Léon Mathot

Produced for television by Claude-Jean Philippe, the « Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma », recounts the history of French cinema from its birth to the beginning of the 1960s. With commentary read by Jean Rochefort.

Two young doctors, surprised by the storm, take refuge in an inn. A diamond broker joins them and, for lack of space, shares their room. At dawn he is found dead. A few years later justice is done.

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 September 1938, an American diplomat negotiated in London the peace of Munich, rather than rush to Paris where his wife, a famous film actress, is about to fall into the arms of a young first. He gains peace but loses his happiness.

Le comte de Monte Cristo (15 Episodes). Monte Cristo, based upon Alexandre Dumas' novel of the same name, tells the story of Edmond Dantès, an innocent man jailed for 14 years after being wrongfully convicted. He succeeds to escape prison, finds a treasure on the isle of Montecristo and wreaks revenge on the ones who put him in prison.

Monsieur Vincent is the respected healer of a Basque village. But nobody knows that Vincent Berteaux used to be a surgeon in Paris. When Assomption, a young holidaymaker, arrives in the village in the company of her mother, little does Vincent know that the past returns to his life.

The good guys win out in this sweet tale about a young orphan who is abused for much of her life but who eventually finds happiness when she marries an honest man who extricates her from her situation.

In 1917, in a small village in the North, Abbe Gaillard is suspected by the Germans of facilitating the escape of French and Belgian soldiers. A false alibi makes him innocent and he can thus continue his mission, thanks to the devotion of an Alsatian who, in enemy uniform, obscurely serves his country.

Despite her success, writer Francine Margerie is let down to see that she is not nominated for the Legion of Honor award. One solution could be to sleep with Champmorel, the Director of Fine Arts and one of the judges for the awarding of the coveted medal.

A young Corsican is obliged by a tradition of vendetta for his late father, to kill the uncle of a girl he loves, because that man was the murderer. His search for vengeance leads to being pursued by the police and a tragic fate.

An innocent young man, burglar Cheri-Bibi, and his gangsters are sent to a penal colony.

During the London-Melbourne race, two aviators, one male (Guy,) the other female (Betty), are forced to land on a lost island in Polynesia. They learn to survive in difficult conditions and fall in love. Back in civilization, their union does not prove obvious. Pierre is already married to Ginette, a movie actress, and Betty is engaged to her cousin Edouard. Moreover, Lord Stanton, her rich father, will not hear of a marriage with Guy. Will love ultimately triumph in spite of everything?

Hélène, a young waitress working in a bar frequented by German soldiers, saves the life of Pierre, a Resistance fighter. Her jealous lover has her arrested first and then released. Later on, Hélène is wounded while walking in the streets. Pierre has her transported to friends with the hope of taking her to London with him. Unfortunately, owing to lack of space in the plane, Pierre has to fly alone. Hélène has to wait several weeks before being able to board a new plane. When the day comes at last, the Germans are waiting for the plane on the clandestine airfield.

A middle-aged man, an architect by trade, decides to make an end run around getting married. He marries a charming young woman, tenderly in love, who proves incapable of holding him back and, above all, of making him work. But a young American arrives in Paris and reveals that he is the architect's natural son. At first reluctant, the latter and his young wife quickly adapt to the new situation, until the son, a businessman through and through, wants to share with his father his ideas on life, which can be summed up in one sentence: hard work, with no time for pleasure. The father is quick to balk, and the son is forced to unwillingly participate in the fickle architect's nightlife. Eventually, the father is able to settle down, while the son, having acquired a taste for love, has a good time.

The gypsy dancer Cartacalha is elected queen of the gypsies. She loves a horse breeder, the Galejon, but following misunderstandings and perfidy, she leaves for Paris, invited by a playwright who predicts a total success on stage. Having become a star, she returns to the Camargue where, still abused, she tries to commit suicide.

A jealous wealthy landlord intercepts a letter to his wife written by her cousin. He decides to take revenge by drugging the young man's horse, but it is his own son who will be the victim of the accident.

Pimaï, the strong-headed anarchist, joined the navy out of bravado. But the sweet influence of a young girl leads him to prove that he is worthy of the profession he has chosen and the flag he serves.

Shot on location in Paris, Monte Carlo and the Riviera with both American and French actors. When Matthew Versigny discovers that the jewels his diamond company has been buying are fake, he travels to Europe to track down the counterfeiter. With him are his sister, Marguerite and her sweetheart, Paul Bernac, who is an agent in the French Secret Service.

A little Métis girl, Kalina is saved from a massacre by Taraor, a black man from Sudan. Having become a great and beautiful dancer from the South, she meets Captain Portal, in garrison in Marrakech. This is the beginning of a great love story. But that's counting without Taraor's jealousy.

The turkey keeper, Bettina, brings good luck to those who make her work. She becomes the mascot of the good King Laurent XVII whose finances are in bad shape. In order for her to retain her beneficial power, an attempt is made to separate her from her lover, but in vain.