Architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) arrives at a country house party where he reveals to the assembled guests that he has seen them all in a dream. He appears to have no prior personal knowledge of them but he is able to predict spontaneous events in the house before they unfold. The other guests attempt to test Craig's foresight, while entertaining each other with various tales of uncanny or supernatural events that they experienced or were told about. These include a racing car driver's premonition of a fatal bus crash; a light-hearted tale of two obsessed golfers, one of whom becomes haunted by the other's ghost (cut from the initial USA release); a ghostly encounter during a children's Christmas party (another tale cut from the initial USA release); a haunted antique mirror; and the story of an unbalanced ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave) who believes his amoral dummy is truly alive. The framing story is then capped by a twist ending.
Boitelle avec Jacques Duby, Moune de Rivel.
Mouche avec Marcelle Arnold, Jacques Fabbri, Pierre Olaf, Raymond Pellegrin, Marcel Mouloudji, Catherine Erard
Sous l’égide de Cesare Zavattini, précurseur et théoricien du néoréalisme, les différents auteurs de ce film à sketches tentent de reconstituer d’après les témoignages des protagonistes eux-mêmes différents aspects, drôles ou tragiques, de l’amour en ville.
L'histoire réunit quatre passagers d'une automobile, bloqués en rase campagne par les intempéries. Partageant leur logis provisoire, ils racontent leurs déboires dont le point commun est un lit.
An honest, religious engraver, Anargyros Loumbardopoulos (Vassilis Logothetidis), has routinely invested his money in gold coins, specifically British gold sovereigns, bought from a friend of his, a banker. Upon having stored away 100 sovereigns, a friend of the banker suggests that Anargyros mints counterfeit sovereigns, but he adamantly refuses. The banker's friend then introduces Anargyros to a lady that he knows. Anargyros' resistance is soon curbed, and he spends all his invested 100 sovereigns to buy minting equipment.
Gisèle Bazouche, neuf ans, demande « comment viennent les enfants » à ses parents. Ne sachant que lui répondre, ceux-ci, concierges d’un immeuble parisien, sollicitent l’aide de plusieurs locataires : une prostituée, un colonel et un enseignant.
les amours de deux jeunes gens : une fugueuse et un vacher
le vol d'un croix en or par trois hommes : l'un d'entre eux se noie avec le butin en traversant la rivière
Five segments. The collision between a van of religious, supporters of the Christian Democrats, and a Fiat 600 with on board a group of young militants of the PCI. Misadventures of a prostitute who works into a caravan placed under a viaduct. A walker faces a foot race to the beat of music. The poor Urbano Cacace impersonates a traffic policeman in order to feed his family. A woman with her brand new car hit a man who tries to take advantage of the incident attempting an insurance scam.
Les sept sketches se déroulent à Paris. « La Femme », héroïne du film, pleure dans six des sketches (sauf dans Linda) : de chagrin, de rage, de déception, de désespoir ou de mélancolie comme dans le sketch Jean où, dernières images du film, elle verse une larme pudiquement masquée par la pluie qui ruisselle sur la vitre.
Portrait de l'actrice britannique Jane Birkin sous forme de collage d'entretiens et de sketches. Un exemple original et recherché de film biographique.
Framing Story
Five strangers board a descending lift, one by one, in a modern office block in London. They reach the sub-basement, though none of them have pressed for that destination. There they find a large, elaborately furnished room which appears to be a gentlemen's club. The lift door has closed and there are no buttons to bring it back, nor any other exit. Resigned to waiting for help, they settle down with drinks and talk. The conversation turns to dreams, and each man tells of a recurring nightmare.
Trois histoires avec en toile de fond une Athènes désertée au mois d'août : une chaleur étouffante, pas de bruit, pas de pollution, pas d'embouteillage.