Palme d'Or contenders

A bachelor is invited by the local alderman to improve the education in the Czech town of Rakovník.

In 1862, a young Englishwoman becomes royal tutor in Siam and befriends the King.

A 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.

Recounts the courageous efforts by French railroad workers who were part of an organized resistance during German World War II occupation.

A beautiful young woman takes her father's place as the prisoner of a mysterious beast, who wishes to marry her.

Thomas 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.

Meeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.

At 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.

The adventurous life of Portugal's epic poet, Luis de Camões.

In 1940, a concentration camp escapee assumes the identity of a dead British officer, only to become a prisoner of war.

Dunia's affair with Mohamed leads to tragic consequences for them and their child.

An adaptation of a fairy tale written by Carmen Sylva, the pen name of the Queen of Romania.

Ten years after her aunt was murdered in their London home, a woman returns from Italy in the 1880s to resume residence with her new husband. His obsessive interest in the house rises from a secret that may require driving his wife insane.

A small-time gambler hired to work in a Buenos Aires casino discovers his employer's new wife is his former lover.

Some 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.

The 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.

About the life of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka.

Kolya 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.

The ordinary life of the prudent employee Mr Travet accelerates as he and her wife meet his new chief.

Escaping 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.

A man and a woman meet in a shelter during an air raid. They feel strongly drawn to each other, but are separated without knowing exchanging names. A year later the two meet randomly. He now learns that she is addicted to morphine.

The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four-day drinking bout.

A ballet producer returns to his native town and schemes to avenge himself on the family who tried to murder him 20 years before.

After an astrologer has foretold him he will die at an early age if he does not avoid a romantic entanglement, Alessandro Stradella, a well-known composer decides to leave Rome for the North of Italy. He takes advantage of his trip to visit Venice. On his way to the Doge's City, he meets a beautiful, mysterious lady who immediately captivates him. Once in Venice he learns that the young lady's name is Ortensia and that she is the daughter of a powerful man, Alvise Foscarini, in fact Venice's chief inquisitor. Alessandro and Ortensia declare their love to each other and consider marrying, which infuriates Foscarini who does not want a "dissolute" artist in his family. Feeling the heat, the couple runs away from Venice. Having taken shelter in Torino, they are traced by the inquisitor, who pretending to feel remorse, has them return to Venice. But while they are on the road, Foscarini's hired assassins murder Alessandro. As for Ortensia she is taken back to her father's home by force.

Biography of the famous--and notorious--Italian violinist Nicolo Paganini.