail but his daughter luckily conquers the American.

Mailman Biscot decides to run the Tour de France bike race to impress a lovely swimming champion.

In 1925 what may have been the first cycling film was made, Le Roi de la Pédale starring the popular comedy actor Biscot, and with scenes shot on the Tour de France and also with Henri Decoin as a screenwriter.

One of the longest films ever made

A melodrama.

"Be bold, young man, be bold!" repeats Judge Barbachon to his clerk Belhomme. Putting the precepts of his boss into practice, Belhomme first tries to seduce Madame Barbachon, and is thrown out of the house. Moving on to the capital of the region to look for another job, Belhomme meets a charming young lady on the tramway. He continues to follow the advice of Judge Barbachon...

Gustave (Biscot) realizes he has acquired a telekinetic power.

Following a series of unfortunate accidents, the eminently respectable Séraphin, the meticulous and correct manager in an insurance company, finds himself trouserless in the middle of the street.

Directed by Louis Feuillade.

This twelve-part melodrama details the intertwined fates of a Portuguese nobleman, a Carmelite nun, and a mysterious look-alike.

Rudolph Strelitz, known as 'Barrabas', is the leader of a brutal underground gang causing chaos and destruction in the lives of civilized people. A lawyer, Claude Varèse, is strongly determined to bring Strelitz to justice for the purpose of revenge, after his father was unjustly guillotined for the murder of Laure d'Hérigny, the mistress of an American millionaire. Later, the sister of Claude Varèse, Françoise, is kidnapped by Dr Lucius, one of the henchmen of Barrabas. Serialised over 12 chapters.

If you’re already familiar with Louis Feuillade, his little-known opus Vendémiaire may come as a surprise. Unlike the bulk of his work which was characterised as ‘Fantastic Realism’, Vendémiaire is wonderfully down-to-earth realism – or down-to-French-earth realism to be specific. The film itself is divided into four chapters, the titles of which suggest that this is a movie about the cultivation and consumption of wine. But as the narrative unfolds, it becomes clear that the cultivation and consumption of wine is an allegory for French culture and French land as a whole, and the real purpose of the film is to persuade the director’s fellow citizens to defend that spirit and those lands at all costs. It’s September 1918 and the war is coming to an end, but here on the Castelviel estate in the south of France the news has not yet arrived and everyone is busy with the grape harvest....

Jacques d'Athys, a French adventurer, returns to his home in Nice after an expedition to Indochina where he has picked up a Eurasian fiancée and a book that, unbeknownst to him, contains a coded message revealing the whereabouts of both secret treasures and sensitive government intelligence. This makes him the target of foreign spies, including a Marquise of mysterious Latin origin, a Hindu hypnotist and an evil German doctor, who will stop at nothing to obtain the book.

An early Gaumont short