For young Parisian boy Antoine Doinel, life is one difficult situation after another. Surrounded by inconsiderate adults, including his neglectful parents, Antoine spends his days with his best friend, Rene, trying to plan for a better life. When one of their schemes goes awry, Antoine ends up in trouble with the law, leading to even more conflicts with unsympathetic authority figures.

Cashier Maurice Legrand is married to Adele, a terror. By chance, he meets Lucienne, "Lulu", and make her his mistress. He thinks he finally met love, but Lulu is nothing but a streetwalker, in love with Dede, her pimp. She only accepts Legrand to satisfy Dede's needs of money.

A religious fanatic finds his entire life and philosophy turned upside-down as he falls in love with a girl and kills her in a jealous rage. His search is for peace of mind and a desire to justify the murder of the girl to himself. His mind becomes distraught as he gropes trying to rationalize his deed and his world falls apart around him. A police inspector patiently and tirelessly stays on Barrault's trail, without putting him under arrest, though convinced he is the murderer, and waiting for the moment when he feels Barrault will break under the strain of his own religious fanaticism (IMDb).

Struggling actor Simon witnesses a murder; he didn't see the killer, but that doesn't stop him from claiming that he did in order to get his name into the papers. Sure enough, the murderer targets him as his next victim. Our hero is temporarily rescued by Jeanne, a fellow aspiring actress who has always had a crush on him.

Vénus aveugle (Blind Venus) is a 1941 French film melodrama, directed by Abel Gance, and one of the first films to be undertaken in France during the German occupation. Although the film is not set in any specified period, Gance wanted it to be seen as relevant to the contemporary situation in France. He wrote, "...La Vénus aveugle is at the crossroads of reality and legend... The heroine ... gradually sinks deeper and deeper into despair. Only when she has reached the bottom of the abyss does she encounter the smile of Providence that life reserves for those who have faith in it, and she can then go serenely back up the slope towards happiness. If I have been able to show in this film that elevated feelings are the only force that can triumph over Fate, then my efforts will not have been in vain."

Outwardly, Monsieur Victor would appear to be the model citizen. A respectable Toulon shopkeeper, he has a devoted wife and is courteous and considerate to all who know him. However, beneath this veneer of respectability hides a notorious receiver of stolen goods, who trades with hardened criminals. Victor manages to keep up his double life without any difficulty until the fateful day when one of his partners in crime threatens to expose him. Fearing a scandal, Victor kills the crook in a moment of panic, using a shoemaker's tool. Naturally, the murder is blamed on a local shoemaker, who is sentenced to ten years' hard labour. Seven years later, the former shoemaker reappears in Toulon, having escaped from prison. The first person to recognise him is Monsieur Victor...

Juliette, an innocent woman, is wrongly sentenced to prison for attempted murder. After her release, she married an industrialist to whom she did not speak of her tumultuous past. But, victim of a rampant blackmail, she cannot continue to hide her prison past and the scandal breaks out.

A young woman from the countryside travels to Paris to become an actress. Despite all kinds of difficulties, affronts and emotional adventures, she succeeded in gaining a place in the world of entertainment and becomes a great movie star.

Raven, a mobster just released from prison, settles the score by murdering Mendetta and her partner, who had turned him in. Having taken over Mendetta's various bars, he finds himself at war with other mobsters who want to kill him.

A British officer poses as a traitor in order to infiltrate a team of terrorists who are sabotaging ships, while a seductive cabaret dancer is working for the mysterious genius who runs the enemy spy ring.

Five people are gathered in a cafe because of a phone call they have all received. The plot thickens when they discover a dead body in a bedroom upstairs.The five people all become suspects.

In Vendée, an old farmer is gradually abandoned by his family who do not see their future in the fields. Only a cripple in love and abandoned remain at his side.

The singer Saltore is accused of the murder of his wife's lover, and is sentenced to ten years' hard labour. His daughter proves his innocence when she discovers the culprit to be his wife, who wanted to end an embarrassing love affair.

A lady who had a secret affair lives in fear.

A young unemployed girl pretends to be a boy and gets a job as a car washer.

Jules and Fernand are two boys from the Café des sports in Marseille who take part in their corporation's annual race.

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.

The formidable K.O. Bouillon killed trainer Victor's colt during a boxing fight. Strongly affected, Victor returns to the south to find his wife and adopted daughter. He discovers in the person of Bernard a seed of champion which he ensures the training in secret...

Mario is a former gangster turned garage owner. His former accomplices ask him to murder Magali, their leader 's mistress,who intends to turn her lover in.

A theater troupe is touring Manon Lescaut, starring Denise, whose husband is a sick alcoholic. Tired of his violent outbursts, and wanting to rebuild her life, she runs away and finds refuge with a doctor who hires her as a nurse in his clinic. However, another jealous nurse commissions a detective to investigate, and ends up uncovering Denise's past.