Known for Acting
Father Birotteau and Father Troubert, both of whom are priests at Tours, have separate lodgings in the house belonging to the crabby spinster Sophie Gamard in that city. Birotteau is an other-worldly, gentle, introspective type; Troubert, who is ten years younger than his fellow boarder, is very much of the world: he is a careerist devoured by ambition.
While the Easter holidays are over, a young woman named Cécile and her brother Pierre return to the family home. There they meet their grandfather Léon, an old communist militant who has shaken Lenin's hand.
Simone and Jean have just married and, looking for a home in the Paris region, are lucky enough to find a house with a garden in a residential suburb. Expecting their first child, the young couple began to observe how the parents of neighboring families were raising theirs.
In her small village in Vendée, Ludvine, an orphan, is in love with Jean-Pierre, but he is jealously guarded by her woman employer. On the day of the "Fair of Women", a traditional event where young men can choose the girl they fancy, Jean-Pierre picks out Ludvine.
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.
François Donge, a rich industrialist and womaniser, meets a girl nicknamed Bébé who he marries. Ten years later, poisoned by his wife and dying in hospital, he recalls his married life and understands how his wife who adored him suffered from his many affairs and indifference.
Monsieur Octave, a good man who has retired from the French national railway company, wants to have his house built. To this end he contacts a loan company. They ask him to credit them with 100,000 francs. Which he does. From then on, Octave starts waiting, waiting, waiting...
Madame Guérin, who has been suffering from cancer, benefits from a period of remission and she tries to regain health at any price. That is why she decides to consult a healer. But when her friend, also affected by cancer, is saved by an operation, she hesitates between traditional and parallel medicine.
On the Franco-Belgian border, large and small traffickers engage in their illicit activities. For his part, a policeman is working to put an end to smuggling in the area.
The practice of Dr. Julien, a GP of Marseilles, consists mainly of drug-addicts. One day, one of his patient dies at his surgery and Julien yields to the temptation : he steals the dead man's money and hides the corpse in a trunk. But the whole thing is discovered and ... misinterpreted. The doctor is condemned for killing the junkie and sent to the Cayenne convict prison, from which he escapes. The Indians give him shelter and he is soon given the opportunity to return their good deed when a yellow fever epidemic strikes their tribe. A young woman helps to fight the disease and, thanks to her, Julien starts considering that a new life is possible for him.
Elsa Lundenstein is accused of having murdered her lover. The jury discusses the case vividly. All members are somehow prejudiced because of personal life experience and subsequently each member reads something different into the presented facts.
1920, in a small village in Provence. Monsieur Pascal, a young schoolteacher, is faced with a lack of interest from his pupils. He decides to radically change the methods employed by his predecessor. He listens to the children, draws inspiration from their discoveries and takes them out into nature. The pupils will rediscover the pleasure of learning, and he will rediscover the pleasure of teaching. But some parents and notables don't take kindly to this little revolution.
