Palme d'or 1939-1949
Movies to watch awarded or nominated during the Cannes Film Festival in the '40s
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- DirectorFrantisek CápStarsGustav NezvalLadislav H. StrunaJaroslav ZrotalThe action takes place in occupied Czechoslovak Republic after assassination of Schutzstaffel (SS)-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei Reinhard Heydrich, acting Reichsprotektor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia In Prague on 27 May 1942. Jirka is the boy whose family was murdered in the village of Lidice as repercussions for the assassination of Heydrich. He stays with his uncle - engineer Petr Lom. Marta - a young girl leaving next door, working at the post office helps to take care of the boy. Lom has just started working on the military airport, governed by Sudeten-Nazi named Ullman. Resistance is quite active in the airport, collecting arms and grenades and communicating with allies, sometimes doing some small diversion. They have a lot of great intel thanks to secretary Jana Tomesowa, who is trustee of Ullman and has access to a lot of restricted informations. Jirka also starts to help at the airport, but he's filled with sorrow and need of revenge. He's caught stealing grenade and arrested by gestapo. Later he's shot. When Jana sees it she faints, and Ullman finds some secret message she had with her. He tells he has found something to his gestapo friends and goes to the warehouse to investigate it himself. In there he's killed by resistance, by being pushed onto transformer. Gestapo starts arresting and searching houses of airport workers, and it turns out that Marta is working with Germans as informer. Lom doesn't know that yet, he's struck by Jirkas death. He picks the gun from his hideout and walks back to the airport. The neighbours tell him truth about Marta. Lom kills her and helps Jana escape. Germans gather airport workers and threaten to kill them all if noone says who killed Ullman. Then Lom appears saying he did it and killing men from gestapo who killed Jirka. He's killed by the soldiers. Workers go back to work. In last scene, dying Lom has vision of the future. He sees woman with gun (symbolizing Chechoslovakia) going forward with war attrocities around her. However she doesn't stop until the war is over and Czechoslovak flag appears on mast.
- DirectorLeopold LindtbergStarsEwart G. MorrisonJohn HoyRay ReaganEscaping a Nazi prison train in war-torn Italy, an American and a British soldier set out for the Swiss border and find themselves leading a multi-national party of refugees for the Italian underground.
- DirectorAlf SjöbergStarsStig JärrelAlf KjellinMai ZetterlingAn idealistic adolescent suffering under the thumb of a sadistic schoolmaster falls in love with a loose girl who is bullied and tormented by another lover.
- DirectorEmilio FernándezStarsDolores Del RíoPedro ArmendárizAlberto GalánIn Xochimilco 1909, María Candelaria and Lorenzo Rafael long for getting married but the odds are against them. María Candelaria is segregated for being a prostitute's child and the couple faces the greed of Mr. Damian, the town's shop owner who secretly desires María. When María falls sick with Malaria, Lorenzo Rafael steals a quinine bottle from Damian's shop, unleashing tragedy for the lovers.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsAnna MagnaniAldo FabriziMarcello PaglieroDuring the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1944, the Resistance leader, Giorgio Manfredi, is chased by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a way to escape.
- DirectorChetan AnandStarsRafiq AnwarUma AnandKamini KaushalWealthy landlord's sewage diversion into village sparks protests led by Balraj against housing project. Sarkar's daughter Maya sides with villagers, falling for Balraj. Epidemic from sewage endangers villagers, threatening Sarkar's power.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsCelia JohnsonTrevor HowardStanley HollowayMeeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.
- DirectorJean DelannoyStarsPierre BlancharMichèle MorganLine NoroA minister falls in love with a blind young woman he sheltered, but so does his son.
- DirectorBodil IpsenLau LauritzenStarsPoul ReichhardtLisbeth MovinPer BuckhøjThe memories of a Danish saboteur as he awaits his execution in a German wartime prison.
- DirectorFridrikh ErmlerStarsMikhail DerzhavinPyotr AndriyevskyYuriy TolubeevReleased after the Russian victory over the Germans in WWII, the film stresses the role of the officer staff during the Battle of Stalingrad.
- DirectorWilliam KeighleyStarsJack BennyAnn SheridanCharles CoburnWhen Bill and Connie Fuller are forced to move out of their Manhattan apartment because of their pet dog, Connie purchases a dilapidated old Pennsylvania house where George Washington allegedly slept, and persuades Bill to renovate it.
- DirectorAlberto LattuadaStarsAnna MagnaniAmedeo NazzariCarla Del PoggioA contingent of Italian prisoners of war arrive on a train from Germany after World War II to Turin. The city where Ernesto lives has been bombed, his mother is dead and his sister has gone missing.
- DirectorRené ClémentStarsMarcel BarnaultJean ClarieuxJean DaurandRecounts the courageous efforts by French railroad workers who were part of an organized resistance during German World War II occupation.
- DirectorJean CocteauRené ClémentStarsJean MaraisJosette DayMila ParélyA beautiful young woman takes her father's place as the prisoner of a mysterious beast, who wishes to marry her.
- DirectorAnders HenriksonStarsAnders HenriksonSonja WigertGeorge FantThomas is an officer in the Salvation Army. He has religious doubts and questions the meaning of his work. He meets Lili, an ex-prostitute struggling to start a new life and he fall in love with her. However, she has a pimp, the boxer Herman, who won't let her leave.
- DirectorGabriel PascalStarsClaude RainsVivien LeighStewart GrangerAt the height of the Roman Civil War, a young Cleopatra (Vivien Leigh) meets a middle-aged Julius Caesar (Claude Rains), who teaches her how to rule Egypt.
- DirectorJosé Leitão de BarrosStarsAntonio VilarJosé AmaroIgrejas CaeiroThe adventurous life of Portugal's epic poet, Luis de Camões.
- DirectorBasil DeardenStarsMichael RedgraveRachel KempsonFrederick LeisterIn 1940, a concentration camp escapee assumes the identity of a dead British officer, only to become a prisoner of war.
- DirectorCharles VidorStarsRita HayworthGlenn FordGeorge MacreadyA small-time gambler hired to work in a Buenos Aires casino discovers his employer's new wife is his former lover.
- DirectorAlessandro BlasettiStarsElisa CeganiMassimo GirottiMariella LottiSome Italian partisans want to take refuge in a convent to escape German raids. The nuns are a little perplexed at first but then agree since one of the men is seriously wounded. When the partisans eventually leave, the Germans take a terrible revenge.
- DirectorMikhail RommStarsYelena KuzminaAnna LisyanskayaVasiliy ZaychikovThe story of one of the Soviet women transported to Germany after the Nazi invasion in World War II for forced labor, this one forced to become a household drudge.
- DirectorLev ArnshtamStarsBoris ChirkovVasiliy MerkurevMikhail DerzhavinAbout the life of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka.
- DirectorSergei YutkevichStarsNikolai LeonovT. StravinskayaOleg BobrovKolya Leonov performs a song about Moscow for a contest at a trade school. The school's director then tells the story of Kolya's accordion.
- DirectorMario SoldatiStarsCarlo CampaniniVera CarmiPaola VeneroniThe ordinary life of the prudent employee Mr Travet accelerates as he and her wife meet his new chief.
- DirectorChristian-JaqueStarsLouis JouvetGaby MorlayFrançois PérierA ballet producer returns to his native town and schemes to avenge himself on the family who tried to murder him 20 years before.