Jean Dréville

Directing

Jean Dréville

Born 1906-09-20 · Vitry-sur-Seine, Val-de-Marne, France

Jean Dréville was a prolific French film director whose career spanned from the late 1920s to the late 1960s. Initially trained in advertising design and photography, he began his cinematic journey by publishing articles in film sections of newspapers like L'Intransigeant and Comœdia. Dréville directed his first film, Autour de L'Argent (1928), a documentary on the making of Marcel L'Herbier's L'Argent. His notable works include A Cage of Nightingales (1945), which inspired the 2004 film The Chorus, and The Battle of the Rails (1946), a realistic portrayal of French railway workers' resistance during World War II. Dréville's films are recognized for their narrative clarity and humanistic approach.

Acting credits

No artwork available
NR

Reel 16 of Gérard Courant's on-going Cinematon series.

Cinématon XVI

1982

Intermediate Landing in Paris poster
6.0

Michèle, an employee at the airport, is in love with American pilot Eddie Miller who regularly flies the route from New York to Paris, but problems arise when he is transferred to the Tokyo route. Meanwhile Michèle's uncle Albert who works in the freight department sets out to tackle a drug trafficking outfit.

Intermediate Landing in Paris

1955

The Suspects poster
8.0

Commissaire Perrache, the chief of the D.S.T., the French domestic intelligence service, tries to neutralize a group of terrorists named the Partisans de la Métropole. He sends one of his best agents, inspector Louis Vignon, incidentally the husband of his charming secretary Lucette, on the trail of an illegal transmitter. But Vignon gets kidnapped by the gang and held captive on a boat off the shores of Monaco...

The Suspects

1957

Jean Dréville, l'aimant du cinéma poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Jean Dréville, l'aimant du cinéma

2017

1940: Taking over French Cinema poster
9.0

Paris, 1940. German occupation forces create a new film production company, Continental, and put Alfred Greven – producer, cinephile, and opportunistic businessman – in charge. During the occupation, under Joseph Goebbels’s orders, Greven hires the best artists and technicians of French cinema to produce successful, highly entertaining films, which are also strategically devoid of propaganda. Simultaneously, he takes advantage of the confiscation of Jewish property to purchase film theaters, studios and laboratories, in order to control the whole production line. His goal: to create a European Hollywood. Among the thirty feature films thus produced under the auspices of Continental, several are, to this day, considered classics of French cinema.

1940: Taking over French Cinema

2019

Behind the camera

Return to Life poster
6.4

In France in 1946, the difficult return to civilian life of five deportees and prisoners of war after having lived through the hell of the Second World War.

Return to Life

1949

Lafayette poster
5.6

The story of Lafayette, the 19 year old pacifist who takes the side of the Colonials during the American war of Independence.

Lafayette

1962

Lafayette poster
5.6

The story of Lafayette, the 19 year old pacifist who takes the side of the Colonials during the American war of Independence.

Lafayette

1962

Les Cadets de l'océan poster
6.0

In the harbor of Toulon, on the “Ocean” training ship, the apprenticeship of the cabin boys and experts of the Navy is punctuated by permissions in town, friendships, bullying, and loves.

Les Cadets de l'océan

1945

Tornavara poster
8.0

In a lost village in Lapland, Gérard comes to the aid of his friend Anders, in conflict with his father, a rich owner of gold mines.

Tornavara

1943

Queen Margot poster
7.1

Marguerite de Valois, daughter of Catherine de Médicis, celebrates her wedding with Henri de Navarre. Officially, it's a rapprochement between the League and the Huguenots. In fact, it was an opportunity to bring all the Huguenots to Paris and kill them all at once. King Charles IX fails in his attempt on Coligny's life. Queen Margot tries to save her husband from the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre by preventing the annulment of his marriage, forcing Henri to share her bed. Two knights from opposing camps are wounded and, saved în extremis, are hidden together by the queen and her cousin. Margot falls in love with one of them, but has to run to warn her husband of a new attack...

Queen Margot

1954

A Dog, A Mouse and a Sputnik poster
5.0

A French animal lover protects a dog and a mouse wanted by Soviet scientists for their space program.

A Dog, A Mouse and a Sputnik

1958

The Seven Deadly Sins poster
6.0

A compilation of segments covers the seven deadly sins of greed, wrath, envy, pride, lust, sloth, and gluttony.

The Seven Deadly Sins

1952

Tainted poster
6.7

Louberger, director of an orphanage, is full of praise for a former boarder, Mr. Sauval, who has become their benefactor. One night he arrives and he does not seem to be exactly the man described by Louberger. He has in fact become a crooked lawyer and he is wanted for a crime he has just committed. Despite his efforts he will not escape the police but he will manage to remain, in the eyes of the children, at the height of his legend.

