Rolande Kalis

Gabriel Pelletier, sales manager for a major industrial firm, would be the happiest of men if he didn't have a family of rare originality. The day Gabriel Pelletier is asked by the firm's management to welcome and accommodate an important American industrialist who has come to Paris to handle a major contract, he realizes the difficulties that lie ahead. How will Mr. Strumberger, who has the reputation of a fierce puritan, react to the behavior of the various members of the family?

Ne coupez pas mes arbres

Alfred lives with his mother in a small village keeping chickens and selling eggs at the local market. He doesn't speak, except to his mother and to children. He has a girlfriend of sorts, although she shies away from any physical contact with her. But more than anything, Alfred wants a child. As natural fatherhood is out of the question he takes the next best option, and makes an application to adopt. With a very un-French lack of bureaucracy Alfred's adoptive son arrives, but turns out not to be the bouncing baby he was hoping for. [taken from London Film Festival 2006 catalogue]

Deux hommes dans une valise

La Surprise

Alain, "a young wolf", elegant and racy, is maintained by the princess Linzani. At the same time, he goes out with a girl of his age, Sylvie, who despite her bold attitude has never had a lover.

Taking the place of the police, whom he finds neither fast nor efficient enough, a journalist named Hugo sets out to find the perpetrator of a murder. Suffocating in the small town where he plies his trade, he is eager to seize the opportunity that will make him a great reporter. The discovery of a murdered young woman - a high-fashion model - puts him on the trail of diamond smugglers. Despite the cautious advice of the newspaper editor and the pleas of his wife, who senses the dangers threatening them, Hugo forges ahead, plunging headlong into the labyrinth where gangsters are luring him to disappear. He finally unmasks the murderer. He finally gets his sensational story - but through his own carelessness, another girl falls victim to the gang. At the last second, the wife he thought he'd lost through his stubborn, madly clumsy attitude is still there, ready to comfort him.

Michel Lenoir, a successful interior designer, has reached the middle of his life without ever getting married. A bit blue over it he dreams one night of a beautiful young woman. When he wakes up he is persuaded that this is the girl meant for him. He can't help thinking about her, talking about her, drawing her figure, her face, her eyes on paper. He even gives her a name: Sylviane. Later on, as he is holidaying in Portugal, he notices a charming girl swimming in the pool he is in. No doubt about it : he has found Sylviane. He follows her, talks to her, woos her and they are soon married. However, back in Paris, Michel realizes that Betty, an articulate sports writer, is not the idealized woman his brain had conceived. Things go awry and the couple is about to separate when well-meaning friends intervene and open up Michel's eyes : he must base his love story on everyday reality not on idle dreaming.

Dany Robin plays the title character in the French comedy Mimi Pinson. The plot is strictly formula stuff, with Mimi being thwarted on all sides by those who have designs on her money and her virtue. Happily, our heroine triumphs over her foes and predators, finding true romance in the arms of Raymond Pellegrin.

Édouard and Félix, two inseparable friends, live off the times and do odd jobs, sharing a tiny apartment in Montmartre with Laurence, Félix's sister, a model in a fashion house who alone supports the trio.

The title role in the French comedy-fantasy A Martian in Paris is filled by Darry Cowl. The higher-ups in Mars want to learn all about that strange commodity, peculiar to the planet Earth, known as "Love". Darry soon figures out what makes the world go 'round when he meets the gorgeous Nicole Mirel. A Martian in Paris was obviously inspired by the 1960 American comedy A Visit to a Small Planet, which starred Jerry Lewis. Darry Cowl's imitation of Lewis is passable, but it certainly didn't fool the "Le Roi Crazy Jerry" idolators at Cahiers du Cinema and Positif magazine.

When their behavior and brushes with the law drive their mother to abandon them, Jonathan and Vivi hire a private detective to find her.

At Christmastime, the love affairs of five clothing models working for Pierre Roussel, a renowned Paris fashion designer. Marlène hesitates between two suitors. Blanche, who loves Jean, Roussel's son, wants him to talk to his father about their relationship. Catherine learns that her lover has a wife and two kids. Jeannette throws herself into the arms of an Oriental prince. In despair the fifth one attempts to commit suicide...

The owner of a casino and the owner of a luxury hotel in Deauville are eternal rivals.

Edouard and Félix work in a real estate agency. One day, they are threatened with dismissal if they don't manage to sell a very isolated house to an elderly, silver and somewhat unusual Englishwoman. In the house, they discover a corpse. The visit is spent dragging the corpse from room to room, cupboard to chest, so as not to frighten the otherwise impressed buyer. But the corpse disappears. He has to be found before the deed can be signed. The two salesmen become detectives, tracking down the dead man's many female acquaintances. All the seducer's conquests are sifted through, to find the one who left her jewels at the scene of the crime.