Après le film, Paul avait les larmes aux yeux et il a soupiré sans rien dire.

It is a very common French expression meaning to have tears in your eyes. It usually suggests that someone is emotional or close to crying, but not necessarily fully crying yet.

So Paul avait les larmes aux yeux describes his emotional state after the film.

Because this expression is built with avoir. French says, literally, to have tears at the eyes.

This is just the normal idiomatic structure:

• avoir faim = to be hungry
• avoir peur = to be afraid
• avoir les larmes aux yeux = to have tears in your eyes

Even if English sometimes uses be in similar ideas, French often uses avoir.

French often uses the definite article with body parts when the person they belong to is already obvious.

So instead of saying his eyes, French often says the eyes:

• Il a mal à la tête = He has a headache
• Elle s’est lavé les mains = She washed her hands
• Paul avait les larmes aux yeux = Paul had tears in his eyes

Here, it is clear that the eyes are Paul’s, so ses is not needed.

Aux is the contraction of à + les.

So:

• à le does not exist
• à les becomes aux

That means:

• aux yeux = literally at the eyes

In this expression, les larmes aux yeux is a set phrase, so it is best learned as a whole.

This is a very common French tense combination.

• avait les larmes aux yeux uses the imparfait, which describes a state, background, or ongoing situation.
• a soupiré uses the passé composé, which describes a specific completed action.

So the sentence presents:

1. Paul’s emotional state in the background
2. then one action he did

In other words, French is showing what the situation was and then what happened.

Yes, but the meaning would change.

• il a soupiré = he gave a sigh / he sighed once
• il soupirait = he was sighing / he used to sigh / he kept sighing

In this sentence, a soupiré fits well because it sounds like one clear action that happened after the film.

With an infinitive in French, words like rien, personne, and other negative-type words normally come before the infinitive.

So:

• ne rien dire = to say nothing
• sans rien dire = without saying anything / without saying a word

Sans dire rien is not standard French.

Because after sans, French normally does not use ne in this structure.

Compare:

• Il ne dit rien = He says nothing
• sans rien dire = without saying anything

So sans rien dire is the correct form.

Literally, rien dire means to say nothing.

But after sans, English usually translates it more naturally as:

• without saying anything or
• without saying a word

So the French form is negative, but the most natural English translation often uses anything.

French often repeats the subject when moving into another finite verb, especially when the second part feels like a new clause.

So:

• Paul avait les larmes aux yeux et il a soupiré... sounds very natural.

You may sometimes see French coordinate verbs without repeating the subject, but here repeating il makes the sentence clearer and smoother.

Yes. French is fairly flexible with this kind of time expression.

For example, you could also say:

• Paul avait les larmes aux yeux après le film et il a soupiré sans rien dire.

Putting Après le film at the beginning helps set the scene right away. The comma is also natural there because it marks an introductory phrase.