Gaby Basset

This movie is a Marcel Aymé adaptation and it deals with the not-so-glorious side of the Occupation: black market, war profiteers, cracking open bottles of Champagne while most of the Parisians are almost starving.

The film consists of seven roughly 15 minute episodes, each showing what will happen if one or more of the Ten Commandments will be broken: Jérome Chambard is warned that he will lose his job if he continues to swear; Françoise Beaufort enamored of a stripper calls on her only to find her married to a janitor who doesn't know what kind of dancing his wife performs; Denis, a Jesuit novice, leaves the order to avenge his sister's suicide, which was provoked by Garigny, who seduced her into prostitution and drug addiction; Philip buys a necklace for Micheline though he is bored with her; a young man find out that his real mother is not Madeleine, but actress Clarisse Ardant; Didier Marin, cashier of a bank, was fired by his boss; the Devil appears as a serpent for Jérome Chambard and the bishop are eating.

Gentleman gangster Max and his partner, Riton, pull off their last, most successful heist and find themselves comfortable enough to retire in the style they enjoy. However, Max confides the details of the theft to his younger mistress, Josey -- who has secretly taken up with ambitious young rival gangster Angelo. Angelo then has Riton kidnapped and demands the stash of gold as ransom, which threatens Max's dreams of the perfect retirement.

Bum Archimède wants to spend the winter in prison, but to get there proves not to be that easy.

In the heart of Paris, a restaurateur's mundane life is disrupted by the arrival of his ex-wife's daughter, who claims to be in need after her mother's death. After marrying her, tensions rise when she becomes involved with a young student, leading to betrayal and murder. As secrets unfold, he uncovers the truth about her past and her manipulative nature.

While Henri was a POW during the war, his wife passed away, and he returned to face the challenges of bringing up three children alone. Henri may get drunk and angry at times, but he also has a better side that will not stay buried.

An English governor in India, deceived by his wife, proposes to him either to accuse the lover of embezzlement, or to condemn her to end her days as a prostitute in the rue des Bouches Peintes. She chooses the second solution...

Two unemployed musicians dress up as women to be hired by an all-female orchestra called "Tulips from Holland"; they fall in love with two gorgeous musicians.

A young woman wishing to divorce, promises money to her husband's ex-mistress to obtain her testimony on her behalf. But the same evening, the corpse of the young woman is found in the Seine. Everything seems to confirm the husband's guilt, however a journalist disappears with the evidence.

Louis Bertain is the owner of a Paris garage which is the front for a robbery gang. He and his accomplices are careful to keep up a civic veneer by day, indulging in criminal activities only when "the red light is on" at night. This status quo is upset when one of the gang members becomes convinced that Louis' younger brother is a police informer.

Cochu, a peasant, is the whipping boy of his regimental comrades. He is called "buffer of the capiston", that is to say the captain's order. But he finds himself in the service of Hortense, the captain's sister.

One Christmas Eve, a carefree young man, Eric, arrives in a small provincial town. Here, he meets Julien, a bar pianist who is his exact double. Julien is in love with Marinette, a pretty waitress, but he is too shy to make any romantic overtures. Eric decides to give the course of true love a helping hand by pretending to be Julien. Meanwhile, Eric’s fabulously wealthy uncle has sent his minions out to bring him back home, so that he may celebrate Christmas in the bosom of his family.

A trucker encounters a dead body on the road home. He reports the incident to the police, who suspect that Jean was responsible for the death, and his new truck is impounded. To make matters worse, the man's widow accuses him of having robbed her husband, and a gang of sinister crooks are also harassing him.

On this beautiful May 1st, Thérèse is about to give birth. Their presence at home is undesirable, so Jean, her husband, decides to take François, their little boy, to a soccer match. Their plans change when they meet a former factory mate who seems to have made a success of his life. This man, Blanchot, decides to return to Jean a sum of money he had once borrowed. Trusted, Jean is drawn into a clandestine circle, where his apparent luck delivers him without ulterior motive to Blanchot, who is one of the ringleaders. The police interrupt the dangerous game, putting Jean, who has no identity papers, in an awkward situation.

A girl surviving on public welfare, fall into a life of prostitution.

A tradesman authorizes his wife's first husband to replace him in order to hide from a brave, very rich aunt that his niece is remarried and thus saves himself from bankruptcy. He is indeed saved from it but loses his wife won back by her ex-husband.

Martine is searching for her sister that disappeared mysteriously. Lequévic agrees to help her.

