Gaby Basset

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.