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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.

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Jean Michaut is a bargeman who lives near an old barge cemetery named "Bras-Mort". He is in love with Monique, the daughter of a wealthy boat owner. The girl returns his affection which goes against her family's class prejudices. Her family prove willing to do anything to separate the lovers, but, Monique will not buy in. On the contrary, she leaves her intolerant family to live with Jean among simple, more tolerant bargemen.

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A man assists his gravely ill wife to die and wants to face justice for this, but his brothers try everything to keep the family's name clean.

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The struggle of a female doctor against superstition and healers.

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Janvier, an embittered teacher, is fed up with his colorless, monotonous life. One day he breaks away and ends up becoming a circus clown. In his new world, he meets a beautiful acrobat nicknamed Lili and grows fonder and fonder of her every day of his life. The trouble is that the lady bestows her favors to two different lovers : wealthy married man Chardeuil and good-looking but listless young Antonio. He now considers his duty to make Lili recover her dignity.

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A young pilot, Martin, applies for the Ecole Militaire de Salon. He is accused of having caused the accident of one of his bosses, his career is then threatened.

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In the peaceful alpine village of Granges-de-Mortes, a tragedy has just taken place: Gustave Boeuf, the local Casanova, has mysteriously died at the foot of a wayside cross. Shortly afterwards, a peasant, who is suspected of having murdered him, hangs himself from a branch of the calvary. But was he the real culprit? Angélique Barrodet, an old maid , who had been Gustave's fiancée before he abandoned her on the very day of their wedding, leads the investigation in her own way.

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On Christmas Eve, Swiss minister Jean Martens takes in a blind, half-crippled orphan and brings her up among his own four children. But Gertrude grows into a woman and Jean gradually falls in love with her without admitting it to himself. On the contrary, he lulls his conscience by interpreting the Scriptures to his advantage. But neither his wife nor his oldest son are fooled. Following a long-delayed operation, Gertrude recovers her sight but she is not long to find out that sin has corrupted the soul of her benefactor.

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June 1944, a French town towards the end of the occupation. Following several attacks perpetrated by the resistance, the inhabitants who listen to English radio are rounded up by the Germans in a prison and considered as hostages. In one of the cells are found men from all walks of life: an aristocrat, the Viscount of Saint-Leu, Doctor Noblet, a resistance fighter, Béquille the wanderer with a wooden leg, and a strange character nicknamed "Black Market". The latter arouses mistrust among the prisoners, because it could well have been introduced by the enemy.

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A violinist passes on to his daughter three rings which represent three passions of his romantic past, and urges her to save each for men who truly deserve one.She squanders them all on one man who is undeserving.

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A village lost in the mountains where Catherine called L'Airelle's love affair takes place with a young doctor. Catherine's father is the local bonesetter whose wife threw herself into a glacier out of despair of love and whose body reappears intact twenty years later. In addition, the pharmacist of the country is accused of having seduced a young girl who is avenged by her mother. The bonesetter also dies, the village fortunately continues to live.

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A train driver has not slowed down at a signal and caused an accident whose victim is a gatekeeper. Two inspectors come to investigate the affair. During his interrogation, the driver refuses to provide an explanation for his action and is charged with malpractice. The only one he will tell the truth to is the gatekeeper's wife.

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Sylvie, a young woman who believes to be cursed, lives in the town of Carcassonne with her guardian, Mr. Toulzac. He is a retired teacher who wishes to discover the secret of the Cathars, a Christian sect of the Middle Ages that glorified death over life. Sylvie meets Roland, a composer who instills new hope into her troubled mind. Mr. Toulzac then asks her then to renounce the world and go down a secret tomb he has just found.

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A famous convict Jacques Collin, alias Trompe la mort, or abbot Carlos Herrera, also called Vautrin, escapes from prison. Chance makes him meet Lucien de Rubempré, an impetuous and eternal lover who, when he is dismissed, collapses. Moved by this fragility, he takes him under his wing, and will do everything possible to ensure that his creature reaches happiness, even if it means imagining the worst shenanigans and other scams, with the help of a band of clever villains.