One morning in August 1944, the inhabitants of a French village are celebrating their premature liberation. The festivities are interrupted by the arrival of an exhausted, leaderless German detachment. A few kilometers away, the inhabitants of the village of Muzière negotiate with the Germans and agree to a truce. But the arrival of a Wehrmacht captain, anxious to regain control of the men, puts an end to this fragile peace process. The captain suggested meeting the Americans and surrendering to regular troops rather than civilians. The inhabitants of Muzière, believing the truce to be broken, fire on the Germans and, on this misunderstanding, the guns start talking again.

A shy, penniless employee of the garage owner Grillot, the gentle Louis wins $10 million in the lottery. Flitting along the banks of the Seine, he takes in Raoul Grandvivier, an unknown, untalented painter who has just botched a spectacular suicide intended to draw attention to himself. Raoul takes him back to his studio, where he meets his charming daughter Lucie. In order to see Lucie again, with whom he is in love, Louis offers to sell the paintings. In reality, he's the one paying for them, to make it look like a wealthy art lover.

An opera singer travelling with her company on a passenger ship encounters a mysterious young man who she falls in love with.

The story is about a lieutenant, nicknamed "the Rooster of the Regiment", a married man, who just can't help running after any woman passing around, and one of his friend, who always has "good ideas" to give him a hand to come out of "ubuesque" situations.

Monsieur Loyal, bailiff by profession, is dispatched to a grub by an actress. Reason: she accuses Micheline, a young singer who works there, of stealing her songs. But our usher is nonetheless a man, and Micheline exerts her charms on him so well that he gives him shelter for the night, and finds him a new job at the Mirador, a cabaret that has just opened.

Appointed public prosecutor in a small provincial town, Gérard Latour befriends Delanglade, whose young wife becomes his mistress. Shortly afterwards, a fire ravages Delanglade's factory. During the ensuing investigation, the Public Prosecutor discovers the troubled past of the industrialist and his front man, Jacques Perthuis, an ex-convict. They themselves set fire to the factory to collect the insurance premium. Gérard Latour, suspecting his mistress of complicity in her husband's machinations, leaves her after a stormy argument.

A respected gangster, Justin, finds himself in a deadly feud with his rival, the unscrupulous Esposito. The latter plans to steal a cargo of opium bound for China and to have Justin killed.

In 1944, in Paris, the leader of a resistance network is looking for the traitor who gave away a radio operator.

Michel Piccoli plays a police inspector whose best friend is murdered on the orders of gang boss Charles Vanel. The inspector knows full well that Vanel is too crafty and well-connected to ever stand trial for his crime, so he carefully lays a subtle trap for his adversary. Unfortunately, both Piccoli and Vanel are thwarted by a pair of scheming females.

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A banker threatened by gangsters is replaced by a tramp who is his perfect double. The gangsters arrest the fake banker and take him for a madman.

The hunter at Maxim's, whose family is unaware of the profession, turns around and plans to marry his daughter to a marquis when he recognizes a regular in this nobility. Everyone meets at Maxim's where, unmasked, the hunter agrees to marry his daughter to the reveler but repentant Marquis.

A pious family, a non-believer, and a little boy who suffered an accident, whom a doctor believes is forever doomed to crutches: can he walk normally again due to his faith in the Virgin of Lourdes.

Working as a cook for a Parisian household, a naive country girl finds some kind of love among vegetable traders, while reluctantly helping her boss with his new play and marital life.

Colette gives up her studies to become a cabaret dancer. She breaks with her fiance who does not approve of her choice.

Private Mamert is the heir to five million dollars. All his comrades borrow his identity to seduce girls.

Antoine Vautier is a failed actor. A director hires Christian, Antoine's son, for a film. He immediately becomes a star. Antoine suffers from it. Christian's second film is a disaster and faced with the collapse of his son, Antoine forgets his jealousy.

The French and the English spy on each other, in this adventure set in post World War I colonial Syria.

Arriving in Paris, Madeleine Marsan rents a room in a guesthouse where she makes the acquaintance of Pierre Ruffin, a respectable municipal librarian. Through Pierre, Madeleine finds work as a schoolteacher and soon realises that she is in love with him. Then she discovers that Pierre is in truth the head of a band of crooks. Caught by the police after a failed robbery, Pierre manages to escape. With Madeleine’s help, he goes on the run.

At a construction site, an ex-con tries to sabotage the marriage of a man who married his fiancée while he was in prison.

The Count of Courvallon, whose gallant exploits have made the headlines, has uncoupled and lives in a pleasant estate in the C te. He has a son, Edouard, and a stylish valet, Antonio. This peaceful life is disrupted by a battalion of penniless girls living in a neighboring villa. Luisella has the nerve to introduce herself to André de Courvallon as his daughter, and immediately her comrades follow suit. The supposed father is not fooled, but his son takes it badly, especially as he has fallen in love with Luisella. Fairy tales always have happy endings.

