In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.

Paris, France, December 1946. Jenny Lamour, an ambitious cabaret singer, and Maurice, her extremely jealous pianist husband, become involved in the thorough investigation of the murder of a shady businessman, led by Antoine, a peculiar and methodical police inspector.

A married man who killed the wife of his best friend during a tryst feels compelled to turn himself in.

The family of a Parisian shop-owner spends a day in the country. The daughter falls in love with a man at the inn, where they spend the day.

In a girls boarding-school run by Madame Piégeois, young Gisèle meets, at night, the count of Champrès' son.

After a novice nun learns of the sudden death of her parents, she leaves the convent to manage the family business and look after her teenage sister. Both of them fall prey to a womanizing mechanic with psychopathic tendencies.

Dupuy, the first officer of the Cristobal, a French merchant ship, is informed by cabaret dancer La Rubia that the Cristobal carries a priceless secret cargo of gold. Based on the novel by Albert t'Serstevens.

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.

Emile Magis, a modest employee, more or less ostracized by the others, would like only one thing, to be happy. Little by little he realizes that life in society is a matter of convention, lies and deception. When he has understood that cynicism rules the world, he decides to play by its untold rules and to take his revenge.

Louis Bourdin est employé à la RATP le jour, romancier la nuit, avec une forte prédilection pour le genre policier. Un jour, il rédige un polar situé dans l'univers de la RATP, boudé par les éditeurs. Le livre parvient alors aux yeux d'une bande de criminels...

The story of a French officer who is assumed dead during the Napoleonic Wars, but returns ten years later to a very different France, both on a political and personal level. The film is based on the novel Colonel Chabert by Honoré de Balzac.

The announcement of the future marriage of Franck Reno, the star singer, causes considerable excitement around the world.

The romantic relationship between a sports journalist and a cyclist during the Tour de France.

April fools in a studio where a radio host pretends to shoot dead all the performers....till a true crime occurs.

Following a trivial road accident, Ariane, an international adventuress, falls in love with Bernard Fleuret, a young artist-painter with diseased lungs. Being pursued by the police, she chooses to hide in the sanatorium where the young man is treated. Ariane proves so smitten by love that she finally changes her ways: she decides to let herself be arrested, sure as she is she will be reunited with her loved one later on.

Edited from 4½ hours of unused material left over from the shooting of Jean Renoir's 1936 PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE (A Day in the Country) and donated by the producer Pierre Braunberger to the Cinémathèque Française. Re-edited for a new version, much of the film is shot with synchronised sound with Renoir's voice instructing and guiding the actors.