Bernard Zimmer
Writing
Known For

Two women love the same man in a world of few prospects. In Budapest, Liliom is a "public figure," a rascal who's a carousel barker, loved by the experienced merry-go-round owner and by a young, innocent maid. The maid, Julie, loses her job after going out with Liliom; he's fired by his jealous employer for going out with Julie. The two lovers move in with Julie's aunt; unemployment emasculates him and a local weasel tempts him with crime. Julie, now wan, is true to Liliom even in his bad temper. Meanwhile, a stolid widower, a carpenter, wants to marry Julie. Is there any future on this earth for Julie and Liliom, whose love is passionate rather than ideal?
Liliom

While Louis XV is dying, the Dauphine of France, Marie-Antoinette, seduces a Swedish officer, Axel de Fersen, which pains her husband, the new King Louis XVI, who will know how to be generous when he learns of this deception.
Marie-Antoinette Queen of France

Princess Wilma is forced to wed by midnight or lose her inheritance. She impulsively chooses gypsy vagabond Latzi, offering him a huge sum of money if he'll consent. Swallowing his pride, Latzi agrees to the marriage, but soon the coy Countess falls in love with young Lieutenant de Tokay, who is himself in love with Latzi's gypsy sweetheart Tinka. This is the alternate-language version of Caravan
Caravane

After the death of her husband, Christine realizes she has possibly wasted her life by marrying him instead of the man towards whom, in her youth, she had a stronger inclination. To overcome these dreary thoughts, she decides to find out about him and the other men who danced with her during a ball that was a turning point in her life, many years ago. She pays a visit to those forgotten acquaintances one after the other; Christine is not only surprised to see how they have fared, but also discovers the impact she had, unknowingly, on the feelings and the destiny of these persons.
Life Dances On

Flanders, Hispanic Monarchy, 1616. The inhabitants of the small town of Boom are busy organizing the annual local festivities when the arrival of the Duke of Olivares, who rules the country on behalf of the King Philip III of Spain, is announced. While the male citizens cowardly surrender to panic like rats on a sinking ship, the brave female citizens, led by the bold wife of the burgomaster, decide to become the best hosts the Spaniards can ever meet.
Carnival in Flanders

In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, a Japanese naval officer allows his wife to be seduced by a British naval attaché in order to gain access to a secret report he has written, unaware her marital unhappiness has made her vulnerable to falling in love with him. Adapted from a novel by Claude Farrère, and also filmed in a French-language version, LA BATAILLE., q.v.
The Battle

During the colonial period in Algeria, Sergeant Bouvard helps Broussole and his two daughters, Alise and Julie, settle in Hassi Ben Okba. Demobilized, he plants vines with them. Seduced by Julie's charms, he nevertheless marries Alise because she owns the land. He protects Julie from all her lovers but cheats on Alise with Adèle, a settler's wife. Unable to bear it any longer, he runs away with Julie to Oran. The death of his father brings him back to Bou-Okba. He stays with Alise until the day when, selling his wine in Oran, he is taken over by his passion. It is Julie who will tell him to resume married life and start a family of settlers.
Thirst of Men

A toymaker in Poland specializes in building lifesize mechanical men. He builds a chess-playing "automaton" to hide a pretty young Polish activist who is being hunted by occupying Russian forces.
The Chess Player

Bavaria, 1433. Reason of state rules that Prince Albert is to marry Princess Bertha of Wurtemberg. But the fine-looking young man is loath to become the husband of a woman with pimples,flat feet and no breast. Nevertheless, he has to obey his authoritarian father, Duke Ernest, and accompanied by faithful Count Törring, he mounts his steed and sets out for Würtemberg. Stopping in Augsburg, he falls in love with the daughter of a local barber-surgeon, pure and beautiful Agnès Bernauer. The couple is soon secretly married and both take refuge at the castle of Margravine Josepha, Albert's aunt, waiting for Ernest's consent. Unluckily Albert's father will not accept his son's union with a commoner and Albert, supported by Josepha and an army of common people, declares war on the Duke. They seem about to be victorious when Brother Enrique, a monk formerly in the Holy Inquisition, finds a way to reverse the situation: accusing Agnès of witchcraft...
Judgement of God

Claude Géraudy, a banker responsible for a financial scandal, is forced to flee and hides in the mountains with the help of Manu, a young smuggler. Florence, his wife, refuses to join him. Desperate Claude commits suicide, Florence then decides to pass her suicide off as murder in order to receive her late husband's life insurance.
Le Dessous des cartes

Fictionalized reconstruction of the life of the French spy Marthe Richard who decided to contact the secret services during the First World War.
Marthe Richard

A man from a wealthy family falls in love with a florist, but the lover has to go to war and to leave his darling crying... and giving birth to a child.
Culprit

Drama in a small German water town where various characters clash against a backdrop of money, gambling and love.
Le Joueur

Russia, 1835. Lieutenant Hermann, a compulsive gambler, is fascinated by an infallible martingale held by Countess Tomski, nicknamed The Queen of Spades. The day Hermann wants to wring the secret from her, the countess dies of fear. Following this tragic scene, Hermann sinks into dementia. Luckily, Lisa, his frail lover, brings him back to life and happiness.
The Queen of Spades

An old merchant ruined by the dot its two ungrateful daughters, moved to the Vauquer pension in Paris. In after Balzac.
Father Goriot

Jules Vachon, a pharmacist, has two sons, Gabriel, a steady-minded young man dedicated to his job in the pharmacy, and Gaston, a good for nothing whose only talent is to seduce rich women and take money from their pockets. But it is Gaston who is hailed as a great man when he returns to his native village thanks to his deep pockets.
The Fatted Calf

The quiet days of two elderly spinster sisters are changed for good with the unexpected arrival of their nephew.
The Materassi Sisters

Fernand has escaped from prison and finds shelter in the traveling circus Barlay, where his former wife Flora works as a predator trainer. Their son, now grown up, Marcel is an art rider and does not know that Fernand is his father. Marcel loves Yvonne, the daughter of director Barlay. He is against the connection, sends his daughter to Italy and convinces Marcel that Yvonne does not return his feelings.
Fahrendes Volk

Heart Song(U.S. release in 1934.)
Moi et l'impératrice

Captain Benoît manages to take possession of the plans of a new German airplane. The German counter-espionage assigns one of their agents, beautiful Erna Fiedler, to seduce Benoît and to eliminate him. But the two spies fall in love.