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In the oyster and fishing town of Arcachon, one man doesn't want his adopted son to get married to the daughter of his rival, and he suspects a dark underlying secret.

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Madame Clapain dies in dubious circumstances at the home of the Cadifon ladies, of which she was a tenant. A friendly inspector and Thérèse Cadifon each carry out their own investigation.

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An old woman living in an inn is killed and her family members seem like the likely culprits.

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Edmond Dantes is falsely accused by those jealous of his good fortune, and is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in the notorious island prison, Chateau d'If. While imprisoned, he meets the Abbe Faria, a fellow prisoner whom everyone believes to be mad. The Abbe tells Edmond of a fantastic treasure hidden away on a tiny island, that only he knows the location of. After many years in prison, the old Abbe dies, and Edmond escapes disguised as the dead body. Now free, Edmond must find the treasure the Abbe told him of, so he can use the new-found wealth to exact revenge on those who have wronged him.

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Abandoned by her husband Marc, Thérèse Romanay cheats on him with André Norans. When Romanay finds out, he drives her away. She runs away with her lover. But, during a mountain excursion, Norans is killed and Thérèse is herself seriously injured. But she recovers. The husband then forgives the unfaithful wife, and the couple reunites.

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Pierre and Florence meet at the fair in Paris. They vow eternal love and go to Cassis, under the Southern sun. But Florence has a burdensome past: before meeting Pierre she was a kept woman. Her chivalrous lover, Dominique, chooses to set her free. But Pierre is an uncompromising man and, furious with Florence, threatens to leave her...

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A rural maiden's two suitors go off to war, leaving her pregnant.

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Dédé de Montmartre, former king of the accordion, has become a bad boy who lives off drug trafficking and prostitution. He sets his sights on a young girl, fresh and naive, Odette, saleswoman at Galeries Lafayette. But he is touched by the charm of this midinette.

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The film shows the seizure of power by the Nazis and Hitler wants a trial, at a time when France has just declared war on Germany (Sept. 3, 1939). Hybrid composition, it alternates originals and reconstructions performed by actors (docudrama). A not-so-subtle condemnation of Hitler, Nazism and Germany by the movie's French film makers, which conveniently makes no mention of how the policies of Great Britain and France created Hitler and allowed him to go as far as he did prior to the beginning of the Second World War.

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Jeanne supports supports his family on his modest salary. Her boss is arrested for fraud. Jeanne is forced, out of poverty, in the street.

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Ramuntcho is a young man who has fallen in with a gang of smugglers, led by Itchoua, who carry their contraband across the border into Spain. He is in love with Gracieuse whose mother, Dolorès, bitterly dislikes Ramuntcho because he was born an illegitimate child. His smuggling activities force him to join the army and he is sent to Saigon and, because of her mother's desire to marry her off to someone else, Gracieuse joins a convent.

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After serving in the trenches of World War I, Jean Diaz recoils with such horror that he renounces love and personal pleasure to immerse himself in scientific research, seeking a machine to prevent war. He thinks he has succeeded, but the government subverts his discovery, and Europe slides with seeming inevitability toward World War II. In desperation, Diaz summons the ghosts of the war dead from the graves and fields of France to give silent, accusing protest.

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During World War I, in Flanders, Berry and Trent were in love with the same girl, Yvonne. During a battle in the Widow's Island sector, Trent is wounded and abandoned by Berry. Trent being reported missing, Berry now has a clear path to marry Yvonne. Two decades later, Yvonne incidentally meets a tourist guide in the former combat zone region who looks fiendishly like - Trent.

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A young lord who has abandoned his pregnant mistress hires his son, twenty years later, as secretary. He will try to fix his mistake.

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Pépé le Moko, one of France's most wanted criminals, hides out in the Casbah section of Algiers. He knows police will be waiting for him if he tries to leave the city. When Pépé meets Gaby, a gorgeous woman from Paris who is lost in the Casbah, he falls for her.

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A woman of easy virtue rejects a proposal of marriage made to her by a rich lover. But when her son is taken from her to be brought up in the best conditions, she keeps thinking about him. When she finds him, twenty years later, she can not adapt to the environment to which he now belongs.

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