The History of French Cinema: 1950

Yves Allegret’s Maneges (Wanton) is released.   The film stars Allegret’s wife Simone Signoret, in their fourth collaboration in six years.   She plays the grasping young wife of middle-aged Bernard Blier, who is unable to see her true nature. [ADD]

At the Film Producer's Conference it is decided that the Cannes Film Festival will take place in the spring in future, meaning there will be no festival this year. [ADD]

Jean Gabin stars in Marcel Carné's La Marie du port, engaged in a cat and mouse relationship with Marie (Nicole Courcel), a teenage woman whose father has just died. [ADD]

Jean-Pierre Melville’s adaptation of Jean Cocteau's 1920s novel Les Enfants terribles is released to mixed reviews.   Shot by almost entirely on the Théâtre Pigalle stage, it stars Edouard Dermithe and Nicole Stéphane as the brother and sister who suffer tragic consequences when their secluded life together is breached. [ADD]

Abel Gance pulls out of filming Christ, the Divine Tragedy after producer Georges Grandière fails to honour his commitments or secure financial backing. [ADD]

Max Ophul’s adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's play La Ronde is released.   Ophul’s first French film for eight years gathers together a stellar cast including Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Simone Simon, Daniel Gélin, Danielle Darrieux, Fernand Gravey, Odette Joyeux, Gérard Philipe, Isa Miranda, Jean-Louis Barrault and Anton Walbrook in a ten-part story linking a group of disparate characters through their amorous exploits. [ADD]

Jean Cocteau’s screen adaptation of his play Orphee, the second in his Orphic trilogy, is released with Jean Marais playing Orpheus and Marie Déa taking the part of Eurydice. [ADD]

Errol Flynn is acquitted by the Monaco court of charges of libidinous relations with a 17-year-old girl. [ADD]

The government passes the ‘anti-nitrate’ law, which sets a timetable for the removal of all cellulose nitrate-based film from circulation.   Only the archives of the Cinémathèque Française are exempted. [ADD]

– Exhibitors are permitted to set their own ticket prices. [ADD]