The Heart of a Siren

The Mountain Bandit

A young man living far from his beloved one wastes his existence absorbed in modern distractions until he loses contact with her.

Judith and Holophernes

A series of seven short films of varying length demonstrating each of the seven deadly sins.

The Exodus

Esther

To secure victory against the Ammonites, the Israeli judge Jephthah vowed to sacrifice the first person who greeted him upon his return. After crushing the enemy, he was devastated when his only daughter emerged first. Resigned to her fate, she requested two months to weep in the mountains before heroically submitting to her father’s tragic oath.

During a wedding party, according to tradition, hide-and-seek is played in a local abandoned castle. The bride falls into a hidden corridor. As she enters a room, the door falls shut behind her. Inside, she finds a dead woman and a book that says she cannot get out of here. However, a cat taking her scarf outside is her salvation. The cat puts the searchers on the right track, and the groom finds his bride.

This charming short film was shot in the Camargue, probably in the same place where Jean Durand filmed his cowboy movies. The plot is very simple. A guardian falls in love with a Parisian. Desperate, he commits suicide when she returns to the capital. But, as always with Perret, we appreciate the framing, the skilful use of the exteriors and the documentary side of life of the time. We see the young Arlesianas in traditional dress go out to collect almonds and return with their baskets to the city. The actor in the role of the guardian overreacts, imitating bombastic despair. But the finale, in which he rides a horse through the waves to find the rest of death, preserves its charm intact. Perret knows how to set the rhythm of a sequence and give it the necessary atmosphere.

The Béarnaise Girl

Moses of the Mill

Fire at the Mine

You'll Go Away, Youth

Moses Saved From the Waters

The Martyrdom of Saint Etienne

This film tells the dramatic story of the death of this famous Bible character and his trip to the witch of Endor, who forecasted his tragic end. The story is dramatic in the extreme and beautifully played.

The Judgment of Solomon

Esther

One of the first epic films made in Austria, as in some of the similar Cecil B De Mille entries, a fusion of a biblical story with a modern update.

The Toledo Chest