Tainted

1946

The Girl with the Whip poster
10.0

The daughter of a notorious smuggler is raised as a boy by her foster mother.

The Girl with the Whip

1952

No artwork available
NR

Documentary about Physiopolis, a naturist camp in France.

Physiopolis

1930

No artwork available
9.0

The life story of famed French aviatrix Helene Boucher is detailed in Horizons sans fin (Endless Horizons). Giselle Pascal stars as Boucher, who is first seen in 1930, leaving her millinery shop behind in favor of the wild blue yonder. Though the world of aviation was still essentially an all-male one (despite England's Amy Johnson and America's Amelia Earhart), Boucher perseveres, eventually breaking all existing male and female speed and height records. A bit slow on the uptake in the dramatic scenes, the film soars (no pun intended) during the aerial sequences. Horizons san Fin was the winner of the Catholic Award at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.

Endless Horizons

1953

Normandy - Neman poster
5.2

A certain number of French fighter pilots who will not accept the Second Armistice at Compiègne nor Vichy's orders decide to join the USSR. Once they have reached Moscow they resume training and form a squadron they call "Normandie". Reinforced in 1944, the squadron wins many victories. Following the acts of valor displayed by its pilots during the Battle of the Nieman River, it becomes the "Normandie-Niemen" squadron for the rest of times...

Normandy - Neman

1960

The Sleeping Sentinel poster
5.3

In 1812, Napoleon I set off for the Russian Campaign and planned to spend a night in Châlons-sur-Marne. However, as the police were aware of a planned assassination attempt, the place of accommodation was changed at the last minute, and the house of Doctor Mathieu was requisitioned. But Doctor Mathieu was an opponent of the Emperor who had allied himself with the instigators of the attack. They decided to plant their bomb in the doctor's home, leaving his family in danger.

The Sleeping Sentinel

1966

Carbon Copy poster
6.2

A smooth criminal, who turns to be Manuel Ismora, and his gang successfully and peacefully pull off con after heist. Elsewhere a timid office worker, Gabriel Dupon, is pressured by his boss...

Carbon Copy

1947

No artwork available
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Candy Apple

1932

Nights of Farewell poster
4.8

Paris, the middle of the XIX century. Young Marius Petipa is going on a long journey to St. Petersburg, where he is invited to become the first dancer. He doesn't know that his life will develop both happily and dramatically, and his work will be the glory and pride of Russian ballet.

Nights of Farewell

1965

The Chess Player poster
5.3

A toymaker in Poland specializes in building lifesize mechanical men. He builds a chess-playing "automaton" to hide a pretty young Polish activist who is being hunted by occupying Russian forces.

The Chess Player

1938

The Chess Player poster
5.3

A toymaker in Poland specializes in building lifesize mechanical men. He builds a chess-playing "automaton" to hide a pretty young Polish activist who is being hunted by occupying Russian forces.

The Chess Player

1938

Das Geheimnis vom Bergsee poster
7.0

Pietro Ponz lives a happy life in the mountains on the Swiss-Italian border with his mother Lamberta. No one but his mother knows that Pietro is a girl, a deception that Lamberta was forced into by a series of tragedies almost twenty years previously. Not long after her husband Joseph Ponz died, Lamberta also lost her fragile infant son, Pietro. Whilst mourning this double loss, she began an affair with Bolzano, a notorious smuggler. After Bolzano was killed by the customs men, Lamberta gave birth to his child, a little girl that she decided to pass off as her son Pietro, in the hope of securing an inheritance from her husband's wealthy parents. Now that Pietro is fast coming of age, his tutor and grandmother are adamant that he should be sent to a religious school. Pietro escapes from the school and joins a gang of smugglers...

Das Geheimnis vom Bergsee

1952

A Man and His Woman poster
10.0

An honest civil servant learns about his wife’s infidelity. He pretends not to be aware of it and decides to start a businessman career. He soon becomes extremely wealthy and thinks he can win her back.

A Man and His Woman

1934

A Man and His Woman poster
10.0

An honest civil servant learns about his wife’s infidelity. He pretends not to be aware of it and decides to start a businessman career. He soon becomes extremely wealthy and thinks he can win her back.

A Man and His Woman

1934

A Cage of Nightingales poster
7.5

In France, in 1930, a supervisor of a boarding school for young offenders seeks to awaken the music by forming a choir, despite the skepticism of his boarding school director.

A Cage of Nightingales

1945

Troïka sur la piste blanche poster
8.0

Wife of an arms trafficker in Poland, Georgina is forced to help him. She will only be able to regain her freedom - and love - after a troika chase during which the trafficker loses his life.

Troïka sur la piste blanche

1937