A secret message is on a recording, a man who had disappeared for a while may be trying to steal it.His wife, a singer, teams up with a spy chief she has met to confront her husband.

Elisabeth is persuaded to have killed her noisy upstairs neighbor, scientist Charles Magne. To save her, Mr. Matheu, Elisabeth's father, accuses himself while Pierrot, Elisabeth's fiancé gets rid of the body in order to save father and daughter. For his part, a gangster also believes he has killed the scientist but he gets shot down by a taxidermist, who runs for life. The girl, her daddy and her boyfriend also run away. But Magne is not dead. A bum is mistaken for him and a police inspector makes everyone believe that he is the one who shot the gangster. At the end of this crazy chain of events all the protagonists are reunited at the station house and everybody dances to express their relief.

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Démonio the fakir has impressed a rich but weak-willed young man who hires him as an energy teacher. Demonio drags out the businesses of the shy lover, but his partner arranges everything and the finally satisfied lover endows the two accomplices who renounce fakirism.

Professor Charles Buisson, astronomer and Nobel Prize winner, has just discovered a nova. He informs the other observatories by telephone. Just as he thinks one of them is calling back, he finds himself on the line with a young woman threatening suicide at the Ruban Bleu cabaret, if her lover hasn't joined her by midnight. Intrigued, the professor decides to go and prevent the unfortunate woman from committing suicide. One of his students, who earns her living as an understudy in a knife act, helps him in his investigation, while the school principal and a policeman suspect him of being a prankster or even of selling drugs. For the scientist, it's an opportunity to discover a world of music-hall that he'd never known before: "I thought I knew the sky chart by heart, but there's one planet that was totally unknown to me: Earth. I'll be back!

Said Ali, an old and sick noble Arab, living on an island in the Red Sea, has no other occupation than collecting pearls. The spiteful Nadir tries to take possession of the treasure, he kills Said Aly but finds a terrible death by desecrating his tomb.

A mild-mannered zookeeper has to contend with his tyrannical boss and a talking lovesick bear.

Suppose lost and found objects could talk... But they can! At least four of them... : -A statuette of Osiris remembers how two ex-lovers, a model and a good for nothing who claimed to be an Egyptologist, met again one Christmas Eve. -A violin has things to say about Raoul, a humble policeman who lost Solange, a widowed grocer he loved, to a god-dam seducing busker also named Raoul. -A scarf was witness to an eerie romance between a young madman and girl he had saved from suicide. -A funeral wreath lets us know how it caused a young woman to believe her lover dead. After having told their respective story, the objects return to their customary stillness.

Valentin Bourgeasse is an inveterate drunk. He takes the matter so far that one day he is evicted from his apartment. A few evenings later evening, as he has drunk too much (what else?), he forgets that he doesn't live there anymore so imagine his surprise when he finds a lady in "his" bed.

When the baroness surprises the baron with his mistress at the music hall, he passes off young Marcel, a clothing salesman, as an important customer.

In Bourganeuf, an old maid, Charlotte Bourdier, confesses to Marie Chassagne that she has forged a sentimental intrigue by correspondence with the presenter of the Radio Circus, Zappy Max. Marie agrees to meet him when he comes, but she in turn falls in love with him, who confesses his love to her.

Two couples of friends who have arranged to meet in the woods get lost and find themselves in an embarrassing situation: the husband of one with the wife of the other? Each couple tries to get through this forced cohabitation honestly, but everything is turned upside down when two young Sunday gangsters appear. What follows is a cross-country chase through the woods, which leads the whole gang back to the house, where one of the couples manages to leave, free at last, on an old tandem, bound for... Africa!

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Léonce Vavin, an entomologist, marries Cecile Debienne, but the parents of the bride quickly realize that he's not just ugly but also a complete ignorant of all sexual matters.

A man of of principle leads a double life: one for his mistress and one he takes home to his wife.

A talented but crazy painter, Elvire Mercier agrees to sell one of her canvases to Pierre Leroy, a rich heir. But after a string of misunderstandings, she hands her painting over to a swindler. And her problems have only just begun.

Lucien asks his father for money to support his girlfriend. The father refuses. Lucien's GodMother is found dead.

André de Kerdec, a young lawyer buys an old parchment in an antique shop and discovers that a treasure is hidden in the bedroom of Artémise, an old maid who owns a manor. He manages to be hired as her chauffeur by Artémise and sets about looking for the treasure. During this time, he falls in love with Lucie, the old spinster's niece. But the trouble is that Artémise develops a crush on André...!