Directing
Originally titled Nous Sommes Tout des Assassins, We Are All Murderers was directed by Andre Cayette, a former lawyer who detested France's execution system. Charles Spaak's screenplay makes no attempt to launder the four principal characters (Marcel Mouloudji, Raymond Pellegrin, Antoinine Balpetre, Julien Verdeir): never mind the motivations, these are all hardened murderers. Still, the film condemns the sadistic ritual through which these four men are brought to the guillotine. In France, the policy is to never tell the condemned man when the execution will occur--and then to show up without warning and drag the victim kicking and screaming to his doom, without any opportunity to make peace with himself or his Maker. By the end of this harrowing film, the audience feels as dehumanized as the four "protagonists." We Are All Murderers was roundly roasted by the French law enforcement establishment, but it won a special jury prize at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.
Good-natured and devout, a French house painter takes the train to Rome, where he has decided to go on a pilgrimage. There he meets a scatterbrained dresser who has been assigned by a music hall star to bring her the gown she is to wear on stage. The two men get stolen by Cleo, a charming thief. Once in Rome, the painter finds himself penniless and the dresser without the gown...
Gaston de Méville has written a libel against Madame de Pompadour and her Royal Lover, King Louis XV. But the Marchioness is all the less mad at Garston as she has fallen for him and she does all she can to save him from the punishment he normally deserves. One night, while is performing in a play at the Palace, he is denounced. But the King is merciful to Gaston and his content to banish him to Canada.
Le Havre, France, in 1949. In a town that still shows the scars of war, several friends meet up in Albert's café. One of them, Laurent, has lost his job on the docks and his marriage to Madeleine is falling apart. He knows that his wife wants to start an affair with friend, Jean Sauviot. Jean is a lonely man who is attracted to Madeleine but doesn't want to commit himself to the wife of a friend. On the day that Madeleine tells her husband that she is seeing Jean, Laurent goes looking for Jean to find an explanation. Arriving on the docks in the evening, he attacks an American sailor who looks like Jean, but the man fights back and runs away after killing Laurent accidentally. Madeleine thinks that Laurent was killed by Jean and believes that she can start a new life with her lover. The police have other ideas...
After leaving the prison where they have served their sentence, some criminals plan a new robbery.
The Eloi family, who have just won the "model family" competition, set off for winter sports. Also on the trip are Aunt Gabrielle and Dagobert, the village warden. For the eccentric little group, the initiation to the joys of skiing begins with a lot of excitement. The vacation gets complicated when a Hindu prince has a precious diamond stolen from the local hotel.
A young girl, Christiane, leaves her family to join friends with whom she intends to "make a life". Two boys, Jo and Paul, look after the heroine, whose relations seem rather shady. Jo, a guide in a tourist agency specializing in nightlife in Paris, has a "shadow" of his own in the scatterbrained Annette, who is determined to marry him. While touring the capital's cabarets, Jo meets a model, Jacynthe, and her photographer, Daniel, as well as a star, Jackie, and her manager, Helios. The latter organizes a mock jewel robbery for publicity purposes, with Jackie as the victim. But contrary to expectations, the robbery takes place.
